Black Happy Fights Label, Builds Sound Of Its Own
Concert preview
Black Happy, rock music, with Rhino Humpers, Bumpin Uglies and Plugg, tonight at 7 p.m., at Lindbloom Student Center, Green River Community College, 12401 S.E. 320th; 833-9111. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, best known as a resort community, isn't the type of town where outsiders would flock to start a band. Which is part of the reason Black Happy likes it so much.
"Idaho is really cool," said Jim Bruce, percussionist for the eight-man group headlining a show tonight at Green River Community College. "It's a lot calmer than L.A., and people here don't really care what you do, so it's harder to get a big head about things. I think people kind of respect that we can be from Idaho and be a good band."
"And there's not that many bands from around here," he added, "so we can't really copy anyone's sound."
Black Happy actually started out as a joke of sorts four years ago, combining the members of three metal bands with a three-member horn section. "We wanted to show metal fans that there was more to life than thrash," Bruce said of the horn section.
Not everybody at the first show liked it - one showgoer derisively tagged them as a "Glenn Miller band" - but Black Happy's reputation as a good, solid live act began to grow from that point forward.
They released two albums, 1991's "Friendly Dog Salad" on independent label Pacific Inland, and last year's "Peghead" on Macola Records, home to NWA and Hammer. There is a Black Happy sound emerging - listening to the two albums back-to-back shows the leaps in maturity and cohesiveness - but that progress is conveyed in an array of styles, and the make-up of the band helps create additional diversity. But there are misconceptions about the band's sound, which has created much frustration for the group.
"People tag us as funk and we never really were that, at least not like Funkadelic and James Brown," Bruce said. "People also seem to think we're a ska band, and we're really far removed from that. Some of the places we've played across the country book us as a party band in ska places where the mods can come out and dance. Then the mods see us on stage and go, `They're not ska.' "
The temptation to call the band "funk" or "ska" probably stems from trying to give a quick catch-phrase to their sound, but because they have no set sound, no catch-phrase really exists. Some of their songs carry funk elements, like surging horns and rapid guitars, but others use a more laid-back, jazzy approach, and still others are just straightforward rock.
"We use the horns in harmony, like a guitar," Bruce said. "It's not really a horn section just doing horn shots over the rest of the music. It's three guys within the texture of the song."
"And the way (drummer) Scott (Jessick) and I play, it's more like one big drum set than a drummer and a percussionist adding sound. If we need a big sound on a song, we play the same thing, and if we want more of a rhythmic sound throughout, we play slightly different things."
Although the funk and ska labels still haunt them, they have plans to shake those labels off.
"We're trying to stay away from funk or ska as much as possible," Bruce said, "and the next album is going to be much heavier and much more in-your-face. We want to throw people a curve, but we won't lose any of our live energy, so we don't think we'll turn away any fans."