The Underground of Happiness

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 couple of years ago, I heard Wussy for the first time and fell in love with them, when Damnably Records compiled the best moments from their career to that point on the Strawberry album (they were about 10 years in or so at the time, with four albums under their belts). ( Here's the link for that 2012 round-up.) This song is taken from their 5th album, Attica , which came out last May. Of course, 'Teenage wasteland' was also a song by The Who a few decades ago. The Wussy vintage takes that shimmering guitar part of the Who song as a kind of starting point, and proceeds to "answer" from the perspective of a middle American who grew up with The Who. That would be Lisa Walker in this case, one of the band's joint vocalists and songwriters along with Chuck Cleaver . What she makes out of this dynamic is a moving paean to the power of rock n roll to cross oceans and affect lives. It's wonderfully heartfelt, personal, delivered in one chord more o...

Back this week (no show last week as I was away at funerals) with new music from Laetitia Sadier , to go with her sublime duet with Benjamin Schoos . Tennis are on heavy rotation round UOH Towers these days with their gorgeous brand of blue-eyed soul. The Elwins are also in there, a beautiful sunshine pop cut. Wussy have a new album, it's great as you'd expect. The War on Drugs , another satisfying blue-collar feel to that band. Then Arch Garrison and Stars in Battledress , two English folk duos flirting with the avant garde brilliantly (and sharing James Larcombe in common). Boa Morte play a rare gig in Cork this week, with Barry McCormack . And Automat , featuring the distinctive vocals of Genesis P-Orridge , a sultry slice of dub electronica. Apr 29 2014 w/ Laetitia Sadier,Sabina,Wussy,Boa Morte,Automat,Red Snapper,Arch Garrison++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.the...

Don't you just love it when a new band comes into your life, out of the blue, and reminds you why you fell in love with pop music in the first place. Meet Wussy , a 4-piece band from Cincinnatti. They've released several albums over the past decade and gained fulsome praise from esteemed sources across the Atlantic, such as Robert Christgau and others. For their first release outside the US, Damnably Records have compiled some highlights from previous albums to produce a thrilling set of tunes. I like to think of the music as a ballsier, fuzzier, more blue-collar even, version of Luna (who I love, so you know...). That's to say, this record would sit comfortably between The Velvet Underground and Yo La Tengo on your shelf (alphabetically too, as it happens). It's rare to find songs you've never heard before that you feel like singing along to out loud on the street. That's the effect of the twin vocal, twin guitar attack of Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker ....

More new music from my latest obsession this week, the new Mumblin' Deaf Ro album Dictionary crimes , which comes out this week on Popical Island - we had the sublime 'Little mite' on the show. And the new Sfumato single, from another album I like a lot, These things between . Also Efterklang , who play in Cork & Dublin this week; The Altered Hours (currently recording their debut album in Berlin) who, along with Ro, play the NOISE Weekender in Cork on Sept 28/29/30; Hong Kong in the 60s and Sone Institute , both from the fascinating Front & Follow label; the latest Days and Nights at the Takeaway release; and more new Irish music from Jogging and Yawning Chasm . Plus a track from Wussy (pictured), a relatively new band on me, from Cincinatti. I'm calling them a slightly fuzzier, dirtier version of Luna - who I'm a big fan of - and they're clearly falling over great tunes. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theun...