If you've skulked around these parts on previous occasions our affection for Weston-super-Mare shoegazers Towns will no doubt be already obvious. Their blend of nostalgic retrospection on barely terminated teens and propulsive desire to bring the swirling shoegaze of their upbringing into a rather more contemporary consciousness renders them a terrifically enticing proposition and, for once in a while, the live show lives up to such hyperbolic billing too . So what relevance? Well, here's their contribution to We(s)t Country label Howling Owl Records' Record Store Day offering: a gooey dream of a thing appositely [...]
Our usual round up of the very best of our August posts and some new tracks too. Dip in - every one a winner as they say. Download The Cabin Dogs – High Falls mp3 (from Midnight Trail) Invites you to kick off your boots, pour a stiff one and sit on the porch to watch the sun go down – a song for when you're busy doing nothing as they say. Download Spectrals – Big Baby mp3 (from Big Baby 7″) Spritely and upbeat that melds 60s girl [...]
Here are the juiciest cuts from our May postings rounded up and presented as one marvellous mix plus a couple of cracking new tracks as well. Be sure to check out all our previous 'Best Of the Month' mixes in the sidebar too. Download Country Mice – Morning Son mp3 (from Twister) Country rock and blistering sonic experiments combining to deliver a brilliant apocalyptic ballad. Download Howling Owls – Hay Fever mp3 (from When Tipsy Turns Somber EP) Deliciously ominous folk music that creeps from the edges of [...]
In the past twelve months, Howling Owls may well have featured more on MM than any other band. Ever since we discovered their uniquely sinister take on the world with queasy tales of small town life, they have continued to delight and surprise with a whole series of tracks that have been uniform in their excellence. So we are delighted to have both details of their first EP, the wonderfully titled When Tipsy Turns Somber and a new song for you in the shape of Hay Fever . The EP features a number of [...]
Here is our regular round up of the best of January's posts plus a couple of new tracks for your listening pleasure - all beautifully designed to make one perfect mixtape. Download Wooden Wand – The DNR Waltz mp3 More classic down-tempo folk from greatly underrated MM fave. Download Phosphorescent – Are You Ready For The Country? mp3 Riff-heavy, mean-assed cover which brilliantly captures the double-edged viciousness of Neil Young's original. Download Akron/Family – So It Goes mp3 A soulful [...]
It is well documented on here how much we love the wonderfully forbidding, and sometimes macabre, indie folk of the Howling Owls . For their latest track, they have teamed up with Maximino for A Wordsmith's Reverie . It has an almost a waltz-time feel to it, but is still an everyday tale of resignation and failed expectations. And of course we love it. Enjoy. Visit their Facebook page here , and check out the brilliant t-shirts! Download Howling Owls featuring Maximino - A Wordsmith's Reverie [...]
Despite all the 'best of' lists, the top tens/twenties/fifties/one hundreds etc. and all the Christmas songs too, there has still been a cracking amount of new releases in December as well. So lest you missed out, here is our monthly round-up of the best tunes we've posted in December and, as always, a couple of new ones too. That's the New Year's Eve mixtape sorted at least. Download The Sweaters - Can't Stop Winnin' mp3 A syrupy, garage gem. It's upbeat and has as much soul as it does jangle and [...]
Now that we've had the top tens from all the Mad Mackerel contributors, we will give you a definitive overall top ten in a couple of days. Before that is our penultimate top ten list of the year - the favourite new bands and artists that have come our way in 2010 which was perhaps the hardest list of all to compile. So with honourable mentions to Gaoler's Daughter , White Noise Movement, Pop. 1280 and White Dress , here we have our favourites. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of them all in [...]
Here at MM we share, chat, argue, bury and praise music on a pretty regular basis…like daily. So throughout the year, the Mackerel crew (Mrs Mackerel, Barry-Sean, Christy-Popper, Dr Roddy, Polly Pocket, Starbar, MM and others) keep their own ever-changing top tens ready for publication at the climax of the festive season. So here are MM's ten favourite tunes from 2010 - no claims on them being the best, but for many different reasons, these are the tracks that most struck a chord (no pun intended). 10 Phosphorescent - The Mermaid Parade ( Download [...]
Dec 22, 2010, 12:41am
Fmly
(photo: ralph giunta) after three years at wprk, i celebrated my very last zoo sesh today. while brainstorming my favorite jams of 2010, too many fl frnds came to mind. therefore, i felt it would be appropriate to dedicate today's show to the amazing talent i've been surrounded by (and reminiscent of weekly two hour local shows during my earliest wprk days). you can download today's playlist / hear yr new favorite band right here ! and yes, everyone played today is from florida. if i ran the [...]
Dec 22, 2010, 12:41am Fmly
(photo: ralph giunta) after three years at wprk, i celebrated my very last zoo sesh today. while brainstorming my favorite jams of 2010, too many fl frnds came to mind. therefore, i felt it would be appropriate to dedicate today's show to the amazing talent i've been surrounded by (and reminiscent of weekly two hour local shows during my earliest wprk days). you can download today's playlist / hear yr new favorite band right here ! and yes, everyone played today is from florida. if i ran the [...]
Being natives of Oxford we are lucky in having a still vibrant local music scene thanks in no small part to the success of heavyweights like Radiohead and Supergrass and new indie superstars Foals, as well as genre influencers like Ride and Swervedriver. So there are a few bands on the brink of making the step-up to being genuine 'big-name' contenders. Trophy Wife are newly signed to Moshi Moshi, Stornoway released one of the singles of the summer in I Saw You Blink, and the Jonquil bandwagon seems to keep gathering momentum. However, we're hoping [...]
Being natives of Oxford we are lucky in having a still vibrant local music scene thanks in no small part to the success of heavyweights like Radiohead and Supergrass and new indie superstars Foals, as well as genre influencers like Ride and Swervedriver. So there are a few bands on the brink of making the step-up to being genuine 'big-name' contenders. Trophy Wife are newly signed to Moshi Moshi, Stornoway released one of the singles of the summer in I Saw You Blink, and the Jonquil bandwagon seems to keep gathering momentum. However, we're hoping [...]
As anyone who reads this blog with any regularity will know, Howling Owls are one of our favourite discoveries of 2010. They take menacing, insistent, under-stated indie/folk matched with some of the best lyrical wordplay we've heard in a long while. The songs pick away at the edges of domestic strife and family troubles, gleefully revealing a queasy, black-hearted underbelly that remind us of those moments in horror films when victims feel compelled to open the door even though they know something terrible awaits on the other side, and have their very worst fears (and more) [...]
Without doubt, Florida's Howling Owls are one of our favourite new music discoveries of 2010 - we've featured three songs to date (as and when they've come through from the band) and so you can imagine our delight over the weekend when we received another new track. There's a slight change in mood to Mood Ring - it's a little quicker, more staccato, less downbeat, but lyrically still overwhelmed with regret and a barely containable bitterness. "It's a simple fact of life we all end up in coffins, [...]
We were asked to 'guest edit' for the rather marvellous Track of The Day website a little while ago, and the results are up today. Track of The Day offer a free download of new music every day, and it covers all genres, new, old, signed and unsigned. You can sign up via e-mail to get a daily reminder and summary of what's on offer and we would recommend you give them a try. You can see our efforts by clicking here and also get yourself a download of Family Tree [...]
Our downloading issues are fixed! Josh and a few other readers of MM had pointed out some issues with actually downloading the mp3s from the blog. After much investigation and some help from Uncle Mike, we think the problem is solved. Apparently the automatic advertising that WordPress adds to posts can mess up the link access and stop them being found properly. The answer? You pay $30 to WordPress to 'turn off' advertising, and hey presto it all seems to be working again. So, if you still can't download anything, e-mail me at madmackerel@me.com [...]
Here is our usual end of the month round up of the very best tracks posted on Mad Mackerel, with a couple of new ones too. A perfect mixtape for May. Wilderness of Manitoba – Hermit mp3 Intimate and gorgeous, with haunting guitar lines and beautiful harmonies. Buffalo Moon – Beach Boy mp3 Summery pop, beach references, breezy beats and sweet lounge vocals. Sun Kil Moon – Australian Winter mp3 Sparse, bleak and mesmerising. Lille – [...]
What a cracking start to the weekend. We've already given you two absolute gems from Howling Owls in the shape of the down-tempo, disconcerting Snake Charmer (No Money In The Bank) and the captivating and sinister Family Tree , and now rejoice because we have a third. It is another brand new track, another gem. That's a 100% record so far. So download, lay back, turn up the volume and enter the disquieting My World as described by Howling Owls. Ominous, forbidding, baleful - all the things we love. Superb. They have [...]
We picked this up from the excellent Get Off The Coast blog. It is by a band called Howling Owls and we can find very little about them or this song. That is by the by for now, because the song is an absolute gem. If, like MM, you're partial to a bit of storytelling in that sparse, black-hearted, deadpan manner that offers up doom and despair in equal measure then you're in luck. "I drown myself in vodka, whiskey, [...]
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The Blue Walrus
The Bee Gees – Tragedy (Equateur Remix)
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Knickers - My Baby's Just A Baby EP review
