"BEST DIY ALBUM 2007" - Performing Songwriter

“A master of the late night vibe.”
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

“As poetic as a glass of absinthe. Spottiswoode is, in a word, astonishing." Altarnative.com

Spottiswoode and McMahon - also known as S&M; - are a beatnik cabaret duo.

Spottiswoode, an Englishman, plays a Spanish guitar and sings urbane and sometimes demented songs. McMahon, an American with a waxed moustache, plays a dozen different instruments, several of the toy variety, and never cracks a smile.

S&M; began as an offshoot of Spottiswoode & His Enemies, a very popular New York band. But they now belong in a category of their own. Regulars at New York’s Living Room know, S&M; are a law unto themselves.

S&M;’s debut CD is a Eurotrash tour-de-force.

"There is something fully numbing and stunning about Spottiswoode & McMahon that freezes the brain much like eating ice cream too quickly. While one ponders influences such as Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, these songs blissfully inhabit the spooky, the derelict, the tossed out and forgotten nuggets of human creativity and therefore,
steer the listener towards territories that stir and titillate the underbelly of one's mi... (+) expand

"BEST DIY ALBUM 2007" - Performing Songwriter

“A master of the late night vibe.”
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

“As poetic as a glass of absinthe. Spottiswoode is, in a word, astonishing." Altarnative.com

Spottiswoode and McMahon - also known as S&M; - are a beatnik cabaret duo.

Spottiswoode, an Englishman, plays a Spanish guitar and sings urbane and sometimes demented songs. McMahon, an American with a waxed moustache, plays a dozen different instruments, several of the toy variety, and never cracks a smile.

S&M; began as an offshoot of Spottiswoode & His Enemies, a very popular New York band. But they now belong in a category of their own. Regulars at New York’s Living Room know, S&M; are a law unto themselves.

S&M;’s debut CD is a Eurotrash tour-de-force.

"There is something fully numbing and stunning about Spottiswoode & McMahon that freezes the brain much like eating ice cream too quickly. While one ponders influences such as Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, these songs blissfully inhabit the spooky, the derelict, the tossed out and forgotten nuggets of human creativity and therefore,
steer the listener towards territories that stir and titillate the underbelly of one's mind, the deserted corners of one's heart. Giving the impression that no genre, no style, no sound effect, no far-fetched musical idea is off limits, S&M; is an album that is so easy to fall in love with that you'll almost be grumpy about it. Brilliant." – CD Baby (-) collapse