A Happy Life

A chronological history of the life of the group Black Happy

1990 - Black Happy records its two-song 7-inch record “Go Off.”

1991 - Black Happy completes its debut album “Friendly Dog Salad” at Synchole Studios in Coeur d’Alene in June. In November Black Happy, Mother Load and Nice World play a KAGU benefit at the Gonzaga University COG. The show sells out two hours before anyone takes the stage. People outside were offering as much as $50 to get in.

1992 - Black Happy self-releases its debut album “Friendly Dog Salad” on cassette in February. Black Happy holds its record-release party at Whitworth Cowles Auditorium drawing more than a thousand fans. Seminal Northwest music magazine The Rocket gives “Friendly Dog Salad” a positive review. The album also charted at number 13 on the magazine’s Top 20 list. In July, the band plays Gonzaga University COG with Inflatable Soule and Itch. The concert drew twice as many fans as six months before. In August, Black Happy plays before 2,000 people at a free concert with Inflatable Soule at the Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater. In November, the octet takes its act to The Met. The concert sold out.

1993 - In February, Black Happy begins recording its sophomore album “Peghead” at Ironwood Studios in Seattle. In March the band plays the prestigious, industry showcase South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas. By May, the group completes “Peghead,” and inks a deal with a national distribution company, Macola. In August, Black Happy holds record-release parties for “Peghead” in Spokane at The Met (drawing a capacity crowd) and in Seattle. In September, the band plays the College Music Journal Seminar in New York, a showcase crawling with industry-types, and signs a publishing deal with Fiction, a publisher/record label co-owned by Cure front-man Robert Smith and Cure manager Chris Perry. Black Happy is interviewed by “ABC In Concert.” And the band tours the southeast United States with Nebraska’s 311. The band’s New Year’s Eve concert at Under the Rail in Seattle is recorded for purposes of a live album.

1994 - Black Happy records an acoustic set for Seattle commercial-alternative radio station KNND in January. The band embarks on its first national tour in April. Black Happy opens for Candlebox in July at a sold-out concert at the Spokane Convention Center. Despite internal turmoil, the group records six songs at a Seattle studio in November. After nearly five years together, Black Happy announces in December it will disband in February 1995. The band draws several hundred fans to concert held at Playfair, the first Black Happy show in Spokane in six months.

1995 - Black Happy plays farewell concert dates across the Northwest in January and February. Black Happy’s third and final album, “The Last Polka,” is slated for release in March.

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