Come On, Get Happy!!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! This week's Contrast Podcast is out today and the fact that a miserable server conspired to delay its arrival by one day is far, FAR outweighed by the fact that the theme for this episode is "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!" So get your earholes, your heart, and your soul ready for the musical equivalent of sunshine, chocolate, and frolicking puppies.

EDIT: In my rush to post, I neglected to mention that a large chunk of my happiness was generated by the fact that our very own Dearest Friends Mentok and mjrc contributed to the podcast for the very first time! Yaaaaaay!!

You have three options for getting in on the joy: you can listen to the podcast stream by clicking the relevant link on the CP website. you can download the podcast using this direct link or you can subscribe to to this and podcasts to come using this handy-dandy RSS feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ContrastPodcast.

Come on, get happy:

(00:00) Screamin’ Lederhosen - Dog pound hop
Tim from The Face of Today

(02:23) Ivor Cutler - I’m happy
Ross from Just Gimme Indie Rock

(03:08) They Might Be Giants - New York City
Matt from Earfarm

(06:42) Bo Diddley - We’re gonna get married
Michael from The Yank Sizzler Podcast

(09:31) Raymond Scott - The toy trumpet
Victor Scott

(12:50) Thee Headcoatees - Shadow
Bob from Gimme Tinnitus

(16:00) Mohobub - Bileche
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(19:45) The Magnetic Fields - The luckiest guy on the lower east side
FiL from Pogoagogo

(24:12) The Pipettes - Your kisses are wasted on me
Natalie from Mini-Obs

(26:44) The Eurythmics - Right by your side
Lyle from Mentok the Mind-Taker

(31:36) The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian like you
Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(35:15) Dexy’s Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen
Taylor from Music for kids who can’t read good

(40:08) Grandmaster Flash - White Lines
Simon from You Can Call Me Betty

(48:08) Race for titles - The distance session
Bethanne from CTASLS

(52:00) Hampster Dance - Even hamsters fall in love
Cindy from Adzuki Bean Stash

(56:26) Björk - Cvalda
Tom from Other People’s Toys

(01:01:25) Bettye Lavette - Joy
Charlie from Nerdlitter

(01:05:26) Ben Folds Five - Raindrops keep falling on my head
Andy from Circles of Concrete

It's all good stuff, and I'm already smiling at the thought of listening to it. For my submission I chose to go with a fairly low-key song that gradually pumps your heart full of joy, rather than with a track that smacks you square in the face with the Halibut of Happiness. But there were a fair few other tracks I considered before settling on the marvellous Magnetic Fields. And so, in the name of Happy, I present to you a clutch of songs that get my body and spirit as bouncy and joyful as a bucketful of the aforementioned frolicking puppies:

Rosemary Clooney - Get Happy (buy here or e-here)
Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays (buy here)
Asobi Seksu - I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me (buy here or e-here)
Pixies - Debaser (buy here)
Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day/Follow The Sun (buy here)