The Underground of Happiness

Elegaic collection of late night love songs from a duo made up of Amber Webber (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust) and Derek Fudesco (Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Cave Singers). Barely strummed guitars and Webber’s soft world weary vocals make a great match in songs taking stock of life with a bittersweet but quietly determined eye. It’s hard to beat the slow building emotion of the opening pair of songs, ‘Never change’ and ‘Wild hearts’. The first in particular digs deep into the end of a relationship with raw details underneath the brilliantly unshowy vocal harmonies – “this is lasting too long for me, being around to see your fading words, stare out windows when it’s pouring rain, we’ve got our histories to blame but they’ll never change”. The latter introduces a startling harmony which throws a gorgeous gospel hue over the country stylings. A deceptively low key and beautiful record. Kodiak Deathbeds by Kodiak Deathbeds

That's Christopher Porpora aka Cheval Sombre in the picture below, he plays his first Irish show in Cobh next month, excellent. He's a friend of Dean & Britta and they used one of his songs for their 13 Most Beautiful , the Andy Warhol Screen Tests project, pairing 'I found it not so' with Mary Woronov's compelling features. There's a raft of festival action happening - Noveller at Incubate , Death & Vanilla at Liverpool Psych Fest , Jeff Lewis at Clonakilty International Guitar Fest . And gorgeous new music from Kodiak Deathbeds , featuring the great voice of Amber Webber of Black Mountain/Lightning Dust . More on these pages as always. Sept 15 2015 w/ Gun Outfit,Cheval Sombre,Dean & Britta,Kodiak Deathbeds,JR Green,Robert Forster,Low+ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappi...

A Canadian band unknown to me previously but a wonderful discovery at the first green shoots of summer. For this song is a knock-out slice of sunshine pop, surfing along on jangly electric guitar, self-deprecating faux brass and strings, heart-fluttering mellotrons and a winningly bruised male vocal. It grabs some kind of forgotten zeitgeist laid down by underappreciated bands like The Zombies, a little, or Harpers Bizarre, who could wrap your heart in knots while giving your brain a workout too. There’s also a touch of the strident power-pop melodies of Jason Falkner, but the tune, although endearingly restless, never strays down the tricksy cul-de-sac that baroque pop can sometimes find, retaining its open-hearted sheen. An absolute joy. And I Thank You by The Elwins *And just to increase the joy quotient, here’s another dose, this time in semi-stripped down form involving actual flutes, actual strings and a snowy stroll from house to garden shed. THE ELWIN...

In the words of David Berman, random rules. Nik Freitas - Middle (Affairs of the Heart, from the album Saturday night underwater ) Understated but insinuatingly catchy tune, anchored by a wry vibrato vocal, somewhere between Harry Nilsson and George Harrison. The arrangement features cooing female singers and heart-tugging mellotrons, two of my favourite things in the world. There's also a drop-dead gorgeous raindrop piano line. Why can't daytime radio start selling some of this? C'mon playlisters... *In between being a touring member of both Bright Eyes and Broken Bells, Freitas also found time to release an EP at the end of last year. Here's the charming title track, a bouncing paean to vintage synths. Washed Out - Eyes be closed (Weird World, from the album Within and without ) Washed Out is producer Ernest Greene from Atlanta. His new album was recorded with Ben Allen - Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion , Deerhunter's Halcyon digest...