Happy Landing

One Liner: Another indie folk band clapping and stomping their way into catchy tunes
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, more indie folk stuff
Home: Oxford, MS

Poster Position: Last Quarter - Line 20
Day: Friday at 1pm
Weekend Two Only.

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  I actually feel bad about this.  This is genuinely nice music.  But I am personally so damned tired of this style of indie rock!  Last weekend, my wife was trying very hard to find a good compromise for us to have on the radio as we drove to Dallas together.  As you likely know by now, my tastes run a little harder edged than hers.  So, she found some Spotify playlist called Happy that she fired up, and for a good bit of the drive, it was pretty passable.  Not perfect, I had to skip a few of the cheesiest tunes, but it was good ambiance music for a while.  The problem is that when every single band ends up copying The Lumineers and Noah Kahan and The Head and The Heart and Of Monsters and Men and Caamp and Mt. Joy and Judah & the Lion and Mumford & Sons and Wilderado and and and and and and and it can make my brain become an insane asylum.  On the drive home, once she fell asleep, I put on the Beths so that I could hear a real guitar used correctly.

Anyway, this is another band in that wheelhouse.  And they sound really good!  I'm just a prick!  The band name apparently comes from the lead singer's grandad, who used to tell stories about WW2, and claimed that the soldiers jumping out of airplanes would tell each other "I hope you have a happy landing."  Gomer Pyle-ass soldiers.  "Aww gee, fellas, ain't hoppin' outta airplanes swell!"  I am guessing they all met at Ole Miss, but the article I just read said they relocated to Nashville.

A handful of EPs leading up to two albums - 2024's Golden and 2026's Big Sun.  The top track is from the new disc, in fact, kind of strange to see, but all ten of their most popular songs on Spotify are from the new disc.  Usually, an older song will stay up in that listing for a band.  "Radiate" has 2.6 million streams.

See what I mean?  That is a good song.  Catchy and a nice little groove tucked in there.  And yet, I don't want to keep listening to this.  Annoying.  The top track from that first album was "Mountain Mama," which I really want to quote "Country Road".  Just over 1 million streams.

Ba ba bop bapadapa!  Again, gets my head bobbing and is a perfectly fine song, but when they start scatting in harmonies my skin crawls.  My hope for this band is that I get over myself by the fall and go see an up-and-coming band that will make my wife happy.