The Underground of Happiness

So we had The Underground of Happiness screening of the Efterklang movie, An island , directed by Vincent Moon . (Sorry if you missed it, but not to worry, read on. Anyway, it was very limited capacity, restricted to the number of people that can fit on my couch, basically - what a select bunch... Check out the website for all the screening details further down the page, and see if you can spot our photo in the gallery here - flickr.com/photos/anisland) It was very enjoyable. As with all music films, it stands on the quality of the music itself, which of course is very good in this case. My 8-year old wondered about the narrative interludes ("Why are they walking in the forest?") but she found plenty of interest in the musical performances. Even the toughest critic in the room (my wife) was won over. I think my own favourite bit was the accompanying children's orchestra during the school sequence, and in particular the "newspaper section" (kids holding newsp...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 169 Tues Mar 29th 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at http://www.blogger.com/www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at http://rapidshare.com/files/454945950/UOH_Podcast_Mar_29_2011.mp3 Playlist Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell ( playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 1 ) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in your heartbreak Crystal Stilts - Through the floor ( playing Cargo, London, Mar 29 ) *d'load i'view from May 2009 here - http://rapidshare.com/files/243401241/Crystal_Stilts_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3 Antonymes - Endlessly Paper Crows - Fingertips Timber Timbre - Black water ( playing Rhythm & Roots Festival, Kilkenny, Apr 30+May 1 ) Hurray for the Riff Raff - Too much of a good thing Tune-Yards -...

More fantastic craziness from Merrill Garbus , with direction by Mimi Cave, choreography by Sonia Reiter and featuring dancing talent from the San Francisco area. Reflects the woman's background in avant-garde theatre.

The new Josh T. Pearson album, Last of the country gentlemen on Mute, is a thing of tremendous, compelling beauty. Rugged, romantic music with a core of very adult melancholy. My wife walked through the room while it was on and asked if it was Nick Cave, and she was on to something there, in terms of the general musical terrain it covers. Plus Warren Ellis plays keening, mournful violin on it. There's a trailer here which gives a good taste of the album (and prompts the comment, "never mind your hipster goatees, now that's a beard"). http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/mpd/permalink/m2FP3YQRADM6JN/ref=ent_fb_link Pearson is an enigmatic character who you can research more fully in your own time. He was in a band called Lift to Experience who released a great album on Bella Union about 10 years ago (it was called The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads and it was also madly compelling - my good friend at Songs to Learn and Sing put me on to it at the time). Here's part of an...

There was a bit of a treat on Irish tv last night - the last in the current series of Other Voices was curated by the great Richard Hawley . As well as playing a set with his own band (an eclectic selection of covers including I'm waiting for my man and Crawfish ), and a few songs with Jarvis Cocker, Hawley also duetted with Lisa Hannigan on a drop dead version of the Dick van Dyke-sung classic Hushabye Mountain , from the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . With slide guitar, vibes and Hawley's own echo-laden guitar, they managed to create a wonderful, otherworldly atmosphere. Watch it here, it's about 16 minutes in. http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1094733 It stands up well to the original, here. Hawley's last album, Truelove's gutter , featured one of the most beautiful, poignant and just plain moving songs of recent times, in the shape of For your lover give some time . Take a few minutes out of your day to listen, it's transformative stuff.

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 168 Tues Mar 22nd 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at http://rapidshare.com/files/453838662/UOH_Podcast_Mar_22_2011.mp3 Playlist Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell (alternate version) (playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 1) Marques Toliver - Deep in my heart The Unthanks - No one knows I'm gone (playing School of Music, Cork, Apr 10) Robin Pecknold feat. Ed Droste - I'm losing myself Eat Lights; Become Lights - They transmit Damon & Naomi - Walking backwards (playing Cafe Oto, London, May 11) The Raveonettes - Recharge and revolt Grimes - Favriel (playing Great Escape Festival, Brighton, May 12) Hauschka - Ping (playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, May 15, live score ...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 167 Tues Mar 15th 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at http://rapidshare.com/files/452658555/UOH_Podcast_Mar_15_2011.mp3 Playlist Thread Pulls - Sink and swim ( playing Terminal Convention Festival, Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, Mar 19 ) *d'load i'view from Sept 2010 here: http://rapidshare.com/files/430980967/UOH_Thread_Pulls_Interview.mp3 David Hope & the Henchmen - Hell or high water ( playing Terminal Convention Festival, Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, Mar 18 ) Efterklang - Modern drift ( playing Knust, Hamburg, Mar 16 + screening of An Island, see http://www.anisland.cc/ ) Rich Bennett - Wild ride Grinderman - Palaces of Montezuma (Barry Adamson remix) ( playing Marquee, Cork, June 20 ) Extr...