COLLAPSE BOARD

Song of the day – 384: Happy Noose (the International Pop Underground marches on)

Where are we now?

• Olympia, WA in 1985 (Pounding Serfs, I’m always looking your way)
• Boston, MA in 1991 (Buffalo Tom, I miss those walks in Hampstead Heath daily)
• Brisbane, QLD in 2009 (Kitchen’s Floor was the first inkling I had that I shared something in common with my random adopted town)
• New York, NYC in 1993 (Lotion, Lotion: I dearly wish I could remember the title of that Kokopop B-side)

No. It’s 2012, and Happy Noose are an Olympia, Washington trio. And their music is straightforward enough: good-time, plangent, dirty pop. And that’s easily enough for me sometimes. This music aches with desire. Most of their self-titled debut album (vinyl, natch) is just as great as the song below. Or ordinary, if you’re that way inclined. But I’m not. Morose, yet joyful. Fumbling, unsure but with a real swaggering gait. Lovely, lovely, lovely. It’s almost 1978 UK powerpop as well … or ’82 UK punk (yep, Newtown Neurotics, early singles, that’d be right). Lovely.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 8:28 am. It is filed under Song Of The Day and tagged with Buffalo Tom, Everett True, Happy Noose, Kitchen\'s Floor, Lotion, Music criticism, Newtown Neurotics, Olympia WA, Pounding Serfs, Song Of The Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.