Kalle Mattson’s video for Avalanche was filmed in one day on a sound stage in Toronto.
The video features Mattson faithfully recreating the iconic covers of 35 classic albums that influenced his work including Ramones’ Ramones, Jay Z’s The Blueprint, Elliott Smith’s Figure 8, The Clash’s London Calling and many more.
Watch it below.
.
.
Follow @madmackerelAvalanche, the new EP from Canadian songwriter Kalle Mattson, is set for release on the 21st August on HOME Music Co.
While still firmly anchored in his folk roots, lead single A Long Time Ago is built around a delayed hip hop beat and features plenty of synths as well as a drum machine, and perfectly encapsulates the EP’s themes of anxiety, nostalgia, the past, and the future.
Stream it here.
.
Follow @madmackerel
Ottawa’s Kalle Mattson will release his new album, his third, Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold on the 11th February.
The new record embraces the duality of hope and death. It was written in his childhood home in Sault St. Marie and chronicles his return to the place where he began writing songs, and gradually came to terms with the death of his mother five years prior.
Listen to the first tracks from the album, An American Dream and Darkness, both are excellent.
Pre-order the album here.
Follow @madmackerel
I’m melting.
Well I was until earlier today. After one week in the hottest Canarian August in 23 years, my quintessentially English temperature gauge and complexion were pining for a bit of cloud control and a drop in temperature. It was, as I thought, a week spent in whatever shade I could find, book in one hand, Mr Sangria in the other. Large hat and fifties style swimsuit notwithstanding, I have managed (albeit unintentionally, but alas unavoidably) to turn – in the words of HP – “a shade of beige”.
And despite the heat, I did find several things to amuse me, one of which dear reader I share with you tonight: the “don’t let your dog poo here” sign a la Los Cristianos (see above), where the poor mutt appears to be excreting a tripod. It’s the little things.
So it’s back to normal life this week and welcome to wistful September, one of my favourite months. All change, new starts, looking forward.
Now the football season is underway, it’s also time to follow the gospel according to St Martin. You know it makes sense: convert before ye are damned!
Right, back to those Russians…
Mrs Mackerel x
Well, technically it’s now Saturday, but here’s some sunshine for your weekend sweetly sown, just how I like it.
Download Sparklehorse – Sunshine mp3 (from Good Morning Spider)
Download Felt – Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow mp3 (from Absolute Classic Masterpieces)
Download Sam Amidon – Walking On Sunshine mp3 (from BrooklynVegan Presents Sun Salute: A Tribute To Katrina And The Waves For The 25th Anniversary Of “Walking on Sunshine”)
Download Kalle Mattson – Sunlight mp3 (from Anchors) (Buy or Download from here)
Follow @madmackerel
You know the score. Some of our favourite downloads from the past month neatly parcelled up into one tasty mix and decorated with a few new tunes too. Nearly forty in all. Jump in!
Download Wye Oak – Spiral mp3 (from Adult Swim Singles Series)
A change of approach and tempo from experimental folkies
Download Unnatural Helpers – Hate Your Teachers mp3 (from Land Grab)
Raging. Ferocious. Punk
Download Wake Up Lucid – Feel It mp3 (from Feel It)
Combines sex-drenched vocals, high octane guitar, and a glorious lo-fi sludge that is garage rock at its purest and most dangerous
Download Keston Cobblers’ Club – For Words mp3 (from One, For Words)
Sweetly harmonious, banjo led folk song
Download White Wires – All Night Long mp3 (from WWIII)
Fun, infectious, and recalls some of the very best of the power-pop tunes of the late 70s
Download Deep Time – Homebody mp3 (from Deep Time)
Densely melodic slice of restlessly minimalist indie pop
Download Sun Sister – Sore Eyes mp3 (from Sun Sister Single)
Lo-fi dreampop with warm melodies, gorgeous reverbed vocals and rough jangly guitars
Download The Black Cadillacs – Choke mp3 (from Run)
Pure rock – strong guitar melodies that are matched with catchy lyrics
Download Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians – Annalog And Her Hopeful Diaries mp3 (from Annalog And Her Hopeful Diaries EP)
Psychedelic whirlwind tinged with an unattainable nostalgia for a western era of dusty corrals and one-horse towns
Download Talk Normal – Bad Date mp3 (from Sunshine)
Hypnotically brilliant blend of punk and krautrock
Download People’s Temple – Looter’s Game mp3 (from Looter’s Game 7″)
Keeping a groovy, 60s psych vibe going
Download Wobbly Lamps – Alice The Goon mp3 (from Wobbly Lamps)
Takes an intro that sounds like it has been dragged kicking and screaming from a sweaty Detroit basement club in the 60s, attaches it to a thrumming, hypnotic riff, and then slams a sleazy proto-punk chorus over the top
The Lovely Sparrows – While Sailing
Gorgeous, pastoral folk
a
Download The Felice Brothers – Lincoln Continental mp3 (from God Bless You Amigo)
Classic ramshackle Americana. Just about as good as it gets!
Download Aaron Embry – Moon Of The Daylit Sky mp3 (from Tiny Prayers)
Spare, captivating, and beautifully simple folk
Download Cate Le Bon – What Is Worse mp3 (from CYRK II)
Beautifully reminiscent of The Velvet Underground at their weary, foggy best – an uncomplicated and unadorned slice of late night melancholic pop
Download Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters – Ten Sleep, WY mp3 (from Lungs, Dirt & Dreams)
Fractured, unassailable beauty that begins with a sentiment any of us over a certain age can identify with, before it breaks out into a more expansive guitar showdown/meltdown
The Wilderness of Manitoba – The Ark
Beautiful slice of chamber-folk
a
Download Grassfight – Nassau mp3 (from Icon EP 2)
With shades of Interpol in the hypnotic, propulsive percussion, echoes of Dinosaur Jr in the swirling guitar, and a classic indie deep, monotone vocal, the track successfully ticks all the necessary boxes for a post-punk extravaganza
Freedom Fry – Summer In The City (from Summer In The City single)
Infectious, sunshine indie-pop at its very best
a
Download Two Gallants – My Love Won’t Wait mp3 (from The Bloom And The Blight)
Rollicking tune showcases the duo’s heavier side
Download Outer Minds – We Are All Stone mp3 (from Behind The Mirror)
Perfectly judged garage-psych voodoo rumble, with a reverential nod to the Doors
Download Lord Huron – Time To Run mp3 (from Lonesome Dreams)
Galloping, infectious dusty folk chime
Download Spook Houses – American mp3 (from Trying)
Lo-fi slacker indie rock loaded with the energy of the band’s rambunctious punk roots
Steakhouse – Spider Bite
Hear the sound of Johnny Cash’s electric guitar come floating in over the hypnotic, pulsing rhythm and be seduced by the strange blend of krautrock and C&W
a
Download D.B. Rouse – Never Home Again mp3 (from The Good Land)
Another folky gem from travelling troubadour
Kalle Matson – The Shore (from Lives In Between EP)
Folk with an experimental edge that is equally at home dropping in a bit of punk distortion as it is with some funky basslines
a
Download Delta Spirit – Tear It Up mp3 (from Delta Spirit)
Another brilliant uptempo cut from outstanding recent album
Download Denver – Reno mp3 (from Denver)
Perfect country twang from Blitzen Trapper led indie supergroup
Download The Mountain Goats – Cry For Judas mp3 (from Transcendental Youth)
New album cut from quirky indie-rock royalty
Download Chelsea Light Moving – Frank O’Hara Hit mp3
Trademark guitar squall and distortion from Thurston Moore’s new project
Download John Murry – Southern Sky mp3 (from The Graceless Age)
Emotive and soul-wrenching mix of Americana and electronica
Download The Wild Leaves – Sister mp3 (from Sister)
Evocative and poignant, the notes sweetly swirling around the room like dust mites in the sunlight, as though the story it tells could have been hummed on back porches for decades gone by
Last American Buffalo – That Woman (from Here She Comes)
Brilliant blues stomp and folk swagger
Download Woodpecker – Married To The Movies mp3 (from Thanks Anyway)
Indie folk and banjo ramble including occasional bloodcurdling zombie screams
a
The Most Powerful Telescope In The Universe – Lectures On Quanta (from Lectures On Quanta)
A brilliant psych-pop nugget of mellotron led drone
a
And to finish off, here is Pony Boy’s The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee, inspired by an actual teenage couple who gained notoriety during a cross-country crime spree in the late 1950s as well as a first taste of Hot Freak Nation. We have the beautifully crafted psych tinged rock of The Asteroid Shop and the melodically rich and compelling new track Fifty Fifty from The Luyas.
Download Pony Boy – The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee mp3 (from The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee single)
Download Hot Freak Nation – All The Right Things mp3 (from Lifetime To Lifetime)
Download The Luyas – Fifty Fifty mp3 (from Animator)
Download The Asteroid Shop – Alone mp3 (from Distant Luxury EP)
Follow @madmackerel
Although we’ve been meaning to get round to listening to Kalle Mattson (now a four-piece) for a while, it took a timely reminder from trusty Song by Toad to prod us into action.
So with apologies to our friends at Crash Avenue (we should listen to you more often), we gave their new EP Lives In Between a spin. And then another. And another. In fact we may have played it straight through over and over for the entire duration of our train journey from the Cotswolds to London. It is folk with an experimental edge that is equally at home dropping in a bit of punk distortion as it is with some funky basslines. As well as the obvious Dylan references, this will also appeal to fans of the Cave Singers as much as it will those of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Watch the time-lapse journey around San Francisco in the video for Water Falls (“Held your breath for too long suicide, like waterfall I watch life pass you by“), and check out the brilliant The Shore below. Head to his Bandcamp page here to purchase a physical CD or get a “pay what you want” digital download.
a
a
Interestingly, this is the song that Song By Toad liked the least, and yet it clearly is the most standout track on an outstanding EP.
Follow @madmackerel
