The Underground of Happiness

I'm feeling a bit random, so get a load. Umpire - Supply chins (Hidden Shoal, from the album Now we're active ) Beautiful, chiming guitar pop with layered, soaring vocals from the Perth band's upcoming new album. Comes on like The Shins with more gumption. "Widescreen" (always a description that gets my attention), it says here, and I concur. In addition, there is brass involved and the lyric rhymes "oasis" with "stasis". Top notch. Supply Chins by Umpire And here's the video to the first single from the album, Green light district : Neville Skelly - Poet & the dreamer (Setanta/PIAS) Sumptuous country swing (think Nesmith / Campbell) with a handsome croon at the centre. Title track from the Liverpool artist's upcoming new album. Here's another track from the album, the swooningly beautiful He looks a lot like me . Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The copper top (Chemikal Underground, from the album Everything...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 177 Tues May 24th 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 https://rapidshare.com/files/723358515/UOH_Podcast_May_24_2011.mp3 Playlist The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in your heartbreak ( playing Button Factory, Dublin, June 1 ) The Scaramanga Six - Spent force Neville Skelly - Poet & the dreamer King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bubble Letter from Belgium - Travis and Hunter A Lazarus Soul - Save our greenbelt Grinderman - Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man ( playing Primavera Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28 ) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Nobody's baby now Smith Westerns - All die young Roshi feat. Pars Radio - To bio Tied & Tickled Trio with Billy Hart - Calaca Seun Kuti ...

A quick update on one of my musical events of the year so far, the Efterklang film made by Vincent Moon , An Island . If this is news to you, it's been mentioned on these pages already, here and here - and here's some other background - In August 2010, French filmmaker Vincent Moon and Efterklang’s 8 piece-live band met up on an island off the Danish coast. The objective was to shoot a film. A film with the same length as an album, and a film full of performances, experiments and collaborations. Over an intense period of 4 days Efterklang collaborated with more than 200 local musicians, kids and parents, creating new performances and interpretations of songs from their album Magic Chairs (4AD, Rumraket 2010). It was all filmed by Vincent Moon who same time conducted several filmic and musical experiments with Efterklang as his dedicated playmates. An Island is an unconventional music performance film and an abstract documentary about a band and an island. The running time...

More class action from Merrill Garbus , first explaining the title of the current album, whokill on 4AD , then getting together with partner in crime Nate Brenner to perform a stunning live version of You yes you from the album. Playing Whelan's, Dublin, June 17 Yourstru.ly Presents: tUnE-yArDs "You Yes You" from Yours Truly on Vimeo .

The new album from The Scaramanga Six , Cursed on Wrath Records , happily arrived during the week. It includes the wonderful single Autopsy of the mind , which has been spoken about here before, and is still available as a free download. The Scaramanga Six - Autopsy of the mind (Wrath Records, single) Top drawer power pop from the Ben Folds school by this Leeds 4-piece. A reflective piano intro gives way to a thudding backbeat, culminating in an acerbic chorus adorned by soaring backing vocals (they also make room to pay "fake brass" homage to Chicago's If you leave me now in the mid-section, a stand-out moment). Catchy as hell and they're giving it away for free. Autopsy Of The Mind by The Scaramanga Six The album has a number of memorable tunes and I'll come back to it in more detail once I've listened through to it for a bit longer. But the last song, Spent force , jumped straight out at me, primarily because it reminds me of prog-pop classic Eye i...

Whatever the weather is doing in Éire (which is probably what Queen Elizabeth called Ireland as a child), you know it's summer when tunes like the new Pains single are unleashed. As predicted here last month. (The video has a kind of High Fidelity meets School of Rock vibe - suggests it should have starred Jack Black...). The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in your heartbreak (Fortuna Pop/PIAS, from the album Belong ) Perfect slice of sunshine, shoegaze pop (sungaze anyone?), from the New Yorkers' second album. The soundtrack of your summer, if you're lucky.

Spooky little goth-electro (maybe post-wave?) number from Dublin artist. Featuring a killer Top 40 chorus with banks of shoegazey male and female vocals, undercutting the isolation of the lyric. Another fascinating release on this excellent label. Single launch at The Joinery Gallery, Dublin, May 21, with Thread Pulls and Legion of Two The Last Sound - Only the Lonely know the Glow is Failing by osakaRecords The Last Sound: Only the Lonely Know the Glow is Failing from Osaka Records on Vimeo .