We came across Alli Millstein via an e-mail from a site reader and have really taken to her acoustic folky style – understated and calm, the songs are beautifully crafted and linger long in the memory. Her debut EP Human Nature is available via iTunes and promises much for the future. Visit here MySpace here. Download Alli Millstein – Human Nature mp3 (from Human Nature … Continue reading Introducing…Alli Millstein
This rather good Loch Lomond song appears to be doing the rounds a little bit on the blogs and frankly that’s all the excuse we need to post it here too. For the uninitiated they play a wonderful blend of surreal folk with songs about bears with porcelain plate collections and the like. They were one of the standout bands for us from our visit … Continue reading Any excuse to post Loch Lomond
Pulled Apart By Horses are a four-piece hailing from Leeds and are starting to generate quite a buzz for themselves. They play hard, and fast, and mean and remind us in a good way of the wonderful Mclusky. We first became aware of them via a couple of demos that were floating around the web, and then via some live tracks released as part of … Continue reading Introducing…Pulled Apart By Horses
We may be late in coming across Buffetlibre and Amnesty International Catalunya’s Peace Project, but that’s no reason not to give it a bit more publicity. Basically, for a donation of anything upwards of five Euro’s (that’s about £4 or $6) you get to download 180 tracks from artists all around the world. It covers all the continents and features artists from more than fifty … Continue reading Buffetlibre & Amnesty’s Peace Project – 180 tracks for not very much
Our downloading issues are fixed! Josh and a few other readers of MM had pointed out some issues with actually downloading the mp3s from the blog. After much investigation and some help from Uncle Mike, we think the problem is solved. Apparently the automatic advertising that WordPress adds to posts can mess up the link access and stop them being found properly. The answer? You … Continue reading Downloading issues fixed I think
Common Prayer’s debut album, There Is A Mountain, was officially released yesterday through most digital retailers. The band is the new project from Jason Russo of Hopewell/Mercury Rev acclaim. The album is one of jangly off-kilter pop songs, often somber in theme, and concerned with the lives of the heartbroken, reckless, romantic and mentally ill from a reflective and victorious post-everything perspective. To begin with, … Continue reading New Album from Common Prayer
Here is our usual end of the month round up of the very best tracks posted on Mad Mackerel, with a couple of new ones too. A perfect mixtape for May. Wilderness of Manitoba – Hermit mp3 Intimate and gorgeous, with haunting guitar lines and beautiful harmonies. Buffalo Moon – Beach Boy mp3 Summery pop, beach references, breezy beats and sweet lounge vocals. Sun Kil … Continue reading MM’s Best Of The Month: May
Here is a lazy blogger’s round-up of some of the new tracks that we’ve come across and enjoyed over the past few days and weeks, some of which might tickle your ears in a good way. The Moondoggies delivered a cracking album in 2008’s Don’t Be A Stranger and have a follow-up due in September titled Tidelands. In the meantime they are releasing a five track … Continue reading Saturday Round-Up
As some may know MM is not a massive fan of remixes as a general rule of thumb. In truth, it is rare for us to listen to them and rarer still to actually post them. We’re a little more well disposed to covers, though again they are not usually something we post that often. So with that said, this is a post that naturally … Continue reading Remixes & Covers: all thanks to the Wooden Shjips
Last Friday, prompted by my song selections, I put a musical question to MM that he was unable to answer for once. Namely, if you were a band which band would you be? I – rather fancifully I think – decided that I would be DeVotchKa. Go on, you know you want to … Anyway, seeing as we’ve been married a whole fifteen years (I … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday
