The Underground of Happiness

I get sent quite a bit of music, covering a broad range of, let’s call it pop music. This is a first in my time doing the show – a piece of music that references Cork city directly, explicitly and funnily enough the band isn’t even from Cork. ‘The River Lee’ caught my eye straightaway – that’s the river that runs through Cork. The song also mentions Shandon, an area of Cork city. (The only other group I can think of to do this is Cork 80s band Five Go Down To The Sea in their classic ‘There’s a fish on top of Shandon (swears he’s Elvis)’.) First, here’s some background on the band. Walking a tightrope between song, improvisation and sound-as-sound, Monkey Puzzle Trio is an ongoing project which features drummer Charles Hayward [This Heat, About Group, Massacre], bassist Nick Doyne-Ditmas [Pinski Zoo, Crackle] and the words, voice and textures of singer and sound artist Viv Corringham. Their music is driven by the restless energy, invention and power of Hayward’s drumming und...