The Underground of Happiness

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.

A playlist for Spring. Things growing. There is sun but in this part of the world it's still weak. A cooling sun (with thanks to Jessica Risker , see below). Enjoy. Playlist 487 – May 2018: A cooling sun Modern Studies – Young sun (Fire Records) ( playing The Lexington, London, May 28 ) Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne – Exit (The Leaf Label) ( Matthew Bourne playing Leeds Jazz Festival, July 22 ) Jack Hayter – The mulberry tree at Abbey Wood (Gare du Nord) Sebastian Reynolds – Mahajanaka (Remix by Emseatee) Laurence Pike – Cloud and wires (The Leaf Label) Alasdair Roberts, David McGuinness, Amble Skuse – Long a-growing (Drag City) ( Alasdair Roberts, playing Campfire Club, London, Sept 14 ) Spindle Ensemble – Panic amongst the dragonflies (Adderwell Music) ( playing The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, May 20 ) Moondog – Voices of spring (CBS/BGO Records) Death & Vanilla – Free Design Kung-Fu (live, The Tenant) (Fire Records) Ennio Morricone with the Czech Nat...

Delicious mixture of the propulsion of Stereolab and the textures and crunch of My Bloody Valentine from this Dublin band’s debut album. There are many things to love about the album – the sense of adventure, the absorption in ideas for their own sake (an improv spirit maybe), the embrace at the same time of pop melodies, the sheer breadth of sounds generated throughout the album – but I think my favourite is that great quality in any band or album, not trying too hard. I can think of ten other bands who might have taken a rough draft of these songs and turned them into bombast, beating you over the head with the ideas and in the process murdering any beauty. Percolator have that wonderful thing, restraint, so instead they stick with the ideas, the raw elements and see them through, not just as means to an end but as diamonds in themselves. In this I would put them next to labelmates The Altered Hours . A band with vision and in it for the long haul. Plus with obvious ...

So here's the final instalment of this Best of 2016 loosely centring on Psych Pop and some offshoots. I must say it was great listening back to the tunes over the last few weeks. It seems I always say this, but it really was another great year for music. It’s also very interesting when compiling a list like this to spot trends over the year, or longer, some kind of pattern that might be developing, or on the other hand any glorious one offs. I think I always say this too but no harm in repeating. These lists aren’t meant to be representative in any way. I know there are glaring omissions here out of the sum of music released last year but this list is made up of the music that struck a chord with me and in almost all cases was played (generally quite a bit) on the show. So once more with feeling, these are in no particular order. Enjoy. ************************************************************************** 1. Weyes Blood – Front row seat to Earth (Mexican Summ...

One last post before New Year's. This one rounds up some tunes mostly from the second half of the year. It turns out there was a lot of great instrumental music in there. Plus some other material that I think fits with that. Enjoy and see you on the other side. Fixity – Hungry clouds Tortoise – The catastrophist Elias Krantz – Patchwork Pt 1 Syrinx – Aurora spinray Marielle V Jakobsons – Rising light Cavern of Anti-Matter feat. Bradford Cox – liquid gate Melt Yourself Down – Dot to dot The Comet Is Coming – Space carnival Dieterich & Barnes – Parasol gigante Alien Ensemble – Skeleton dance Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Arthropoda Matthew Bourne – Keighley Qluster – Glasperlenspiel Nathan Bowles – Chiaroscuro Lambchop – Flotus Iggy Pop, Tarwater & Alva Noto – As Adam early in the morning/I am he that aches with love Rothko – A young fist curled around a cinder for a wager Wymond Miles – Protection C Duncan – Nothing more Weyes Blood – Generation Why Cool...

Another hodge podge of generally loud fast music often featuring loud guitars and sometimes even loud keyboards. There are also some hushed varieties (to make up for the lack of volume those have a spooky air) and at least a few with no guitars at all. That's the beauty of pop music and 2014 was another vintage year. 1. Ezra Furman – My zero (Bar None) Let’s start with an album not technically released last year (towards the end of 2013), but it sank home with me in the early weeks of last January. The day of the dog is a bracing blast of beat rock n roll from an age before The Beatles, never mind the internet...committed, passionate and filled with buzzing guitar hooks and, inspiringly, saxophones. This song was my anthem from it. It’s a class tune all over. Shades of The Modern Lovers and even Violent Femmes here and there but Furman's voice in particular is all his own - brilliantly strained, reaching. There's not enough of that in pop music. The who...

A kind of a core of folk music running through this week's show, with a particularly nice centrepiece of new music from Olof Arnalds, Lutine & Vashti Bunyan . All female artists, all with their own intriguing versions of a delicate folk strand, from domestic idyll to murder ballad, unique all three. Of course, to that group we can also add the classy Bobbie Gentry , with a beaut from her debut album in 1967. And even the show openers, XTC and Paul Giovanni from The Wicker Man soundtrack, continued that theme with pastoral and psych-folk takes on the harvest time of year (that's now city dwellers). Groovy, beaty sounds from Red Snapper , reminds me a bit of Lalo Schifrin in places; Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa being brilliantly weird and wonderful. The Altered Hours have a new EP of beautiful short pieces (it's pay-what-you-can on bandcamp), this track has a shade of the great Mazzy Star about it. And Merchandise (pic), with one of the songs of the year, t...

Another fantastic racket from Cork Psych’s leading lights, produced by Elastic Sleep's Chris Somers and released on Cork-based Art For Blind . It starts out with a distorted minor key riff that threatens lift-off with a side order of scraped atonal guitar shards. It’s thrilling, although for me the next section is even more enduring – clean, propulsive guitar chords and a brilliantly wobbly drone made up of synth and bass. It suggests the autobahn’s white lines disappearing in the rear mirror. It suggests the digging down of the song’s lyrics. It would suggest a trancelike meditation if it wasn’t so itchy and confrontational. It’s tremendous fucking stuff.

The new single from The Altered Hours was first up this week with their upcoming new single on Art For Blind , sounding great the live fave 'Dig early', along with Eat Lights Become Lights , driving krautrock at its best, fast and loud. A couple of Record Store Day releases from Thrill Jockey , two different shades of guitar folk tune from Glenn Jones & Alexander Tucker . New music from Tennis , love that sepia 60s vocal group sound; Beck channelling Gainsbourg, and Italians The Vickers with some lovely psych rock stylings, for fans of Tame Impala for sure. And Prescott , feat. Kev Hopper ex Stump , making what I can only call wonky jazz. Great. Apr 8 2014 w/ Altered Hours,ELBL,Glenn Jones,Alexander Tucker,Tennis,Beck,The Vickers++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 306 Tues Apr...

New music from A Winged Victory For The Sullen this week (pictured), a characteristically serene and gorgeous slow-build with strings, boding well for their new album. Something beautiful too from Golden Retriever , a Portland duo who make a kind of minimalist electronica with modular synths. Brilliant. Also new material from Polar Bear , bringing free jazz and some other stuff into pop music. And Brace/Choir making very tasty drone pop. Also room for old faves Band of Clouds, Rebecca Collins and The Altered Hours , all playing live in Ireland soon. And new faves The New Mendicants, Jacques Caramac and Kiran Leonard keeping the world safe for jangle, glam and prog, respectively. More on these pages as ever. Feb 18 2014 show w/AWVFTS,Band of Clouds,Golden Retriever,Polar Bear,Brace/Choir,Altered Hours++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www....

Just catching up on a bit of housekeeping after being away, including a couple of playlists from the end of July. This one is a round up of some of my favourite music of 2013 so far. I say some because an hour wouldn't come near to fitting all of it - I might look at a standalone podcast to cover the rest. Stay tuned. Anyway, what's in here. Well two "Cork" bands to start, O Emperor and The Altered Hours , that is two bands based in the city but originally from other places (an interesting feature of the Cork music scene at the moment that) who have both issued notable independent releases this year - an album and EP respectively - and are blazing a trail in front of them in terms of live shows. You'll find reviews/interviews/more info on the blog on both, in fact on all of the below. For now, I'll leave the rest for listening. Come end of year, I'll look at writing some words on each again. Enjoy. Mid Year Review w/ O Emperor,The Altered Hours,E...

The Altered Hours are a band based in Cork (although they're not all from Cork, interestingly) and they're creating quite a buzz at the moment. And not just at home either. Cathal Mac Gabhann and Paddy Cullen from the band were in studio last week chatting about their musical influences - they brought along some tunes with them - and their wonderful new Sweet Jelly Roll EP which came out last week, recorded in Berlin with Fabian Leseure and released on a Recordings (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dirty Beaches). It was all most interesting - we found out that Cathal got into punk via a friend who was into skateboarding, that he met at his granny's house!; and that Paddy had a row with someone at a house party in Ballina over a bottle of Buckfast and proceeded to discover The Clash. The lads also had some interesting ideas about psych rock and and why it seems to be in the water these days. May 7 2013 show w/ guests Cathal & Paddy from The Altered Hours, picking ...

A special with The Altered Hours this week. Cathal and Paddy from the band were in studio chatting about their musical influences, they brought along some tunes, and of course their wonderful new Sweet Jelly Roll EP which came out last week, recorded in Berlin with Fabian Leseure and released on a Recordings (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dirty Beaches). It was all most interesting - we found out that Cathal got into punk via a friend who was into skateboarding, that he met at his granny's house!; and that Paddy had a row with someone at a house party in Ballina over a bottle of Buckfast and proceeded to discover The Clash. The lads also had some interesting ideas about psych rock and and why it seems to be in the water these days. The Altered Hours play at The Pavilion in Cork tomorrow night with The Northern Drones , launching their EP, and are touring Ireland over the next couple of months. May 7 2013 show w/ guests Cathal & Paddy from The Altered Hours, picking ...

Continuing a very strong Cork showing this spring, The Altered Hours’ debut single with the Berlin label is a smouldering, slow-burning affair of background fuzz and hushed-and-high female vocals. The MBV comparison is there but is kept at bay by an elegiac, rising keyboard line and the expert stretching of the suspense over 5 minutes. It still doesn’t quite capture the power and intensity of their live shows, mind you, a thing that folks should go out of their way to check out.

John Grant is back in Cork, and on tour, soon which made me want to dig out some of The Czars , the band he fronted over 10 years ago. The brilliant 'Get used to it' started the show, from the album before…not longer released in 2000, a duet with Paula Frazer , herself formerly of the fine band Tarnation . After that, meet Here Is Your Temple , a Swedish 5-piece with one of the best tunes all year, a Beach House meets early Arcade Fire concoction, with room for a hint of Fleetwood Mac. Storming. New music from The National (playing Cork at the end of June and Dublin in November) and a monster of a new single from Queens of the Stone Age . Also The Pictish Trail, This is the Kit (plays Cork in May), some great new power pop from Telekinesis , the catchy-as-measles O Emperor . I thought The Altered Hours came off very well up against the wonderful Circus Devils which features Robert Pollard on vocals. And I must say I particularly enjoyed the middle of the show this we...