Leeds indie stalwarts the Wind-up Birds have released their new album Summer Haunts today (order from Bandcamp here). It is another excellent collection of contagious, observational and wilfully unpredictable songs packed with melody, wry, but often dark, humour and scalpel sharp lyrics. Unmistakably northern in the same way as The Fall or Cabbage or Pulp, The band have been ploughing their furrow for well over … Continue reading Wind-up Birds – Summer Haunts
Well, on this gloomiest of weeks a little ray of sunshine perhaps with some new music gathered up from the best of the last seven days (oh the irony). So while Johnson and Gove revel in the toxic slime of their own making and the Labour Party implodes, hit play on nine new songs from the likes of Devendra Banhart, ShitKid, Wymond Miles, The Wind-Up Birds and covers … Continue reading Nine Songs You Should Have Heard This Week
Next week the Wind-up Birds will release their second full length long player Poor Music. It is a collection of 17 tracks of scalpel-sharp observation that lay bare the nuances of life in the UK with an unflinching honesty and eye for detail. Black humour abounds, and if ever there were a band for whom the proverb “many a true word said in jest” applied then … Continue reading The Wind-up Birds – The Gristle
Another crackerjack month of new tunes on MM, all lovingly compiled and packaged up for you in one sweet playlist ready to download. Here are 33 of our favourite tracks from our May postings and 6 new songs too. No need to thank us. Download Virals – Gloria mp3 (from Coming Up With The Sun EP) Shines bright with an insanely hooky vocal and charged guitar riffs, … Continue reading Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: May 2012
We became instant fans of the Wind-Up Birds after hearing the brilliant There Won’t Always Be An England from their Tyre Fire 7″. They are a peculiarly British band steeped in the idiosyncrasies and (sometime ridiculous) ways and mentalities of our island, unafraid to gleefully reveal when the Emperor is out and about with his new clothes, and to champion the cause of the forgotten, the … Continue reading The Welcome Return of the Wind-Up Birds
As usual, here is our round-up of some of the best songs we’ve posted during April plus a couple of new ones. Thirty great songs all ready to go on one cracking playlist and impress your family and friends. Without further ado… Shabby Rogue – My Life As A Secret Agent mp3 (High octane, paranoia induced rock ‘n’ roll riffage) Kurt Vile – Invisibility Nonexistent … Continue reading MM’s Best of the Month: April
Rather like London buses these three songs came to our attention all at once. While all are excellent in their own ways, they are also peculiarly British in lyrics and approach. This is not a negative comment, just an observation that we think it would be extremely unlikely to get anything close to these songs from anywhere else. While addressing different topics they all have … Continue reading British Freak-Folk Explosion (maybe)
The Mad Mackerel 