Introducing…Creepoid

Creepoid is a great name for a band. However, a name is not enough…if you’re called Creepoid you need tunes to fit with the moniker, and most importantly, tunes that are of a style and content that allow you to live up to the name. Thankfully, they more than deliver on both counts. Following on from their debut 7″ last year (Yellow Life Giver) comes … Continue reading Introducing…Creepoid

Introducing…The Barettas

The Barettas are a trio from Hamilton, Ontario. We’ve never been, but their e-mail said it’s a city known for it’s industrial decay, grittiness, and blue-collar roots. Each member of the band has taken on a couple of jobs, usually a combination of cleaning houses during the day, and tending bar at night in order to reap the reward that it lets them make music … Continue reading Introducing…The Barettas

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Tom Williams & The Boat

Over the past few days our ears have invariably pricked up whenever Get Older by Tom Williams & The Boat comes on Radio 6 (which has been with increasing frequency). Some songs require a dictionary to navigate through obscure lyrics or to divine a meaning from a myriad of choice and some songs just give it to you straight. When Tom Williams spits with unconcealed … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Tom Williams & The Boat

Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (4th Feb)

Friday is here once again; a little late perhaps after a particularly lovely Skype with the Swiss outpost. Despite the loose remit being to concentrate on the old, this week I’ve been drawn to the new. It’s a bit like life really: we may look back and reflect on what’s gone past. But so it goes, do we move on? Do we learn anything new … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (4th Feb)

At last…Middle Brother offer up mp3

It is fair to say we have been waiting for the debut album from Middle Brother with a more than keen sense of anticipation, them being an indie super-group of sorts, and featuring the not inconsiderable talents of MM faves Deer Tick (John McCauley), Delta Spirit (Matthew Vasquez) and Dawes (Taylor Goldsmith). And at last, here we have it. Me Me Me is the tasty, … Continue reading At last…Middle Brother offer up mp3

The Phantom Band: Live Review

If Oxford can be said to have an iconic music venue then it would undoubtedly be the Jericho Tavern in Walton Street. The beer-sticky room over the pub having paid host to many of the indie greats, the indie up-and-comers, and the indie flash-in-the-pans over the past thirty years or so. And so it was there that Scottish folk experimentalists The Phantom Band kicked off … Continue reading The Phantom Band: Live Review

Introducing…The Whalers

We picked up That Rabbit by The Whalers from the always excellent Rollo & Grady blog and it was one of those first play moments where you get to the end and say to yourself “how good was that?”, before hitting repeat. So we figured we ought to share the track here for anyone who has missed out on the band so far plus another … Continue reading Introducing…The Whalers

New from O’Death

Unique NY folk-rockers O’Death are back with their third album Outside. Despite some really difficult personal times for the band, they’ve kept going, and if advance track Bugs is anything to go by, we should be grateful they did. There are echoes of their ramshackle and punkish best, but this time it is cocooned in something more subtle and thoughtful too. A pleasure! Outside sees … Continue reading New from O’Death