ABOUT HAPPY

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Live Music every night Tuesday through Sunday. Local, National, and International. Comfy sofas, atmospheric lighting and delicious drinks. In the basement, 118 Tory St

Luckless, The Vietnam War, D Burmester, Big River Chain

Saturday July 9th Doors from 8 pm $10

Music and Artists Social Club

Wednesday July 6th $5

The first Wednesday of every Month at Happy Musicians and artists get together to show what they've been working on, discus music and art, and drink a little booze.


This Month: Nick Swanson, I am the Light, Kath McBeat, Gold Medal Famous, Manik Jamm. 

Freddy Fudd Pucker, Danny Cisco, Big River Chain

Friday July 1st 8 pm $8

Freddy Fudd Pucker began in 2006 as an eclectic solo act (Tom Young) in the punk rock 
scene of North Dunedin and has gained momentum and fans worldwide on a truly 
organic, honest level; driven by an astonishing work ethic and equipped with song writing 
that successfully avoids egotistical self-indulgence some solo acts embrace. 

He was joined in 2009 by Texan accordionist/vocalist “The Whippy-Dip” while on tour 
in the USA.  Since then the pair have spent large amounts of the last year and a half 
performing countless shows across the entire United States, from Los Angeles, California 
to Deadwood, South Dakota. Brooklyn, New York to Portland, Oregon. Cigar bars, house 
shows and tacos… Living in a stinking hot van for months on end with nothing but album 
sales to buy cheap, malt liquor to get you drunk. 

Following 2010’s “One for the Wonderwheel”, they have just released the fourth full-length 
album entitled “The Priest, the Fly & the Flea”.  A collection of 13 dark folk songs sprinkled 
with cynical humor and intricate melodies.  A pounding kick drum, guitar and accordion 
accompany the brooding, male/female vocal dynamic.  

In February the duo played at the “Camp A Low Hum” festival in New Zealand before 
returning to Melbourne, Australia where they continue to write and perform tirelessly.   

May sees them embark on a two-week tour of New Zealand, hitting all their favorite spots 
before returning to the USA to tour, starting in Austin, TX. 

MarineVille, Stefanimal, Solo ono

Friday July 8th 9 pm $5

MarineVille present their brand new 12" Vinyl LP of NZ New Wave rock entitled FOWL SWOOP; Stefanimal presents glorious post-Cocteau Twins solo synth; Solo Ono debut as a 2 piece surf-rock combo hailing from halfway between Wellington and Wanganui.

Check their nice video here

FOWL SWOOP is latest album from MarineVille. Each vinyl LP boasts a cover hand-screenprinted by the band themselves.http://marinevillenz.bandcamp.com/ "It's almost like the greats of alt-rock and new-wave have come together, asked Marineville to perform their tracks, and add that Flying-Nun, Dunedin sound to them." Dunedinmusic.com  

Stefanimal - "Like Pet Shop Boys high on nitrous. A sensitive, ethereal keyboard driven singer/songwriter adventure - intelligent lyricism, new-wave/new romantic/electro-pop angst underneath a haunting alter-boy-on-smack voice...perhaps goth, perhaps too subtle to be goth" - Crude

Surf, rock, pop 2 piece Solo ono are a Wellington band that formed in Feb 2011,
Frank Eggleton(Vox, gat) and Jordan Stewart(drums, BVs) have just recorded
their debut Ep called Space monster... It was engineered(and is being mixed) 
by Warner Emery at Spacer monster in Whanganui in early June, a 5 track
cd will be available at the Happy show!! Influences include: Jesus and the
mary chain, Best coast, Coasting and the Pixies!!

Destroy The Night, The Lost Boys

Wednesday 29th of June, 9pm Free Entry

Alternative Rock band Destroy The Night will be playing live at Happy Bar. Playing a set of their latest originals.  Visit them at www.destroythenight.com to get a taste before the gig.  On the night they will also be supported by special guests.  Come for an awesome night of live rock.

Twinset

Thursday July 23rd

Twinset are back with their Afro-Pacific-Calypso-Latin-Welly-Roots-Soul-Rhythm & Blues Jazz.

Paul, Dan, and Chris still making ace music together after 12 years, six albums, some award winning music videos, many festivals, and thousands of gigs.

Check out some videos here, here, and here.

They'll be playing all your old Twinset favourites.

Vinyl Friday for June


Friday June 24th 5.30 free entry

THE 80s ARE BACK! (... and they promise not to do it again.)

We've groaned our way through one dodgy revival after another, but finally Vinyl Friday is setting the cultural world to rights. We're putting the 1980s into rehab. We're confiscating its shoulder pads, trimming its poodle hair and wiping the coke residue off its nose. While everyone else in the 80s was watching Bonnie Tyler run down hallways in slo-mo or attempting to program their Yamaha DX-7, some brave souls were listening to actual music. That music has been one-upped by A-Ha for far too long, and this Friday it gets its revenge (customarily pronounced "re-weng-gay" by 80s obsessives.) So who's playing?

THE WHORES OF WAX:  Richard Langston and Yours Truly will man a deck each in order to dilute each other's taste and allow more time for beers. Both of us have considerable 80s form involving Flying Nun and SST, although we're not quite sure how this will manifest on the night. Remember, they were still making country music back then.

SIMON SWEETMAN:  Simon sparked this whole 80s revisionist thing off, being lately obsessed with the decade and all its egregious sins. He'll be dipping into a well-spring of arcana both weird and wonderful, certainly enough to make you look at your old copy of "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" and wonder why the hell you didn't buy Mission of Burma instead.

Festivities commence at 5.30pm and it'll all be solid gold. Be prompt like your mother told you.

Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band

Thursday June 30th 8 pm $5


Inspired by the brass bands, blues and jazz music of New Orleans from the early 1900’s, Wellington’s, Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band, bring their mix of trad jazz, blues and ragtime down South!
Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band, “play pretty for all the people”. Their ragtime is not about ego and complexity, but the human warmth, loose thrills, and hand-me-down melodies that reach all around the world, from the great crescent city of New Orleans to the windy city of today.
In the melting pot of turn of the century New Orleans, jazz, the blues and ragtime was the music for every occasion and station in life – from christening parties to funeral parades and every liquor-fuelled dance floor in between. The Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band specialize in this hypnotic and irresistible musical force of nature that pulls heartstrings, shakes booties and stomps feet. 
Mixing brothel swaggers with gospel shouts are Dale “Dr” Jellyman on the honky-tonk piano, his brother Hamish, (trombone), brothers Mike (trap drums) and Adrian Jensen (guitar), Matt Enright (trumpet), Frankie Curac (clarinet) and Dan Yeablsey (contrabass).

Craig Walters

Saturday July 2nd 8 pm 

We at Happy are very proud to host Tenor Virtuoso Craig Walters playing with Wellington's go to heavy weight rhythm section.

Craig Walters Tenor Saxophone
Anita Schebe: Piano
Paul Dyne: Bass
Roger Sellers: Drums

Doing a mixture of standards and originals.

" Saxophonist Craig Walters has emerged as one of the country's strongest voices" .
Sydney Morning Herald

Craig Walters
Born in Dunedin in 1961 Craig studied with Jerry Coker in 1982 and at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1983 and in New York with George Coleman and Steve Grosseman. Craig has lived in Sydney since 1985

Craig has performed with Bob Mintzer, Miichael BublĂ©, Harry Connick jnr, Louie Bellson, Billy Cobham, Cleo Lane & John Dankworth, Bobby Shew, Jim Pugh, Chuck Findlay, Bill Reichenbach, Bob Florence, Rob McConnel, Jim McNeely, Buddy DeFranco, Joe Williams, the Pitzarelli Brothers, Rex Richardson, The Four Tops and the Temptations

Australian Groups include:
Don Rader Quintet (curently), The Mike Knock Quartet, Dave McCrae Quintet, Mark Isaacs Quartet.

Big Bands Include:
 The Sydney All Star Big Band, Sydney Festival Orchestra, James Morrison Big Band, John Morrison Big Band, John Hoffman Big Band, Ten Part Invention. Bob Coassin Big Band, New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rodger Fox Big Band.

Other Performances include: Marcia Hynes, Tom Burlinson

Craig has performed at the: Montreux Jazz Festival (80 & 81), Jazz Yatra Festival India,Wangaratta Jazz Fest. Bellengen Jazz Fest, Manly Jazz Fest, Wellington International Jazz Fest, Christchurch Festival of the Arts, Nelson Jazz Festival, the Sydney Festival,

Craig has performed in: London,New York, Los Angeles,  Bombay, Delhi, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Vancouver Canada, & Australia & New Zealand.

Ghostplane, Little Cow Little Calf


Saturday June 25th 9 pm $10


Ghostplane fall very approximately into the category of experimental indie rock/pop with a side of dark alt-country thrown in. With three vocalists, acoustic and electric guitars, miscellaneous semi-functioning electronic devices, lopsided rhythms, old drum machines and due respect to the random element, you could say, in musicological terms, they've got their own thing going. Have a listen at: http://www.myspace.com/ghostplane



Litte Cow, Little Calf take a modern approach to the blues, while never forgetting the value of a catchy chorus. Check out some of their tunes at: www.myspace.com/littlecowlittlecalf 

Lawnmaster with Lynley Goodison



Friday June 17th  8.30 pm Free Entry 

The death-pop stylings of Lawnmaster return this month featuring some ripper tunes and several more chords than last time. As it’s a Friday and none of them have to go to work the next day, their Mums have said they can stay up late. Anything could happen.

Support is provided by the excellent Lynley Goodison, with things occurring from around 8.30pm.

Be sure to consult  HYPERLINK "http://www.myspace.com/555341319" http://www.myspace.com/555341319 instead of finishing your assignment.

Zorn, Halcyon Drift, OSR

Saturday June 18th 8 pm $5

Wet Wings Glory Glory album release with City Oh Sigh & Paradise



Saturday July 23rd 8 pm $10


Wet Wings is Lucy and Darian. Wet Wings wants to make interesting sounds and harmonies barbed with deadly hooks.
      ‘Feeeel It’ is the first single from Wet Wings’ forthcoming debut album, Glory Glory. Glory Glory will be released on vinyl and CD on July 4 through New Zealand’s Lil’ Chief Records. Foreshadowing the cavernous jubilation of the album, ‘Feeeel It’ conjures the supernatural with equal parts hope and scepticism.
      Here are some phrases that people have written about them: “beautifully misty/haunting” (on the Pitchfork-curated Altered Zones), “The kind of harrowing incantation carried by worried and cloudy strings” (Delicious Scopitone, bizarrely translated from French), and “positively glowing” (Rose Quartz).       
     Wet Wings released its debut EP, Skin to Soil, in October 2010 as a limited-edition cassette via US label Infinity Tapes. The final track, the six-and-a-half minute pastoral ode to a deer, ‘Running Like a Man’, was listed on influential US blog Gorilla vs. Bear’s top 80 songs of 2010.
     In January 2011 Wet Wings supported US folk trio Mountain Man in Melbourne before returning home to play at CALH.
      Wet Wings will perform album release shows in Auckland and Wellington in July.

City Oh Sigh is a trio of classically-trained musicians that carefully crafts soulful songs, capturing audiences with their softness and beauty. The band combines unique instrumentation with subtle elements of folk and minimalist pop to emerge with a sound that is both difficult to categorise yet warmly familiar. Although still a relative newcomer to the Wellington music scene, City Oh Sigh has already had a number of successful shows under its belt, including support slots for sonic explorers The Books and K Records songstress Mirah. Lead singer/songwriter/cellist Kate started writing her own songs after a stint playing with several bands (Ladybird, Blackbelles, Shiver Like Timber, Planet Earth) across New Zealand, Australia, America and Europe. On returning to New Zealand, Kate teamed up with old friends, Sarah (vintage Rhodes) and Catherine (guitar, vocals and trumpet), and started writing songs with themes of love and loss, friendship and loneliness. All three band members also appear in new power-pop octet The Sisters of St Rupertsberg, another all-girl band that has been progressively stealing hearts on the Wellington indie scene. City Oh Sigh are sure to cement a well-deserved place on airwaves across the nation with the release of this anticipated EP. “City Oh Sigh… play well-considered and graceful songs… I hope that their mature sound will become a quiet cornerstone of Wellington music” - Salient “Together they sculpt drum-free compositions riddled with closely intertwined melodies and emotional warmth” - Rip It Up Magazine

Paradise: Heroes (Mount Pleasant; Jon Lemmon) present without being present besides (I like to be convinced that there is not and that there will be never physical exit of Paradise). So close heroes and so much distance, of which one knows nothing yet. Heroes which one started to follow the trace and whom one will follow blindly.