Sleepwalker are a five-piece shoegaze golem built from the scattered pieces of such bands as Rifle Camp, Death Virginia, and Big Ass Manatee. Dirty As Hell is a blissed-out punk basement pop song, and falls off a cliff at the midway point (less than one minute in) and down a rabbit hole of reverb, three guitars and Tyler Grady’s world-weary wailing. It comes from their … Continue reading MM Shorts 20: Sleepwalker
Mirror Test is the debut EP from The Thinking Men, self-released on November 7th. The 5-track EP was recorded in Norwich during the snowstorms of early 2011 and showcases the band’s folk-inspired blues rock with huge sophistication. Their influences include Tom Waits, The Doors and Nick Cave, and they’ve already started to create quite a buzz for themselves. The band will be celebrating their new … Continue reading Introducing…The Thinking Men
Tyler Ramsey (guitarist with Band of Horses) has released a solo album titled The Valley Wind. The title track is a lovely, evocative slice of countrified rock that recalls vintage Neil Young with its rustic imagery and sense of solitude and mystery. Download Tyler Ramsey – The Valley Wind mp3 (from The Valley Wind) Continue reading MM Shorts 19: Tyler Ramsey
It is a day of comebacks. Following on from our earlier post on the return of Rocket From The Tombs comes Artery who earlier this month released Civilisation, their first album since the cult 1984 record The Second Coming. Originally formed in the industrial wastelands of Sheffield in 1978, they released three studio albums and several singles / EPs. Championed by John Peel, they recorded two … Continue reading Return Of Artery
The legendary Rocket From The Tombs, born in 1974, flamed out in 1975, have finally recorded a studio album, delivering Barfly (Fire Records), and closing the circle on an incredible journey. The received wisdom (on the other side of the pond at least) goes that punk rock was invented in New York by the Ramones, who reconfigured Midwestern hard groove rock and 60s garage singles, … Continue reading Return Of Rocket From The Tombs
A funny thing happened on the way back through Gloucester Cathedral this week. After a mesmerising 45 minutes watching Laura Marling perform an unaccompanied acoustic set, Pocket and I set off in hot pursuit in the hope of persuading Lovely Laura to write MM a Christmas exclusive. I would have course swum retrograde without Pocket chiming in my ears… faster, faster. It was an enormous … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (21st October)
Communicating Vessels is releasing part two of their lavishly packaged 7″ vinyl recordings of secret songwriters from the southeast of the USA. Born equally of bright lights and seedy charm, The Grenadines might be Birmingham, Alabama’s sexiest band. Fronted by husband and wife team Michael and Lauren Shackelford and thrust into widescreen by guitarist David Swatzell and bassist Jesse Phillips, The Grenadines have been making a name for themselves in … Continue reading Communicating Vessels 7″ Series
The Cave Birds and are just 1 gig / 1 recording into their existence and sit somewhere between the guitar pop of Guillemots, and the mass grandeur of Wild Beasts. This is their debut single, out on the 7th November via Plumpton Presents label. However, only 100 CD copies of Some Lightning Thrill will be pressed, so make sure you attend the single launch at … Continue reading MM Shorts 17: The Cave Birds
The Sunparlour Players are one of our favourite bands of the past five years. Both 2007’s Hymns For The Happy and 2009’s Wave North were superb albums chock full of wonderful folk tales, stomping bluegrass, anthemic country rock and impassioned lyrics. Euphoria would give way to melancholy and back again in two sets of perfectly judged and executed records that reminded us of a Canadian … Continue reading Return Of The Sunparlour Players
Here are three corking tunes that could all loosely fall under the garage rock banner. Bleached stray into the territory of those classic 60s girl groups with Searching Through The Past while the excellently named Batwings Catwings offer up the explosive Radio. Lastly, Heavy Times live up to their name with a cut from the more visceral end of the garage spectrum with the propulsive percussion, … Continue reading Let’s Go Garage
