After a brief foray in MM’s territory, recommending Kurran & The Wolfnotes’ Your Four Limbs, and enjoying HUGELY the Pancake Breakfast track, The Ballad of Maynard Noe (and let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy a pancake breakfast?), it’s back to Friday business. For some unfathomable reason, I was thinking about Level 42 this week (in my defence, only once and rather briefly). It could have … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday
As Nightlands, Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist David Hartley makes what we would call ‘big music’, it is warm and thunderous, and very very good. Nightlands will be releasing its debut album Forget the Mantra on Secretly Canadian in early November. Hartley has been a prolific sideman in many Philadelphia ensembles most notably, MM faves The War On Drugs. Here though, the music he creates in his bedroom … Continue reading Nightlands prepare new album Forget The Mantra
We have to confess it was Mrs Mackerel’s ears that pricked up yesterday when listening to 6 Music and Kurran & The Wolfnotes came on. Their latest single Your Four Limbs immediately sets them apart from the busy Brit-folk scene that so many are trying to inhabit these days with plaintive, resigned lyrics and a darker undertone than most can manage. A sinuous melody and … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel Recommends Kurran & The Wolfnotes
This morning, in the mail, we received a copy of the forthcoming self-titled Pancake Breakfast CD. By lunchtime we had a new favourite song. The Ballad Of Maynard Noe opens the album and is, to MM’s ears, a classic – one of those songs we’ll be playing years from now. It opens with one of those instantly memorable, repetitive guitar riffs that sound like they … Continue reading Introducing…Pancake Breakfast
Following on from our very recent Covers post here, featuring everything from Warpaint to Phosphorescent, we have another cover for you now. It is by MM faves The Deep Dark Woods and comes from a new 18 track Townes Van Zandt tribute compilation due out on the 25th October. It’s titled More Townes Van Zandt By The Great Unknown. Enjoy. Visit the Deep Dark Woods MySpace here. … Continue reading And another cover for you…
Today sees the release of two excellent new albums from Denmark’s The Migrant and from North Carolina’s The Moaners. We have already posted about the former, giving you The Organ Grinder, a quite exquisite slice of catchy psych-folk which has never been far from our playlists ever since. The Migrant’s album Travels In Lowland is an excellent record and to mark the official release we … Continue reading New Releases from The Migrant & The Moaners
Last night I headed up the M40 with friend Matt (Matt Mackerel maybe…) to see Delta Spirit play the latest date of their short UK tour at the Hare & Hounds in Bimingham. Our first visit to said venue. En route I discovered, as a toddler, Matt had been best mates with MM idol Pete Kember (of Spacemen 3 fame, aka Spectrum) – how cool … Continue reading Live: Delta Spirit
American four-piece Filthybird have been putting the finishing touches to their brilliant new album, Songs for Other People. The follow-up to the lauded Southern Skies, Filthybird’s latest record reveals an astounding depth, effectively marrying the lilting vocal melodies of Renee Mendoza with Brian Haran’s layered guitar atmospherics and anchored by a powerfully inventive rhythm section, these songs are both soulful and dreamy, familiar and fresh. … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Filthybird
While we think that we’re not great lovers of covers here at MM, I’m beginning to suspect that this is actually a pretty long way from the reality of things. Especially, as just lately, there seems to have been a plethora of excellent cover versions hitting our iTunes playlists. So here are a few that we’ve picked up from over the net and fellow bloggers … Continue reading Cover Me…I’m Going In
Imagine yourself relaxing on a steamboat as it lazily floats down the Mississippi River all the way to The Big Easy. Suddenly, the band strikes up a tune, music fills the air and everyone is on their feet, clapping, dancing and singing along. And so we welcome you to the world of Roosevelt Dime, a five-piece, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based band that blends elements of acoustic jug-band … Continue reading Introducing…Roosevelt Dime
