The Underground of Happiness

Three nights running. Dan Walsh was back in the game following his marathon Year of the Dan in 2022. This time a solo Fixity . No drums this time. One man and his flute. With drum machine. Samples. A mixing desk. Effects. He also sang. It was wonderful drifty kosmische and what’s more you could dance to it. Dan the headtheball had another show later. The Tan Jackets in Coughlans . He played bass in that one and sang primal rock n roll. Grand for a Saturday. FIXITY by Dan Walsh

For those of you who prefer the long read format, here are all 30 chapters plus bonus in one piece...enjoy x I'm going to post out some thoughts on live shows I was at this year. I'll put them out between now and the end of the year. It's a bit of an experiment because, unlike whenever I've written live reviews^ before, this time (for the most part) I was writing at a remove of many months. These were not thoughts I put down at the time of the gig. So these are thoughts dependent on memory - I suppose all thoughts are but with these ones longer term memory - in that whatever I've written consists of impressions that have stayed with me over time. I like the idea of forcing myself to depend on memory this way. It might create a different kind of review. Less detail probably, but heavier on general currents, patterns, trends. Shorter (good says you). Plus it would presumably incorporate more of an overview of all the shows together. Because, whether these arti...

And one more bonus chapter. One more dan for the road. Back to Plugd where the year almost started. Dan Walsh with friends. Specifically... Elaine Howley on keys and vocals. Cathal MacGabhann on organ. Elaine Malone on guitar. Chris Quigley on guitar. Micheál Fitzgerald on bass. Krautrock Christmas 7 . Improv. Krautrock. Jams. But not aimless. Dan on the tiller. Deciding when each beat, each sequence has run its course. Seamlessly chiselling a new beat out of the old one. A new direction. Right hand man on bass. Laying down ferocious markers. High tone. High fret. Plectrum. Battering the fucking thing. Proper to the horizon bass playing. Proper autobahn grooves. Stabs of organ fed through wahwah. Snaking guitar fuzz. Reverb vocals circling and repeating. The whole thing probing the meaning of repetition. Like Can going off on one. In all. Let’s call it a year there so. Thanks Dan and friends. See you again in 2023.

Chapter 22 Now. The Tan Jackets . Ostensibly a garage rock covers band. Made up of the aforementioned Messrs Walsh and Sherlock . Along with Cathal from The Altered Hours and Solamh Kelly on drums. But really Garage Rock Covers Band does not come close to conveying how awesome they are. I mean the set choices. Small Faces. MC5. Two fantastic Kinks tracks. Monks. Wipeout. Ghost Riders in the Sky. 13th Floor Elevators for fuck sake. All played with an intensity that evokes nothing but the first psychedelic wave which was itself an attempt to resurrect 50s rock n roll’s primal force. Dan Walsh on bass – including playing the jug part in You’re gonna miss me. He even brought out the sax for a couple. Highlight. Stepping Stone. Coughlans was fucking shaking. AWEsome rock n roll band.

Chapter 3 Dan Walsh featured prominently in my 2022. (that title...) I saw him first this year in Plugd at the end of March. Covid played ball and gave me one blue line the day before. Dan had just released an album of drums. The gig consisted of Dan at the drums. For about 35 minutes. It was fucking gripping. One of the greatest musicians ever to come out of Cork taking us on a rollercoaster journey through the beat. We had BYO beer from Bradleys. What a night. DRUMS & CYMBALS by Daniel Walsh

A spate of great gigs coming up in Cork and we played several of these bands on the show this week. Fixity , a new album conceived in Cork, recorded in Malmo and sounding like a pure beast, launches in Triskel Dec 3. The Altered Hours , "hometown" show at the Kino Dec 10, it's been too long. Also Rozi Plain , same venue the following night, all part of the Sudden Club Weekender . Great. A terrible clash but also on Dec 10 in Cobh at the Sirius Arts Centre , the return of the wonderful Slow Moving Clouds , strings and drones turned into gorgeous ambient hum. Also great music from Cool Ghouls , channelling The Byrds from 1965/6; Rothko with vocals by Johny Brown, sterling bass and voice expositions from the north of England; The Sea Nymphs , a timeless treasure from 1992, just released. And Lambchop , making autotuned vocals credible for the first time. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.th...

A compelling series of largely instrumental soundscapes from Cork native Dan Walsh . Side A (it’s a cassette tape) features mostly shorts, Side B two longer form pieces. They all drift and tease through a thick fog of cymbal hiss and ambient haze. The bass is the thing I keep coming back to. The warped rock n roll pattern of ‘Blue paint’. The stalking garage rock feel of ‘Hungry clouds’, although that gives way to a kind of blissed out haunted dream pop. The constant pulse of ‘stigmatostigmata’ amid freaked out filtered guitar. The wonderful frantic motorik effect of ‘The things in the room’. It’s dark more than bright but somehow an optimistic dark. Abstract for sure but still groovy as fuck. Improvisation - knocking on your door then dangling it just out of reach. It just is. There is great art in our midst. FIXITY by Dan Walsh