Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Mavis Vermaak(sagte klankies) Show

Lekker met Mavis Vermaak gekuier! We had a fabulous time. As usual I baked some awesome cupcakes and we washed it down with some strong Kenyan coffee. Mavis was a fabulous guest dj as usual and brought some serious melancholy in both English and Afrikaans. We also got to play a track from her brand new EP.

"Dankie vir die lekker Unhappykuier Sondagaand, die Keniaanse koffie (is jy seker daai goed is wettig?) en jou heerlike tuisgebak. Altyd pret om saam met jou twak te praat :D. Hoe is dit tog dat ‘n hartseer liedjie mens altyd so diep gelukkig maak?" Mavis Vermaak

So this what we played:

the matador - johnny cash
will the circle be unbroken - june carter-cash
bartender - ernest tubb/loretta lynn
everyday is like sunday - morrissey
breathing - kate bush
razzmatazz - pulp
these golden jewels - the handsome family
i've always known - dead brothers
oitte rent juan penguin
hemel op die platteland - fokofpolisiekar
lied van afrika - gereformeerde bluesband
long blond hair rose red lips - johnny powers
swart - nul
bo ten qu'luta - one love family
a still tongue - african brothers
got a secret( i aint gonna keep) - buddy griffin
no surprises - radiohead
nothing man - pearl jam
chances are - bob marley
it's always springtime in nassau - delbom johnson
annies cousin fanny - the dorsey brothers
good day for the blues - ruth brown
julia- the beatles
hel - mavis vermaak
talking about revolution - tracy chapman
i shall be released - nina simone

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Africa Music Show

Holy Camoly – The Unhappy Hour studio rocks to 120 bpm this Sunday in a rare moment of happiness. African beats (kwaito, nogal) from Cape to Cario, via Burkina Faso kept the cold away – all climaxing with Brenda Fassie’s Weekend Special. Undoubtedly song of the show for me!! Whether you’re in the queue at the bank, in the traffic to work or at a braai with your cousin…you can’t help but feel your shoulders start moving and your head bopping to this one. To complete the African-ness we munched on biskuitjies from a tuisnyweheid in Prince Albert and sipped coffee from Kenya. Mmmm..

We left the studio with TONS of African music still unplayed…so beware: more is coming!

Shoo weee! What a show. We really shot from the hip. Sam decided we needed to have an African music show including South African and Afrikaans music too. It turned out really awesome. We played everything from Hirsham Abbas from Egypt to Tidalwaves down here on the Cape FLats. We visited Reunion and Mali and North Ghana and many other places on the continent.

The main topic on air and off air was finding a "Johnny Cash of Africa". There were many contenders like Oliver Mtukutzi, Johnny Clegg, Fela Kuti, Salif Keita, Alpha Blondy, Danyel Waro and even Ismael Lo. Mail us theunhappyhour@gmail.com if you have any contenders for the race. Someone even suggested Anton Goosen. So start pledging. We will anounce the list so far and update it as we go.

1 - redemtion song - johnny cash with joe strummer
2 - intil waheeda - hirsham abbas
3 - molofo hall - ndumiso
4 - sindi - alif naaba
5 - baba - salif keita
6 - street kid - oliver mtukudzi
7 - kunandi - rokia traore
8 - vision - mo'kalamity and the wizards
9 - le realite - amadou and miriam
10 - mlisa - bafo bafo
12 - bahlalefi - black sunshine
13 - shawns uhadi samba - hotep idris galeta
14 - across africa - big voice jack
15 - tyinn bob - ddanyel waro
16 - african shadow man - johnny clegg
17 - great kids - fela kuti
18 - without blame - ismael lo + marianne faithful
19 - pata pata - miriam makeba
20 - nubu gubus - jackson kaujeua
21 - lalogo - alpha blondy
22 - suffer in africa - african show boys
23 - weekend special - brenda fussy
24 - sana lwan - zola feat. unathi
25 - hartseerland - tidalwaves

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Vars uit die oond uit... we play some new stuff...

Besides us raving on and on about the new Andrew Bird record, Noble Beast and the Neil Halstead song... the show was great and we had the best time off air listening to all the new stuff ourselves. Here is the playlist:

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sam and Clive dj's together for the first time


Sam came onboard at a time when I was very busy and took lots of time out from the show. I was very glad to hear two weeks ago that we were doing a show together. The show was fabulous! She was so warm and funny and I envied her world travels and live bands trivia. She shared some truly rare moments with me off air too. Thanks for a wonderful show Sam, am so looking forward to doing a few more with you. 

...here is the playlist we shared:

1 - cry cry cry - johnny cash

2 - hook and ladder - vetiver

3 - bend to the road - calexico

4 - dark horse - bowerbirds

5 - writen over - miles benjamin anthony roberts

6 - carolina - m.ward

7 - rise - john rouse

8 - measuring cups - andrew bird

9 - there are maybe ten or twelve

10 - good eye - bruce springsteen

11 - lady day - felice brothers

12 - all you can do - willy mason

13 - slipped dissolved and loose - lamb chop

14 - don't forget your love - jerk with a bomb

15 - jump in - lightning dust

16 - the perfect boy - the cure

17 - neko case

18 - lived in bars - catpower

19 - the bats mouth - bat for lashes

20 - skipskop - david kramer

21 - haaie onder ons - somerfaan

22 - bloekomboom - rian malan

23 - padam padam - edith piaf

24 - both sides now - joni mitchel

25 - walkin after midnight - patsy cline

26 - ring of fire - runnin' wild

27 - hero - lucky dube

28 - billy jean - shinehead

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Retreats Live in our Studio


Yesyes – show was lekker...
Erns and I had a lekker chat with Nic, Andrew and Roscoe from The Retreats. Roscoe jammed their song ‘Vote in vain’ live in the studio – it’s a lekker kiff political song and that got us onto the subject. They’re big on COPE and reckon it’s a party we can build up from the ground, really be part of it without all the tribalism and so on (we’ll have to see about that…). The Retreats got together after they saw Kaiser Chiefs (the band) play live at Cokefest – they reckoned that the band sucked and that they could do better, so they decided to start The Retreats. They’ve been playing at venues like Gandalf’s in Observatory, but they’ve got a gig in the winter at Mercury Live which they’re very excited about. We played some of their influences such as Mars Volta and Pink Floyd. Ultimately they say they’d like to be like those prog bands, where you reach a level of musical competence where you can just do anything.

The weirdest tune we played tonight was Die Kopkaas Insident’s song called ‘Vanaand sal ek jou kry’, a seriously twisted lovesong of sorts all the way from our gritty brothers in Garsfontein-Oos who also brought you Die Plesier Parade last year. If you want to order the Kopkaas Insident CD (it’s free), just email skarmunkel96@yahoo.com.

We’re gonna try to get Righard Kapp from Jaunted Haunts Press (www.jauntedhaunts.co.za) into the studio in coming weeks to come talk to us about the KOOS album re-release, so checkit.

Playlist:

  1. Forever young – Johnny Cash
  2. Corvair – Jim White
  3. Honderd-en-een persent bang – KOOS
  4. Vote in vain (live in studio) – The Retreats
  5. Apparition – The Retreats
  6. Inertiatic ESP – Mars Volta
  7. The great gig in the sky – Pink Floyd
  8. Seven Swans – Sufjan Stevens
  9. Binne in bas – Rozanne Stoman
  10. Wish you were sleeping – Elvis Perkins
  11. For those in peril on the sea – Gert Vlok Nel
  12. Vanaand sal ek jou kry – Die Kopkaas Insident
  13. Little Girl Blue – Nina Simone
  14. Unsuffer me – Lucinda Williams
  15. Love will tear us apart – Susannah and the Magic Orchestra
  16. Leavin’ – Shelby Lynne
  17. Sisters coming home – Emmylou Harris ft Tanya Tucker
  18. Time – Cassette
  19. It’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world – Mercury Rev