Mad Mackerel Recommends…Peter Wolf Crier

Once you get past the slightly silly name (it took us a while), the music of Peter Wolf Crier is something special to behold. Their album Inter-Be is as much distorted country blues as it is intimate folk, as much delicately introspective as it is intensely passionate. However you want to describe it, the album is truly a marvellous piece of work. Download the sweetly … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Peter Wolf Crier

The Minks make MM all nostalgic

Listening to Brooklyn’s The Minks forthcoming single Funeral Song (out on Captured Tracks later this month, with an album due in September) is like going back in time to the goth tinged indie glory days of The Cure, The Bunnymen et al. Even the hair is the same. Funeral Song (an appropriately gloomy title) has a vintage Cure bassline, icy synths and shadowy, sombre lyrics about … Continue reading The Minks make MM all nostalgic

Flaws Video from Bombay Bicycle Club

Flaws (released, 12th July) is the stunningly beautiful, new acoustic album by Bombay Bicycle Club. Having finished recording their debut LP I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose in February 2009, the band went straight back into the studio days after they submitted the master for I Had The Blues, and started the initial recordings for this album. Flaws is characterised by a … Continue reading Flaws Video from Bombay Bicycle Club

Introducing…The Sister Ruby Band

The Sister Ruby Band is the project of 21-year-old singer/songwriter Johnny Ruby. Vienna-born and Los Angeles- raised, Ruby currently resides in London where he is studying art at Goldsmith’s University of London. A Shot In The Dark is a five track demo EP that showcases a lot of musical styles – ranging from dylanesque, strummed Americana to Velvet’s inspired guitar feedback to Byrdsian harmonies. And … Continue reading Introducing…The Sister Ruby Band

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Tweak Bird

We first heard this single on Radio 6 a few weeks ago and were completely blown away by the brilliant mix of full-on old-school metal riffing and its psychedelic overtones and climax. We made an immediate note to self to track this song down at all costs. The band is Tweak Bird, brothers Caleb (guitar, vocals) and Ashton Bird (drums, vocals), natives of Carbondale, IL … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Tweak Bird

MM’s Weekend Round Up

It’s hard keeping up with all the new releases and good stuff that is coming our way. Here is a quick and dirty round-up of some of the tracks that have been tickling our ears recently. The Sandwitches have been MM faves ever since we got hold of their excellent How To Make Ambient Sadcake album last year. They now have a new one-sided 12″ … Continue reading MM’s Weekend Round Up

Introducing…Harlowe & The Great North Woods

Harlowe & The Great North Woods are another band from Portland, and another playing the kind of warm, mellow folk that seems so dominant in that neck of the woods. And they are another who do it extremely well. They have a six track self-titled EP out now and the track we have for you, Roses, is a song that envelops and soothes with its … Continue reading Introducing…Harlowe & The Great North Woods

Introducing…The Ferocious Few

With Kathleen, The Ferocious Few have joyously raided the rock’n’roll cupboard and produced a sub two minute classic. With Porcelain Doll, The Ferocious Few have joyously raided the rock’n’roll cupboard and produced a sub two minute classic. With their debut album Juices, The Ferocious Few have joyously…well you probably get the picture. Like many before them, this Californian duo have plundered blues, punk, rockabilly, lo-fi … Continue reading Introducing…The Ferocious Few

Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday

Tonight’s topic: men with beards. This Friday evening, I’m out with two jolly fine chaps:  MM and one of my bestest friends and main gigging partner (neither of whom currently sport beards). And off we will trot in an appropriately jaunty fashion, down the Cowley Road, to sway in time to the Band of Horses (almost uniformly, a group of men with an abundance of … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts

Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts are from North London, but frankly sound like their inspiration comes from another world, one that you and I have no experience of at all. New album How Snakes Eat was released late last month and is a startling record that demands your full attention from the very first moment. Quivering, quavering vocals, violins, a throbbing cello, guitars that flit … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts