Los Pepes “The Happiness Program” 2022 (three labels credited: Adrenalin Fix Music, Beluga Music, Wanda Records). Punky power pop from the UK. The Happiness Program is Los Pepes’ fifth album and the first in our collection. They’ve been around since 2014 but I just got hip to them recently when I saw on social media that former More Kicks drummer Kris Kowalski was part of the Los Pepes collective (on this LP there are four guys who play on all twelve tracks and then another five playing various instruments – organ, harmonica, etc – on some of the songs), I knew I had to check them out so scored their most recent release on a Bandcamp Friday. From their Discogs bio: “Formed in London by Ben Perrier some years back, Los Pepes is an international organisation. Made up of a strange bunch of misfits from the four corners of the world, from the UK to Japan to Brazil to Poland. Born thousands of miles apart but all with the shared experience of growing up hooked on punk and not giving a fuck, Los Pepes is living proof that rock and roll is a global force of nature.” The bulk of The Happiness Program is straight-up great high energy, garagey power pop, like a few of my favorites including the anthemic opener “Small Time” and the punk’d “Never Get It Right,” but there’s tracks with a distinctly 60’s jangly mod-pop sound like “Sick and Bored” and “Anecdotes.” It looks like they tour pretty extensively in Europe, fingers crossed for a US tour soon as they have (again according to their Discogs bio) “a reputation for being a relentless high-energy punk rock whirlwind live.”