Saturday Round-Up

Here is a lazy blogger’s round-up of some of the new tracks that we’ve come across and enjoyed over the past few days and weeks, some of which might tickle your ears in a good way. The Moondoggies delivered a cracking album in 2008’s Don’t Be A Stranger and have a follow-up due in September titled Tidelands. In the meantime they are releasing a five track … Continue reading Saturday Round-Up

MM salutes the genius of The War Crimes

Ever since we first posted about The War Crimes at the start of the year we’ve gone back time and time again to their wilfully down-tempo, unnerving, chamber pop. Sometimes orchestral and sometimes folkish, the songs offer literate (occasionally surreal), half-spoken lyrics, quietly insistent melodies, and an air of regret and bitterness that all adds to the overall sense of unease. They simultaneously conjure up … Continue reading MM salutes the genius of The War Crimes

Check out our new site…for writers

Being laid up on a week’s bed rest means at we’ve at least managed to finally get our longstanding idea for a blog/website for wannabe writers up and running. Roundthecampfire.wordpress.com is a new idea where we regularly give you a couple of titles, and you use that stimulus and your imagination to write something. You can write whatever you like, in any genre and any … Continue reading Check out our new site…for writers

Remixes & Covers: all thanks to the Wooden Shjips

As some may know MM is not a massive fan of remixes as a general rule of thumb. In truth, it is rare for us to listen to them and rarer still to actually post them. We’re a little more well disposed to covers, though again they are not usually something we post that often. So with that said, this is a post that naturally … Continue reading Remixes & Covers: all thanks to the Wooden Shjips

Introducing…Ezra Furman & The Harpoons

Having just posted about the forthcoming Delta Spirit album, we received an e-mail (nominally from the rather attractively named Mortimer The Goose) introducing Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, and mentioning they will soon be out touring in support of Delta Spirit. Like Quasimodo, the band’s name rang a bell and a check through our iTunes revealed just a single track from 2008 called We Should … Continue reading Introducing…Ezra Furman & The Harpoons

Mad Mackerel Recommends…The Streets On Fire

Apparently No One’s Fucking To The Radio according to Chicago’s deranged retro-rockers The Streets On Fire. This is the taster from their forthcoming (and first full-length) album This Is Fancy due out in July. While it reminds us of everything from Iggy to Gang of Four by way of The Kills, it has enough identity and confidence to stand on its own two feet, and … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…The Streets On Fire