It was while at Withered Hand last night (review to follow) with Christy Popper and new chum Marcus that talk turned to recent mixtapes and in particular the discovery of Vacant Fever. We had refrained from posting about the band before because we didn’t know what, if anything, was authorised, but Marcus soon put us straight revealing that their excellent new album Heparin And Saline … Continue reading Introducing…Vacant Fever
Fair Ohs (previously Thee Fair Ohs) have just released their debut album Everything Is Dancing on Honey High Records. Baldessari is the taster track, and mighty fine it is too – file somewhere between Vampire Weekend and Foals, or under calypso punk maybe. Order the album from here. Download Fair Ohs – Baldessari mp3 (from Everything Is Dancing) Continue reading New From Fair Ohs
Our favourite mega-bearded folkies, Megafaun will release their new, self-titled album on September 20th via Hometapes. They describe it thus: “Process, songcraft, and toss-and-turn emotion collided when Megafaun’s Joe Westerlund looped together field recordings from his travels in Bali and rural North Carolina: a round-robin of gamelan, ambient sounds, frogs, and cicadas underpin a hauntingly indelible piano melody and a hypnotic beat.” The new album’s 14 … Continue reading New Album From Megafaun
Dex Romweber is a bonafide icon of the American music underground. Pioneering the template for the stripped to-the-essentials guitar/drums duo format in the psycho-surf-rockabilly-garage-punk combo Flat Duo Jets — Dex continues his resurgence with the new album Is That You In The Blue? With sister Sara on drums, the Dex Romweber Duo is a potent combo that’ll get your leg twitching with the beat and your … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…The Dex Romweber Duo
The fair has come to Charlbury; had it been the circus, I could have run away to be… the miserable front end of the pantomime cow. Oh well, another day, maybe. Perhaps next week will be filled with fewer disappointments. Two more temporary interns into the MM menagerie arrived this week in the form of George and Teri, two warring terrapins. It turns out that … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (8th July)
Another Round Up of the good, the very good and the exceptional tunes that have recently wormed their way in between our ears via our In-box or the internet and blogosphere. Let them do the same for you. We have a few new tracks from artists we’ve previously posted about, some new bands and a couple of big names too. First up, The Warped 45s … Continue reading Round Up Time Again
We have long been fans of the wilfully idiosyncratic, often downright acidic, and always anti-commercial folk of Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences. They encompass a peculiarly British sense of observational humour, gleefully laced with healthy doses of irony, pathos and sarcasm in equal measure. Over the course of two albums and eight eclectic singles they have provided a wonderful, occasionally bizarre, but always original … Continue reading New EP from Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences
It is a bonanza month from Insound and their regular free monthly digital mix. For July they have no less than three offerings teaming up with Hudson RiverRocks, The Beach Party and Sound Bites to bring you samplers featuring artists from all three series. They feature a whole bunch of artists dear to MM’s heart including Deer Tick, Metronomy, The Raveonettes, Psychedelic Horseshit, My Teenage Stride, … Continue reading Insound’s Free Digital Mixtapes x 3
Of all the bands at this year’s End of the Road Festival, Wooden Shjips are one of the ones we are looking forward to seeing the most. Even more so over the past few weeks as we’ve regularly listened to the brilliant Lazy Bones on Marc Riley’s BBC Radio 6 show – the first track to get an airing from forthcoming album West. Lazy Bones … Continue reading Wooden Shjips Ready New Album
Here is a fine video from MM faves, the Washington DC based collective, Vandaveer . Admittedly the subject matter of The Great Gray, as well as visual palette, is rather dark. But the music is an undeniably gorgeous send-up of Delta blues, stompin’ swamp boogie, and colorful electric folk. Think Blind Willie Johnson meets Nick Drake. It comes from recent album Dig Down Deep which has proved to … Continue reading New Vandaveer Video
