The Underground of Happiness

27 tunes to mark the 27th anniversary of Serge Gainsbourg's death in March 1991. The Provocateur Extraordinaire. Playlist Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – Je t’aime (moi non plus) Serge Gainsbourg – Le poinconneur des Lilas Mick Harvey feat. Anita Lane – The song of slurs Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot – Initials B.B. Serge Gainsbourg – Mambo miam miam Jane Birkin – C’est la vie qui veut ca Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – Ballade de Melody Nelson Jean-Claude Vannier – La girafe au ballon Charlotte Gainsbourg – Le chat du café des artistes Mick Harvey – Intoxicated Man Jean-Claude Vannier – Danse de l’enfant et du Roi des Mouches Anna Karina – Roller girl (from the soundtrack of the film Anna ) Michael Stipe – L’hotel Beck – Wave Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest Serge Gainsbourg – New York USA Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – 69 Année Érotique Serge Gainsbourg & Michel Colombier – La Horse (from the soundtrack of the film La Horse )...

Gorgeous baroque pop with a psych folk edge like a meeting of The Zombies and Nick Drake, with a side of Bob Lind, the definition of a lost classic. Here’s the story in the man’s own words. "It was September 1969 and I was 20 years old. I walked into a Parisian recording studio full of orchestra and Eddy Vartan (the producer). The result, two weeks later was the album 'The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas' [Disc'Az]. The label owner [Lucien Morisse] who had signed me up, died a few weeks later and the album was never released. So I went on my way. I taught water skiing on an Italian island and skiing in the Swiss Alps. I carried on writing and would play my songs to my mother (my only fan) in her kitchen where the sound was good. When she died, I recorded the album 'Suitcase Man' with some of Cat Stevens' musicians and the album went to No.1 in Spain. The label forgot to pay me but I did get to open for Leonard Cohen in Spain which was probably worth mor...

You've heard of a raindance. This is a kind of sundance set, a playlist dedicated to songs about, of and reminiscient of summer. (Much as I love Don Henley's 'The boys of summer', I'm thinking more outside the box than that for this playlist. 'Summer of 69' is right out.) In here you will find nostalgic cuts (summers of the past), psych pop meanderings (summers of the imagination?), love songs, film music, plenty of soul and buckets of melody. There are also trumpets involved. You'll find a blow by blow underneath, extra background and reasons why I picked these songs. They're divided into categories which are a little arbitrary. Also, because there was only room for 18 in the hour long show, I might post another set, part 2, later in the summer. July 22 2014 Summer Songs Special w/Go Betweens,XTC,Serge & Jane,Crystals,Lee Hazlewood,Chills++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music...

Another day, another strange and beautiful chapter to the story of Annie Clark of Dallas, Texas , that is St Vincent . The first official video from her new album Strange mercy just surfaced, directed by Terri Timely . That's actually two people, who I've just learned have made music videos for Joanna Newsom, Darwin Deez and The Little Ones , as well as working with St Vincent a few times before. This particular piece features lots of stately tracking shots and buttoned-up performances, which are spookily at odds with the film's themes of abduction, imprisonment and torture. An average day for St Vincent, says you. Meanwhile, the tune has more of her trademark distorted guitar arpeggios. One memorable shot in the video has her playing a guitar solo in the boot of a car with a sack over her head. Baroque pop is right. There are some nice notes here by Annie Clark about the video shoot, courtesy of The Huffington Post . It was an absolute pleasure working with the Terr...

The great St Vincent will be playing in Dublin on November 13th, at The Workman's Club , as part of a 12-date European jaunt. In the meantime, her new album Strange mercy comes out on 4AD on Sept 9th. Her band for the tour will be Toko Yasuda (Blonde Redhead, Enon) on mini moog, Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright) on drums and Daniel Mintseris (Marianne Faithful) on keyboards. Exciting eh? Any excuse (none needed really) for some St Vincent video action. Here are three Take-Away Shows shot by Vincent Moon in Paris for La Blogotheque in 2007. Perched sideways on a railing on the street and still pulling off an intricate guitar pattern - what a woman she is. I love the way she eschews the French kissing-on-the-cheek etiquette there, entering the apartment (you ain't kissing me...). But as for St Vincent reclining on a bed purring " Marry me ", the less I say about that, the better, I think. And apart from the woman's musical (let's agree t...