The Noise

February 2002

The Lizard Lounge 1/17/02

Senor Happy takes the stage like the veterans of the Boston rock 'n' roll wars that they are. The lead singer's voice is a little unsettling after Keaney. Reminds me of J Mascis crossed with Steve Malkmus. His screams are the best part. They usually come at the end of the tunes and I want more of them. I also want more of his leaping Neil Young dance when he solos or hammers out the progression. The band is tight and dynamic. They bring the excitement to the night. Each player (guitar, bass, drums) is precise and aggressive on their instrument. All three take turns laying in the perfect, and sometimes needed, vocal back-ups. Their set ends (with aid from the lead singer of Loveless turning up the volume on both guitars) in an explosive jam that would make the MC5 proud.

(Aldo M.)

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The Noise

March 2001

Senor Happy Lilli's 1/18/01

"...Senor Happy don't do desserts: they eat meat (lots of it) washed down with Bushmills. That's the difference drawing them apart from the
sweet-toothed openers. They listen to Ornette Coleman and Sonic Youth; they're a muscular quartet ready to tear at this city's jugular like
nobody's business. By combining catchy GBV-like choruses with White Album-infused mysticism, they create powerful, cool songs that drop like bombs. "Love If You're Real" is destined for alt-rock greatness in the same way "She's New" shall blow the glass out of every basement it's blared from. Derek Schanche's daring intro feedback squall for "Got You And It's All Right" is so nitro-soaked and grizzly, it rivales Thurston; the snarling, Guns n' Roses-fueled, swamp-boogie set closer "Get Up and Go Out" will make all the metal kids go nuts. Once you play them this, they'll all start flipping out Taxi Driver-style, right there in their white trash trailers..."

(Jordon Catalano)

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The Noise

February 2001

Senor Happy Bill's Bar 12/8/00

Senor Happy warms up the room tonight and I recognize their bassist from the Wonder Bar, where he plays jazz. He knows how to play to the song and doesn't need to show the tricks that are up his sleeve (note to Solpatch: this is called subtlety.) Senor Happy are older guys and there's an air of pleasant confidence to them, like they're up there playing music. They're a bit Weezer in their clever accessibility yet a bit old school in the way they kick out the good-time rock, like the MC5 and Fastbacks. People filter in slowly and perhaps because of this, they play to each other more than the crowd. The singer has an unimposing and likeable stage presence; my friend thinks he's an indie-Tom Petty and that works for me. Though there's little here for math rock mavens and the disciples of discord, there's nothing wrong with Senor Happy.

(Glenwood)

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Yoursound.com

July 2000

Derek Schanche (Senor Happy) with Merrie Amsterburg and Todd Spahr (The Gravy)
07-05-2000 at Lizard Lounge

Closing the night was Derek Schanche of Senor Happy, a quartet that is one of indierock's best kept secrets, but in this solo setting, songwriter Schanche is the best kind of poet: although he does not consider himself one, he writes songs about poets and clearly admires them. His laid-back, bluesy style is what most listeners key in on, but I relish the fact that Schanche can turn a phrase as selective as John Ashbury or as flagrant as Dylan. One song in particular deserves to be singled out, the>freshly-penned "30 West and Vine" which tells a sad story of a close friend of Schanche, a man named Bill Reynolds who was a fine poet himself and died earlier in the year. Schanche hoarsely whispers this solemn first verse:

"Shot himself, it wasn't a gun
Some said he could hurt no one
That day surely wasn't fun
Suits on in the sun..."

Besides death, there are other equally cheerful themes covered here: drinking, jealously, Jesus, and his mother. Schanche comes across a lot like a young Alex Chilton in his half-drunk, stilted delivery of oblique, finger-pickin' good pop songs fully dipped in the blues and beyond. He was just getting revved up by the time the barstools began being upturned on their tables, as his short set seemed to end way too soon.

Steve Prygoda

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YourSound.com

January 2000

Derek Skanky (of Señor Happy)
TT The Bear's 11/22/99

The last time I saw Señor Happy play acoustically at T.T.'s was a year ago at their CD release, where they were a full-fledged country-honk outfit. But this time through it was just Derek, abandoned by his band of gypsies, and he took full advantage of the 40-watt spotlight. The treat in store was a sack full of new songs that?if Q Division has any sense?will surely be included on their next release (street buzz is that the demos are pretty amazing too.) Skanky is a master picker, his skills most evident on "Paint Yourself" and "Least is the Worst." At the same time he's a thoughtful songwriter who is not afraid to loosen the reins, bring his guard down and let the raw emotion of the songs speak for themselves. Sure, his band can rock, but hearing something like "Breakdown" - stripped-down - was a perk for all the señors and señoritas in attendance.

Steve Prygoda

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Soundcheck-Vol. 4 Issue 28

May/June 1999

Señor Happy
12-song CD

Señor is going to be really happy when he reads this review. It's rock. It's pop. It's poprock.{Good name for a candy} We've got good songs. Yup besides the guitars, bass drums, and most excellent vocals we've got great songs.
It's a three member band and a couple other folks sit in, too, but guess what? We've got great songs. shout it from the rafters.
The lead vocalist croons his competent way through We Will Fall, a Beatles-like song [Geez I've heard lots of them lately]. Other good tunes are Ain't that true, Hey, C'mon and Sin, In a New Way, Walk You Down and the punchy, the sombre 14 Days. However song number three is the smash hit. It's called Soon and it's got loads of energy and some surprise chord changes, not to mention a cool verse/chorus and a gorgeous bridge with a distorted lead vocal. Si Seno Feliz.
***1/2
-L.A. Joe

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Boston Phoenix
September 11, 1998
Señor Happy Get Sad
By Brett Milano

During a 12-month period some time ago, Señor Happy frontman Derek Skanky hung out with Robert Pollard, received a naked photo from Yoko Ono, and got dumped by his girlfriend. Any one of those experiences would likely drive somebody to write good pop songs. Since Skanky went through all three, it's no wonder that he turned out an album as grabbing, and as classically broken-hearted, as Señor Happy (the band's debut, out now on Q Division). There's a mess of pop passion on the album's 12 tracks, which mine the timeless cross of dirty guitar tones and upbeat hooks with yearning, heart-on-sleeve vocals. There's enough grit here to make it alterna-rock friendly, especially with Señor Happy's non-traditional sense of song structure (the song's over when they're out of hooks, so the 12 tracks whiz by in a half-hour). But the album, which was recorded mainly in the band's old Brighton apartment, also harks back to homemade '70s and '80s gems like Shoes' Black Vinyl Shoes and Game Theory's Distortion of Glory, where the stripped-down sonics kept anything from getting between you and the song.

You also have to admire a band who can record a powerhouse drummer like Tom Polce (now in Señor Happy full-time after stints with Letters to Cleo and the Gravy) in a residential neighborhood. "We only got busted once," notes bassist Joe McMahon when we talk at Cambridge's Thirsty Scholar pub. "And we had incredibly cool neighbors. Amazingly enough, you could throw a football from our house to the local police station. But we'd record during the day and always stop by 10 p.m., so nobody ever complained." Then again, they don't live there anymore. It's also true that the band's sound is as gentle as it is noisy -- their labelmate (and now Q Division publicist) Ed Valauskas of Gravel Pit pegged it as "Elliott Smith backed up by Crazy Horse." But if there's a traditional pop flavor to Señor Happy's album, that's partly because the songs were written for the most traditional of reasons.

"I broke up with my girlfriend and then I wrote 12 songs," is how Skanky sums it up. "Some of the songs don't even make sense, it was just me singing syllables over riffs. But you can apply every lyric to a relationship, like when you go through personal turmoil and turn on the radio. And it's a fuckin' nightmare, because every song is about a woman." The ex-girlfriend played such a major part in the album that her picture (as a pre-teen) is on the back cover. After writing the songs, Skanky was able to win her back and rekindle the relationship. Then he dumped her himself. "That's why my songs are getting even more personal, because it made me question all the shit I've done in my life."

Another Q Division connection came into play when Jen Trynin stepped in to produce the three non-homemade tracks on the album; it's her first outside production job (these tracks include extra guitar from Josh Lattanzi, then in Trynin's band and currently holding the bass slot in Orbit). And though she didn't slick up the band's sound, she did bring a good editorial sense -- the Trynin tracks on the album are the ones fleshed out to three-minute length.

"She was adamant about making it more user-friendly -- repeating choruses and simplifying it. Which was a change for us, indie-rock snobs that we are." That last statement is borne out by the band's choice of T-shirts during the interview: Skanky has a Pavement shirt, McMahon a Swervedriver one. And Skanky had one of his personal indie-pop moments when he shared a joint with his heroes in Guided by Voices. "It was backstage at Avalon, after they played that show with Urge Overkill. It was great, I walked into the dressing room and they were sitting there in a circle, just like on the back cover of Alien Lanes."

Yoko's butt figures into this story in a more, uh, roundabout way. One of the early incarnations of Señor Happy was a cover band who formed to play a bunch of no-account gigs around Connecticut, calling themselves Yoko Ono's Ass. The band didn't get much notice, but the name did: the Hartford Advocate singled them out for the area's best band name. Then Yoko's lawyers found out. "They called us and said, `She's not thrilled with the name of the band, but she thinks it's funny,' " Skanky remembers. "Two weeks later we got a letter from her, and it said, `I hope you strive to live up to the standard of the name you have chosen to bare.' " She enclosed a blown-up photo of the body part in question, complete with a "Love, Yoko" signature. Thus the disc's credit, "Recorded at the House of Ass." The photo has graced their practice space ever since.

"We feel a little guilty that we never wrote back, though," Skanky says. "How often does John Lennon's widow send you a photo of her ass?"

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 Stuff @ Night
September 15, 1998
Senor Happy Bares All
By Jonathan Perry

          It's impossible to talk about Senor Happy without bringing up Yoko Ono. Or, more precisely, Yoko Ono's ass.
Our story somewhere into the bowels (as it were) of that insurance capitol of the world, Hartford, Connecticut sometime in 1993. That's when Derek Schanche, Tom Price, and Joe McMahon (and occasional guitarist Josh Lattanzi)- who would eventually morph into Senor Happy- received the phone call . At the time, the guys were in a crappy cover band called Yoko Ono's ass. - a name incidentally, that McMahon says won the "Best Band Name" category in a Hartford music contest. Not Hartford's best band, mind you," the bassist clarifies. No, it was the bands moniker that grabbed people's attention- including the band's namesake herself.
           One day, a guy called and said that he was Yoko Ono's attorney, and I didn't believe him," Polce said,' Listen, don't worry, Yoko's got a sense of humor and she wants to send you something ,' And sure enough , we get a package in the mail and it's a letter saying she hopes we try to live up to the standards she's set, and then we pulled out this big black and white photo. and it's a photo of her ass! And it's signed 'Love Yoko 93'. It was just sooo cool."
Eventually, the picture was immortalized on a wall of the band's home studio in Brighton, fittingly designated the House of Ass in honor of the wall hanging.
            All of which, more or less, brings us up to speed. The band is now called Senor Happy (they no longer perform Beatles covers half-soused junior executives), and most of their eponymous debut disc., which will be released this month by Q Division Records, was produced , recorded, and mixed by Polce at the aforementioned House of Ass. The remaining three songs, recorded after the band signed with Q Division , were produced at the label's studio by Jen Trynin. "Jen took an early interest in us" says Polce, who is seated with his band mates inside Q Divisions's Albany Street headquarters. "She helped us out tremendously in terms of getting us to pull out the best ingredients of a song and organize our ideas."
            "Yeah," adds Schanche, the band's guitarist and singer "she was one of one of our two fans."
If common sense and good taste prevail, the band's guitarist will surely pick up a few more of those. One September 25th at T.T. The Bear's Place, the trio will host a CD-release party on a bill which also includes the Figgs, the Sterlings, and the Drennons (who feature McMahon's brother Neil) all these good things have happened pretty quickly.
Literally, three months ago, we had done the record on our eight-track," Schanche say." [And Q Division co -owner] Mike Denneen heard it and said," Why don't you come on in to the studio and let's try a few more.' They're a thousand bands in Boston and they could've picked any one they wanted. And they picked us, and we're thrilled."
            Remembers Polce: " Coming from our basement with our Radio Shack microphones to this studio was, like WOW!"
            Modestly aside, the band has taken Yoko's challenge- to live up to the lofty standards set by her famous derriere-quite seriously. The band's debut is a blissful 31 minute pop rush in the vein of Teenage FanClub and the Posies (with maybe a shot of Swervedriver as well).
           "We're staying away from the scary rock thing that some bands are doing. we're really into songwriting , as opposed to being a riff band," says Schanche, cracking a beer. You'd never guess- certainly not from his cool, hazy delivery- that Schanche took over the band's first singer, but he quit several years ago.
           But once, when I was recording a tune, I tried double tracking my voice and thought well, that's cool," Schanche says. "And then, eventually, I started to sing without double tracking my voice. You just get comfortable, I guess. Also, half of the songs are written in [the key of] G."
          He grins at having given away a trade secret, and McMahon and Polce break into laughter. Little wonder they call themselves Senor Happy.

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New Haven Advocate September 24-30,1998
Happy to meet you

          Say "Hola! to the latest entry in the outgoing cultural exchange program between New Haven's
Rudy's Bar & Grille (Elm & Howe streets, New Haven, unlisted phone) and Boston's Q Division Records (home of Jen Trynin, The Gravel Pit, and Jules Verdone).
          Senor Happy is a happy medium exploiting the upbeat Caucasian talents of Connecticut-raised guitarist Josh Lattanzi (best known as bassist for now defunct power trio Poundcake and Jen Trynin's touring band ), vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Derek Schanche (here sporting a creepy Kyle Maclachlan-esque haircut), drummer Tom Polce (who played with Letters To Cleo and The Gravy ) and bassist Joe McMahon.
          The band's just released debut album Senor Happy drips with sweet but heavy harmonies and dense, accusatorial lyrics like " You will see what you have done" in "We Will Fall" and "Could you be for me?" in the purposefully plodding "So-called Reviews." The pick hits are the loping, light and airy "Take you there" and "In a new way," which are reminiscent of the late-era Lemonheads or the Grays in the carefully composed but guitar-noodled spaciness.
          Live may differ considerably from studio. Judge for yourself at Rudy's on Sept 26. The band'll be opening for no less a showstopper than the frenetic Figgs (one of the best club bands in the country; just ask Graham Parker).

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The Noise October 1998
Senor Happy -12 song CD
By Ray Paradise

            It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when I first listened to this relaxing, turn-yourself-into-Jell-o CD. The first CD from Senor Happy is fun and tuneful. anyone seeking a respite from the proliferation of screaming distorted guitar bands will really like this disc. Starting off like a warm cup of Irish Cream coffee, " Take You There" is a one way street to sheer musical bliss while the next track, "Soon," mixes in a '60s psychedelic flair. The music becomes more and more hypnotic with each song. Is it my imagination or do I hear the sounds of chirping birds during " On The Down?" Music does, indeed, soothe the savage beast, even if it's just our fine feathered friends. The bass player and drummer sound laid back, keeping a cool head throughout the disc and not going off on wild, crazy tangents like some other modern bands. I am particularly impressed with the singer/guitarist Derek Skanky (great name!). His vocal talent is like an island of auditory relaxation in an otherwise ocean of vocal choppiness. If you suffer from road rage, I suggest you pop this into you car stereo and don't worry, be happy... be Senor Happy!

The Noise Live reviews
Senor Happy T.T. the Bear's 5/6/98
By Jordan Catalano

              First of all, what's the deal with the T.T.'s putting bands on so early? I nearly missed out-of-town openers Liquor Giants due to this policy, but I heard they worked up quite a sweat. So while most of us were first still sipping our first overpriced drink of the night, Senor Happy took the stage, immediately grabbing everyone's attention with their catchy brand of white boy power pop. With a complete lack of pretension, the band was as tight and aggressive as ever. Derek Schanche has come a long way since taking over lead vocals and his low-brow, Barlowesque approach to this freshly-baked batch of songs fit quite nicely. See, he doesn't need to scream, because Josh's ever-present guitar is doing that for him The set really kicked in with the alluring dynamic "Breakdown" which built to a fierce intensity: a level only to be surpassed by the set ender "Soon ." In between these two peaks were a lot of variety including shitkickin' acoustic number recalling Wilco's brand of country rock. Also thrown in to the mix was a tune called "Fortified" which pulled bassist Joe to the microphone, delivering a song reminiscent to something that Cobra Verde might produce in can Ohio garage somewhere. And I cannot fail to mention Tom's tasteful and bruising backbeats , the perfect combination of aging and finesse.What will help catapult Senor Happy from week nights boot camp to weekend headliners may just be their forthcoming debut on Q Division records.

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CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT
OCTOBER 12,1998
Senor Happy (Q-Division)
By Glen Sansone

            In classic rock-n-roll tradition, Senor Happy embraces the age old theory that when a woman has ripped out your heart and crushed it with her heel, you should let your feelings out in a song. However, vocalist/guitarist Derek Skanky isn't firing bullets at Ben Folds Shouting "Give me my money back, you bitch ." Skanky instead in fractured thoughts and use more abstract lyrical imagery, akin to Elliot Smith's light and airy voice of thoughtfulness to convey his feelings. The band, like label mates the Gravel Pit, has an uncanny, unpretentious knack for affable hooks, and each song, loaded with passionate , grungy riffs, ends quickly and knocks you on your keester. The one-minute "Take You There" features a mentos-cool. Foo fighters -like hook, while the Jen Trynin-produced "Soon" is a glorious fuzz fest of emotion.

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CAT TOWN
@ twistedrico.com
WINTER 1999

TARTER CONTROL TREAT - Señor happy "self titled"
You could say that there is a real shortage of better than mediocre pop bands in the Boston scene, and be right on the mark. there are a few up and comers and there the ones that seem to be treading water. Señor happy new self titled CD brought a breathe of fresh pop air into my jaded body. They have succeeded in making a nice little pop record, be it that its a little off center and quirky at times. Don't get me wrong señor happy doesn't limited themselves stylistically this record gets a little bluesy at times and rocks very hard on "ain't that true" There are strong enough to catch some A&R ears by surprise. Derek Skanky, who is the bands primary songwriter delivers on "hey, c'mon and sin", "in a new way" "soon", and the very catchy "breakdown". Jen Trynin adds some production and over all we were quite pleased with this little Q Division gem...(ED. NOTE, maybe we didn't really stress the fact that "breakdown" is friggin smash)