SOUNDTRACK: HAPPYNESS-Tiny Desk Concert #468 (September 4, 2015).
Happyness are a trio from London: Benji Compston (guitar), Jonny Allan (bass) and Ash Cooper Drums). They play mellow Britpop with rather clever lyrics.
The first song “Montreal Rock Band Somewhere” opens with a steady bass line and smatterings of guitar chords. And when the guys sing, Benji sings into a normal mic in a kind of deep whisper and the Jonny sings into a processed mic to make his voice sound kind of tinny (in harmony). And the lyrics are great. I like when the second chorus comes in and the processed vocals go up an octave for a really cool harmony effect. And I mentioned the lyrics. Here’s an interesting verse:
I’m wearing Win Butler’s hair / There’s a scalpless singer of a Montreal rock band somewhere / And he’s all right
Before the second song starts, they have a bit of fun while Benji tunes his guitar. Everyone is standing around awkwardly and Benji tells Jonny to tell his whale joke. Jonny says no and that it’s not his whale joke he took it off the internet and would like to put it back.
For the second song, “It’s On You” the guys switch places (it was suave, kind of Bob Fosse-ish). Benji sings into the processed microphone. The song also has some busy basslines but the guitar is more pronounced. Hearing him sing in that processed tinny voice is really interesting. More interesting lyrics: “You said I’m an anarchist, communist, feminist phlebotomist.”
Before the final song, they switch places again. Benji says he’s “not the most flexible boy in this collection of people.” “Who is?” “Definitely [the bassist].” Bob asks, “Who tells the best jokes?” “Unintentionally [the drummer] Jonny says to the drummer: “You could do the whale joke… don’t do the whale joke.”
The final song, “Weird Little Birthday Girl” is nearly 8 minutes long. It opens with a cool bass riff and some lovely overlapping guitars. There’s a nearly three-minute instrumental opening and when Jonny starts singing it has a distinctly Wilco quality (partly because oft he processing on his voice but also his delicate singing). There’s a nice shout out to Prefab Sprout in the lyrics:
Its so easy to replace it / some things hurt more much more than cars and girls / an evening in an iron maiden / a morning in your funny little world.
I really enjoyed this set a lot and I’m intrigued that their album (on bandcamp) has some really short songs too. I wonder if their sound is different on the record. Guess I’ll have to give it a listen.
[READ: July 12, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980
I foolishly thought that this book would play up the idea of moving into a new decade. But as I should have learned from years past, Schulz doesn’t really care about when it is. His strip is mostly timeless. There are of course references to time passing, but they are very minor. So, on New Years when it turns 1980, the strip heading says 1980, but there’s no other mention of it.
It’s also interesting how some things that he’s talked about in the past cycle again–many many years later. In January 1979 Peppermint Patty is on a quest for a library card (we saw Sally get one like 5 years ago). She says that once she gets one she wont leave home without it. Marcie says Karl Malden will be happy to hear it. This is a reference to a an American Express card commercial that I remember hearing all the time when I was a kid (although I had o idea it was Malden doing it). She also get a very funny line about junk food: “Life is more than carrot sticks, Marcie…what is a stomach that’s expecting a chocolate bar going to say when it gets a carrot stick?”
The World War I Flying Ace never really went away, but it seems to be making a resurgence in this year, with Snoopy wandering around speaking French and then later German to all the young ladies. Continue Reading »
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