The Underground of Happiness

The 2nd instalment of my Best of 2018 review. In no particular order although I wouldn't argue if you forced me to pick Kacey Johansing (pictured) as my album of the year. 3rd part to follow soon. Enjoy. Playlist Kacy & Clayton – The light of day (New West Records) Hiss Golden Messenger – Rock holy (Merge) Jess Williamson – I see the white (Mexican Summer) Kacey Johansing – Do you want me (Night Bloom Records/Melodic) Get Well Soon – Martyrs (City Slang) Lake Ruth – Julia’s call (Feral Child) Those Unfortunates – John Cronin is unwell Hater – I wish I gave you more time because I love you (Fire) Tanukichan – Perfect (Company Records) The Sea & Cake – I should care (Thrill Jockey) Crayola Lectern – Rescue mission (Onomatopoeia) BOYTOY – Mary Anne (Stolen Body Records) La Luz – Cicada (Hardly Art) The Chills – Bad sugar (Fire) Comet Gain – If not tomorrow (Tapete) Damien Jurado – Allocate (Secretly Canadian) Daniel Knox feat. Ni...

******************************************************************************************************** Bedouine – Back to you (from the album Bedouine , Spacebomb) Another wonderful nugget recorded at Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb hub in Richmond Virginia. The origin though is the voice and songs of Azniv Korkejian born in Syria to Armenian parents but resident in the US for some years. Her voice is an intoxicating thing. Hushed. Softly spoken. Insistent. Containing something of a Carole King about it. Or even a Karen Carpenter maybe. Another time anyway. When there was strength in subtlety and soul was in the nuance as much as the decibels. And the dream of an arrangement behind the perfect match. Gently enervating brass and woodwind. Uplifting top note strings. Beautiful pitter patter bass. A genius falsetto backing vocal that catches me every time. She also has a way with a lyric Ms Korkejian. California city parks They talk in excl...

It’s good to have St Vincent in the world. And it’s good to have St Vincent back in pop music. I imagine most people’s view of this song will be coloured by the staggering video which is a breathtaking pop art meets surrealist confection directed by Alex Da Corte. But for me this song nods back to her first album a little when the music was as baroque and intriguing as her choice of moniker. In particular the moment the massed bank of St Vincents in the chorus sing these lines - I have lost a hero I have lost a friend One of this year's anthems I can feel it in my bones. I wonder if those lines are a reference to David Bowie but the uplift of emotion is glorious in any case. It could just be a love letter to the home of art pop. Or a hymn to motherfuckers everywhere. Legend.

Tantalising follow-up EP to last year’s tasty Love this giant album from this pair, who trot out at the Electric Picnic Festival in Ireland this weekend. You might find a hint of Bjork’s Dancer in the Dark soundtrack in the austere, awe-inspiring brass tones and mechanical percussion (by John Congleton) of lead track ‘Cissus’. Although that’s the EP highpoint on track one, there are still enough bonkers flights of fancy and musical nuggets on the rest to blow the opposition out of the water. Including a couple of live tracks from their touring over the last year (one Talking Heads number ‘Road to nowhere’, one St Vincent , the marvellous ‘Marrow’) and a couple of remixes. Whatever this pair get up to, they can do no wrong in my book.

The new collaboration between David Byrne and St Vincent is definitely one of the musical events of the year for me. Apart from the album, they've also just begun a US tour with a 16-piece (I think it is), mostly brass, backing band. That's just shit cool. Here's some fan footage from their gig in Minneapolis the other night for a flavour, as they run through some Talking Heads and St Vincent material, with some interesting choreography. Having had the album for a few weeks now, it's as obtuse and angular as you might expect from two people who each pretty much define the phrase "singular artist". There aren't that many straightforwardly upfront tunes on the album (the brilliant closer Outside of time and space is one exception, where the brass backing takes on a plaintiff colliery band feel). But it's still never less than engrossing and the everpresent brass and reed textures give it a wonderfully offbeat tone, compared to the majority ...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 207 Tues Feb 7 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *no podcast this week, see blog for audio/video links Playlist Frankie Rose - Gospel / Grace Field Music - A new town ( playing Primavera Festival, Barcelona, May 31-June 2 ) Land Lovers - The cinema bell ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, Feb 11, w/ Tieranniesaur & Squarehead ) Tune-Yards - My country ( playing Button Factory, Dublin, Feb 12, w/ Thread Pulls ) Somadrone - Reckoning Chairlift - I belong in your arms Simian Ghost - Free agent Sebastian Rochford feat. Gina Loring & Ranjana Ghatak - Love a sacred path ( Days & Nights at the Takeaway 1 ) Lower Dens - Brains Best Boy Grip - Barbara St Vincent - Cheerleader ( playing Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, Feb 27 ) School...

The incomparable St Vincent has just bestowed on the world her new video, to current single Cheerleader , directed by Hiro Murai . It kind of channels Gulliver in Lilliput via Charlie Kaufman, which is appropriate given the satirical bite in the lyrics. Like her home country, she manages to look magnificent even as she breaks into pieces. As we're at it, the version of Cheerleader from her set for the 4AD Sessions was premiered this week too, via this link - http://www.ifc.com/shows/portlandia/blog/2012/02/st-vincent-4ad-sessions-premiere Here it is, so you can get a close-up of her spitting out those memorable guitar riffs.

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 188 Tues Sept 13 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show here https://rapidshare.com/files/3057731109/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_13-9-2011.m4a Playlist Tune-Yards - Gangsta (radio edit) Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands - Broken up now Tarwater - Inside the ships Atlas Sound - Terra incognita Madam - Someone in love ( playing National Portrait Gallery, London, Sept 16 ) The Dead Trees - Older ( playing St Pancras Old Church, London, Sept 19 ) Interview with Casper Clausen of Efterklang Efterklang Interview Excerpt 1 Efterklang - Alike Efterklang Interview Excerpt 2 Efterklang - I was playing drums Efterklang Interview Excerpt 3 *d'load the full interview here http://conorot.podomatic.com/entry/201...

Just to add fuel to the St Vincent obsession that's been going on around here for the last few weeks, she appeared on the David Letterman Show last night to perform Cruel (that's the video we talked about here the other day ). I know it's not unusual for Letterman to be slightly nonplussed by the musical guests on the show, but in this case he seemed to be genuinely at a loss, confused. Maybe it was the fact that Annie Clark looked like a model, wearing a black party dress, with what looked like a cape trailing behind, while she knocked out complex math-pop guitar riffs that buzzed with a distortion and tension generally absent from your average party dress-wearing model. Or that in elegant, soft-spoken tones, she wondered how the children could be so cruel. Apart from her other, many and varied talents, I think her ability to confound Mr Letterman should also be applauded.

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...

Rejoice! The first track is now available from the upcoming third St Vincent album, Strange Mercy . The album comes out in September on 4AD . You can get your digital hands on Surgeon now in exchange for your e-mail address at http://strangemercy.com/ It features lots of woozy synths and what sound like cut-and-paste guitars, as well as the memorable opening line, " I spent the summer on my back ". It also sounds like Annie Clark has been listening to some dirty funk music since the last album. You can view some fairly strange video teasers on that site too, including one where Ms Clark, as well as several other beautiful women, deliver some of the most polite, delicious, crushing rejections ever to camera. It's disconcerting and intriguing at the same time, quite like her music actually. And to get us even more in the mood for the new album, here's the video for Laughing with a mouth of blood from her last album Actor . It showcases her irreverent brand of ...