The Family Rain is comprised of twins Tim and Will and older brother Olly who have played music together since being kids, their songs written in the basement of their parents home in Bath, combining fuzzed out guitars with crashing, hip-hop infused drums and a bluesy vocal delivery. Their new single Carnival is out today on Bigger Splash Recordings as a limited run vinyl release, which you can buy here , (it is also available to download for free at the band's website here ). We have the b-side Waterfall [...]
Caves are from Birmingham and took their name after being inspired by a book of one of their nans about caves and sea monsters, which matched their take on hazy grunge pop with bursts of distorted guitar perfectly. Similarities to Nirvana are no accident, but one flavour of ice cream is obviously not enough for this duo and so Caves also seek inspiration from Deerhunter, Beach Boys or more recently also Slowdive and Joy Division for their slacker tinged grunge pop. This is Gold Beach [...]
Short films of the musical variety to enjoy with the sweet folk of The Paper Kites , and the hillbilly swamp-rock of The Ruminaters. There is Sanders Bohlke's slightly macabre and dreamlike video for Ghost Boy , and some powerful electro tinged rock from Waking Up Dead, with a video based on the opening scene from the 1983 cult, art-horror flick The Hunger . . . [...]
Click to view slideshow. The final day of SXSW and I'm on a quest. Phosphorescent play their last show today and I have tried and failed to get into four previous ones already. So it is the long walk away from downtown and up to the San Jose Hotel day party, I arrive hot, bothered and five hours early...but I'm in! No matter either because Shakey Graves is on and he has been a longtime fave on MM, with an easygoing line in between song banter and exuding good natured bonhomie he [...]
Alela Diane returns with a new album About Farewell and the first taste is this absolutely stunning track The Way We Fall . It is a wistful, haunting lament for lost love, and softly and sorrowfully rakes over past memories in a way that makes the heartbreak as poignant and as real as anything we've heard for a long time. Have a listen. Follow @madmackerel
Having now learnt from the previous two days of SXSW (fully creamed up for a start) and the seemingly vastly increased numbers from 2009, I headed straight for The Red Eyed Fly determined at the third attempt to get into a Phosphorescent show...only to be greeted by more lines that stretched way, way into the distance. Having no further wish to baste in the midday sun, I implemented plan B and headed to the House of Spin; the party with free beer and cupcakes and a line up that included Wavves and The [...]
The hazy, washed out Americana of Wild Leaves was one of our favourite discoveries of 2012 with their demo release of Sister . Now they have a debut EP coming out on the 26th March titled Wind And Rain, and the lead track from it is To Be Free . It builds on all the promise that Sister showed, and simply put, it is absolutely brilliant. If you have Low Anthem or Phosphorescent records in your collection, you will find much to love here we promise you. As well [...]
Click to view slideshow. It has to be said that despite one or two hiccups, the second official day of SXSW turned out to be a whole lot more fun. It got off to a good start when we found there was actually a shuttle that came near to our hotel and meant late night night time returns were no longer a problem. We headed off to the Pitchfork party, queued in the broiling heat for 30 minutes and gave that up as a bad job and trudged another 8 blocks out of town to American [...]
Yesterday was not a great day. It is the little things sometimes. Things like when you wake up and realise that despite knowing I was away for 10 days in total, I had only bought clothes for 8 (except t-shirts which bizarrely could last me for 13) and the suncream tube is actually some kind of foaming face wash. Or all the eggs have gone at breakfast meaning as a non-meat eater the sausages and bacon are not great substitutes. And then some crappy news from work, and by the time all is sorted I am [...]
While we bake in the Texas sun, here are some videos to enjoy! Fresh from our 5:1 Interview ( click here ), Sparrow And The Workshop have given us this new video for the excellent single Shock Shock . Meanwhile Dingus Khan's insane video for live favourite Knifey Spoony is worth watching for the swan impersonation alone, not to mention being sick in an ashtray and spoon inflicted carnage at the end. Check out our stream of another track, Plank too. Electric folk duo Scrimshander have [...]
Taken from Scott & Charlene's Wedding's new Two Weeks EP , this is the delightfully titled, and delightfully catchy Gammy Leg . Laconic, slacker pop at its absolute finest, and undoubtedly the best thing we've heard from them to date. Grab it here. Follow @madmackerel
Click to view slideshow. My first trip back to Austin since 2009, and compared with then the town is hectic even before any music is officially due to start. Streets are teeming with folk whereas previously four years ago, the day before the event, Chris T Popper and I had strolled around empty streets and then casually into the marvellous Waterloo Records and bought wristbands for the coming evenings showcase events. We had no idea then just how useful that was going to be. This year, pre-armed with wristband knowledge, I went to Waterloo Records on [...]
The Sparrow and the Workshop announced themselves with the excellent Crystals Falls album, and consolidated their increasing reputation with a second album, Spitting Daggers , which further enhanced their talent for twisting the tabernacles of folk rock until it turned white with shock. Drawing comparisons as diverse as Jefferson Airplane, PJ Harvey and the Pixies on the one hand, and being labelled as surf rockers, folk rockers and post rockers on the other simply indicated the difficulties reviewers have had in pinning them down. No surprise then that forthcoming album [...]
We are loving this track, Grown-ups by The Burning Hell from forthcoming long player People. The Burning Hell is the alter-ego of songwriter and ukulele-slinger Mathias Kom. Loosely based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the band have quite a few releases up on their Bandcamp page , that on the evidence of this track will be well worth investigating. The track calls to mind such lyrical luminaries as David Berman of The Silver Jews and (especially) Bill Callahan, in the way the deep, baritone [...]
In conjunction with their March/April issue, American Songwriter have offered up The Billy Reid Shindig Sampler for free download. It is a SXSW promo for their event being held March 13-14 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Weather Up, and features many MM faves like Dawes, Jason Isbell, Johnny Fritz and Deer Tick’s John McCauley amongst others (see flyer below for details). Just click here to get it for free and to RSVP for the SXSW party if you're in Austin, or check out a couple of our [...]
Wooden Wand has already released the brilliant Blood Oaths of the New Blues this year and the even better news is James Jackson Toth will be hitting the the road with the musicians with whom he created the record (and who had also joined him previously for the superb Briarwood LP) for a European tour in April. The band is made up of David Hickox, Janet Elizabeth Simpson, Jody Nelson and Brad Davis, with harmonium, organ and disembodied vocals being the order of the day. They have also made one (of the many [...]
More musical goodies in film form for you today from Wake Owl and their gorgeous track Wild Country , and from Fear of Men with the video to their top tune Seer . Franc Cinelli has a five track EP inspired by Alcatraz and its inhabitants, watch the video for the achingly beautiful Birdman, and lastly the brilliant Do You Think You're Enough from the Pyyramids gets the video treatment. . [...]
Toronto-based indie folk septuplet Beams has released Be My Brother , the debut single from their upcoming full-length album, Just Rivers . The lush instrumentation and lovely vocal harmonies hide the fact that lyrically something altogether more discomforting and baleful lies beneath the surface. It gives the band an edge that many of their contemporaries in this field either lack, or are unwilling to find. The digital single also includes a rather unusual, but compelling cover of Portishead’s Glory Box . If you want to know more, you can [...]
It is hard to know what to say about Laura Marling without falling back into cliche at the earliest opportunity. As a songwriter, hers is seemingly a very old head on young shoulders as she effortlessly is able to create whole albums of extraordinary material that would be the pinnacle of many other's careers - and then she goes and does it again, and again. With three full length albums already to her name, suffice to say then she is undoubtedly one of the very best singer-songwriters these shores has produced for a very long time [...]
Enjoy music videos from Mice Parade and their beautiful film for This River Has A Tide and London based folksinger Lucy Cait's strange and hypnotic Gabriel's Wharf , the title track from her debut EP. After taking a couple of years off to focus on other projects, Krist Krueger returns to the Southerly moniker and celebrates with a new single and video for Desolation Low . And last, but not least, we have Autumn Owls video for Great Atlantic Drift features Irish actress Elga [...]
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BMK: Danny Brown – Witit (Lenkemz Remix)
Phoenix - Entertainment (Robotaki Remix)(Free Download)
