The Underground of Happiness

Hot pants. Crack band. Once again. All in white. White dungarees on the drummer. White vest on the guitarist. White beret on the bass player. White shorts on the keyboard player. Eurovision fever. She whipped off her skirt like Buck’s Fizz. Hot pants underneath. Sparkly. She was a generous performer, M said. Welcoming. Accessible. These words also. The unbeatable melodies. The belter of a voice. The laugh out loud moments. The band dancing off the stage to a disco soundtrack after the encore. Cowboy hats everywhere. Distinctly good vibes. She should and will be huge. * Junior Brother played support. A legend in his own right. And also came out on stage with CMAT . Great chemistry between those two and I look forward to their future Late Late Show appearance together.

Final instalment of my favourite music of 2022. Cork. Limerick. Waterford. Kerry. Glasgow. Dublin. New Orleans. Melbourne. Leipzig. Nottingham. Copenhagen. Tokyo. Harrogate. Brussels. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Fuxa feat Britta Phillips – Help me please (Rocket Girl) 2. Henrik Lindstrand – Gammafly (One Little Independent) 3. Julie Odell – Cardinal feather (Frenchkiss Records) 4. Keeley Forsyth – I stand alone (The Leaf Label) 5. Bróna McVittie – Living without you (Company of Corkbots) 6. Miss Grit – Follow the cyborg (Mute) 7. Mitski – The only heartbreaker (Dead Oceans) 8. Monolithe Noir feat Jawhar & Mirabelle Gilis – Barra bouge (Capitane Records) 9. Mt. Misery – The time it takes (bandcamp) 10. Naima Bock – Every morning (Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction) 11. Núria Graham – The catalyst (Primavera Labels/New Deal/Verve Forecast/Universal) 12. Oh No Noh – Drift (Teleskop) 13. Robert Sotelo – Above (Upset The Rhythm) 14. Sinéad O’Brien – Holy c...

Chapter 23 On to October. Junior Brother . Cyprus Avenue . He was born in the Bons apparently. Joined onstage by the dream team. Dan Walsh on drums and other things. Phil Christie of The Bonk on keys. To add to JB and regular accomplice Tony on mandolin. Furious rock and roll folk music. Spadgie folk. Free jazz folk. Odd and proud of it. Also deeply heartfelt and dare I say emotional music. They played songs from the just released second album The Great Irish Famine. Which is wonderful. No country for young men with the glorious singalong line, can’t tell the goons from the guards. Daly’s Well a kind of math rock Tortoise trad beast. The laugh out loud but somehow also poignant Life’s new haircut. With this band they elevate already very good songs to the Richard Dawson stratosphere. A theatre of music and character with nothing but compelling storylines. Accept no knock offs. Only the fuckin brilliant real thing. Incidentally Fixity were on support. Dan...