Strange Brew presents a double headline shoW with:

Good Sad Happy Bad [CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi, Raisa Khan]
Maria Somerville [4AD / NTS] - Full band show
Thurs 24th April
7pm - 10:30pm

Good Sad Happy Bad is a band composed of CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi, and Raisa Khan. Their whimsical kraut punk and art rock experiments, brimming with mantras and cycles and nervous lullabies, bring the listener into wobbly landscapes and toward spiralling epiphanies.

Their second album, All Kinds of Days (2024), a follow up to their 2020 debut, Shades, deepens the band’s collaborative approach, building on instrumental improvisations that each member reworks with vocal contributions, creating a dynamic, shared storytelling experience. Throughout the album, the four musicians frequently unite in lush, layered choruses, and meandering guitars that add a communal resonance.

All Kinds of Days delves into themes of loss, grief, recovery, healing, keeping a house together, and the challenges of parenthood, all set against a moody, intricate soundscape. Listeners are pulled through eerie guitar lines, spoken word, ghostly woodwinds, and gritty electronic textures, all disguised within a framework of an unconventional “band” sound. Beneath these atmospheric layers lies a rhythmic foundation of drums and nuanced melodies that lend drive and an unsettling beauty to the album’s sound.

Maria Somerville draws on folk forms alongside post-punk, traditional Irish motifs, starry eyed pop and hypnotic drones to create wholly original music that is borne of her roots in Connemara, Western Ireland.

Her self-released 2019 album All My People channeled the wilderness of the Irish landscape through dense, ethereal soundscapes, bare boned percussion, and a heady electronic undertow, interspersed with ghostly vocals that are ever present and all encompassing, like crystalline glints of sunshine peeking through dark stormy clouds.

Since joining 4AD, she has released two covers as part of the label’s 40th anniversary Bills & Aches & Blues compilation, in addition to supporting label-mates Dry Cleaning on their EU tour. Her enigmatic and enthralling live show comes in both solo and band shape, born of her ties with the dynamic DIY scene that has emerged in Ireland over the past few years.

Her second album and debut project on 4AD, Luster, is due for release on 25 April.
In celebration of the announcement, Somerville has also shared the album’s second single, ‘Garden’, produced by Diego Herrera, aka Suzanne Kraft. The transportive track sinks her emotive siren-esque vocal stylings into a whirring, all-consuming merger of soaring feedback, airy percussion, and nostalgic guitar chords reminiscent of classic 4AD. Its release is also accompanied by a music video directed by Anna Heisterkamp.

“Dynamic, at times almost ambient, but always hopelessly beautiful.” - Clash

“One of Ireland’s most vital young voices.” – Bandcamp

“Glows with a beautifully wistful, spectral aura and an aching longing as she laments over a lilting, submerged bassline and murky ambience.” – Gorilla V Bear

“Trails of languid melodies…hazy, improvisatory elements and propelling drones create a fluid design that, like a Jacob’s ladder toy, collapses and perplexes.” – Dusted Magazine

“Pop, trad and electronica are fused into gripping new contortions by the Connemara-born artist.” – Irish Times

“An artist whose music creates an atmosphere of timeless grace, music that seems to stand alone in its own space.” – Totally Dublin

Entry requirements: 14+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio — Read more — Read less