While Q magazine goes from bad to worse to even worse, thankfully Uncut is going in the opposite direction and is just about the best ‘mainstream’ music magazine there is at the moment. Their latest issue dropped through the door this morning and the Cover Disk is simply titled Americana 2012. It contains fifteen tracks from the likes of MM faves such as Father John … Continue reading Uncut’s Free Americana Cover Disk
Dubious Ranger began as a band name concocted by classical pianist Alexander Eccles. As a band name warrants a band, he took the plunge and formed a peculiar brand of art-rock based in his hometown of San Francisco. Dubious Rangerʼs newest album, Found Recordings From The Panda Valley Mining Company c.1931, sounds like a blend of Tom Waits and Beck and is a creative collaboration between … Continue reading Introducing >>> Dubious Ranger
Cobalt is the debut album by experimental garage-blues trio The Owsley Brothers. We’ve been waiting pretty eagerly for this one following their excellent release Separated At Birth and a solid free download EP titled Pure Lust towards the end of 2011. Take a listen to the single If It Ain’t One Thing and the band’s own favourite track, the high octane riffing of album closer My Man … Continue reading The Owsley Brothers Release Cobalt
Here are a few tasty streams for you to hit the play button on, and a couple to download too. First, some new blissed-out, hypnotic psychedelia from White Fence who have a new three track single out titled Green Balloon via Sexbeat Records in Europe – limited to 500 vinyl copies, and we’ve just pre-ordered one of them… a Next up is the altogether more … Continue reading Streaming Round Up
We are looking forward with much anticipation to the new album from Justin Townes Earle. His fourth release, Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now will be released this spring via Bloodshot Records. It comes ahead of a run of UK June dates in Bristol, Manchester and at London’s KOKO. The album was recorded completely live with no overdubs over a 4-day … Continue reading MM Shorts 145: Justin Townes Earle’s New Album
It is funny how things turn out sometimes. Four months ago, Austin Texas duo Twilight Hotel were turning up in various MM End-of-Year-Best-Of Lists following the release of their superb album When The Wolves Go Blind. On Saturday they turned up at the fag-end of their UK tour just a few miles from chez Mackerel playing a free show at the rather lovely, and certainly … Continue reading Twilight Hotel – Live Review
Restavrant play a unique mix of maniacal junkyard blues, hillbilly stomp, and electro-punk, but expertly make the sum of these parts into one glorious cacophony of pent-up fury. Whilst their second album Yeah, I Carve Cheetahs was released at the beginning of the year we have only just come across a few tracks from it. This Victoria, Texas bred, Los Angeles based duo delivers a diverse cannon … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Restavrant
Family by Irish four-piece The Cast of Cheers was one of the first singles to really catch our ears at the start of this year, being an infectiously raucous slice of indie-rock that mined a similar vein to Howler or Spector. Ahead of the release of their first proper debut album later in the year, the band are releasing Animals, another rousing, raucous monster of a … Continue reading New Single From The Cast Of Cheers
RIP Levon Helm. A true bonafide musical genius and a genuine legend. Download Levon Helm – White Dove mp3 (from Electric Dirt) Download The Band – Whispering Pines mp3 (from The Band) Continue reading Levon Helm 1940-2012
The new video for Blitzen Trapper’s Stranger In A Strange Land from their American Goldwing album features landscapes found in Nome, Alaska, where there are no indigenous trees or mountains within plain sight, interspersing footage of the Iditarod finish line, the Bering Sea, and singer Eric Earley with shivery hand-held pans in 20 below zero conditions. a Continue reading MM Shorts 144: New Blitzen Trapper Video
