Had to desist from writing about MPP for a number of reasons. First off, the hype was just too much to take, I mean this is one good album but it’s hardly the second coming. Time will tell whether people feel the same way about it in a couple of years. The second thing that put me off was the incessant and remorseless volley of ideas that the album threw skywards. There were so many I couldn’t make out whether they were winners or just a series of false dawns thrown into interesting patterns. Believe me I tried but it just seemed to me like the aural equivalent of watching a multicoloured wash on power spin. Despite the reservations there is undoubtedly bright talent on display and in ‘Brothersport’ Animal Collective have crafted one the most remarkable tunes of 2009. This is tropical on speed, multi-layered vocals splash off the rocks as the dayglo spaceships ingeniously replace the engines with relics from a human past. ‘Brothersport’ has been known to kick start the economies of small nations, someone should tell Eamon Gilmore. KD

Animal Collective - Brothersport

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Animal Collective
Year: 2009

While the wait for their debut album has been interminable the clues left by their releases so far indicate that something special could be on the way. 2009 has seen Angel Pier headline Whelan’s, play Oxygen and release a superb double a-sided 7-inch. And that’s where you’ll find ‘Align The Seas’, a torch song that is constructed so precisely you could remove a note and the whole thing would fall apart. The delicate structure is glued together by Darragh Nolan’s pre, during and post falsetto but like with all Angel Pier compositions the shiny instrumental dynamics manage to scoop plenty of the limelight too. ‘Align The Seas’ reaches for and almost outmanoeuvres the bands bona fida classic ‘Sprites’ which means the anticipation for their LP is almost too much to bear. KD

Angel Pier - Align The Seas

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Angel Pier
Year: 2009

When I look back at the 4 years that this blog has been on the road I see a handful of bands that have made the experience all the more worthy. Bands that continually reach and affect those medically unclassifiable musical membranes that control goosebumps, hairs standing on end and cold shivers when it’s 30C outside. Georgia’s Venice Is Sinking are certainly one of them, there is something intangible in their makeup that reduces me to a sniffling baby everytime. My favourites up to their 2009 album ‘Azar’ had been ‘Pulaski Heights’ and (the best Christmas song Low never wrote) ‘The Grey Line’ but those pristine numbers now have company in the form of ‘Ryan’s Song’ and this one, ‘Okay’ (written about the band of the same name). It’s so good VIS reckoned it deserved it’s own EP and of course they were right, they even made a video for it that is both low budget and high jinx. VIS are one of those special bands that appear below the surface and sadly we’ll just have to accept that it’s that great iceberg truth in a music world gone mad. KD

Venice Is Sinking - Okay

Watch The Video

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Venice Is Sinking
Year: 2009

I haven’t felt like this since thirteen tales from urban bohemia or at least the last BJM song that tickled my lobes. But rather than being an unruly lot of elegant wasters from down Portland way Death Valley Sleepers turns out to be just one man from Denmark. ‘Seaside’ is one of Tobias Winberg’s newest tracks and it is a blinder, an epic, a contemporary bullseye in 2 parts (second part has that ‘Santa Cruz’ (FS) thing going on, so good). Winberg does some great press shots (Sonic Boom I hear you say – who says smoking kills your cool), recently came through his first gig unscathed and has a myspace awash with luscious demos. ‘Seaside’ is the pick of the bunch, a stone cold classic no less and try as it might to sound like the JAMC and the VU it still cuts it’s own green furrow. A blissful hit in your car. KD

Death Valley Sleepers - Seaside

More Info: Official
Year: 2009

Among the 10 million other things happening at the moment we are also moving from our Dublin city centre base to near suburbia. Near I say because it has always been a hugger stipulation that the metropolis be within walking distance. Always good to have one’s paw on the pulse even if the chances of adding to said excitement ceased years ago. Anyway, the main reason I am telling you all this is so that I can post this lovely little tune from Jeremy Messersmith. It sounds like a festive tune with Elliott Smith at the helm to me and for those reasons alone it is something to cherish. Messersmith is from Minneapolis and this tune is taken from his classy 2008 sophomore ‘The Silver City’. Seems he has made at least one friend in the fair city too. KD

Jeremy Messersmith - Welcome To Suburbia

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Jeremy Messersmith
Year: 2008

Everybody go awwwwhhhh. Think this is the first time I’ve thought that shoegaze could actually sound sweet, normally my reaction to it is to well up inside or coil in the corner with near fatal goosebumpery. ‘Loveloops’ is taken from the Estonian’s 4th LP ‘After The Summer’ and was produced by Norman Blake. Wait, Norman flippin’ Blake, that explains things, he of the pole position monopolising Grand Prix making Teenage Fanclub. In truth Pia Fraus were always a step above the bandwagonesque of a torrent of nice indie bands, they like to pack lots of decent tunes you see. ‘Loveloops’ has me thinking of happy things, like the birth of a first baby…..due tomorrow in huggerland. Awwwwwhhhh. KD

Pia Fraus - Loveloops

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Pia Fraus
Year: 2008

Try this out on some decent earphones and prepare to be teleported to the sunshine stereophonics of the Dedrick family (aka the Free Design). ‘Love You’ has been snapped up by at least half a dozen contemporary adverts and it’s hard to argue with their decision given its downright perfect harmonies. Although the band released an album in 2001 the vast majority of their back catalogue was released in the late 60’s/early 70’s and it is from that era that this piece of adorability was created. The Free Design were a commercial flop despite harmonies like angel delight and a template that smoothed the rounded angles of the Carpenters. It this doesn’t get you the girl it might be time to change your aftershave. KD

The Free Design - Love You

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Free Design
Year: 2009

Health had evaded my affections for the longest time but I was finally persuaded by the video for this song. This is so Curve it could almost be a cover of one of that bands industrial tailored shoetronic classics from the nineties. Health are a entirely newer proposition however and come from L.A., or more specifically the DIY scene that conducts its business around the Smell venue in the city. ‘Die Slow’ (from this year’s ‘Get Color’) is initially abrasive but the circular dynamics and faded vocals finally create an impressive polished stain in the fog. This is a very clever invocation of history. KD

Health - Die Slow

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Health
Year: 2009

About half way through the Very Most’s version of ‘Away In A Manger’ you will hear a curious sound. It is that of the Doucaine (instrument) which we are reliably informed has only ever made it onto 3 recorded pieces of music before now. But that’s just the start of the charm contained in this rendition of the perennially favourite. Save for the words you’ll hardly recognise the original as the Very Most have lent such an air of jollity to proceedings it may even come across as a brand new standard for the season. ‘Away In A Manager’ is one of 3 festive tracks to be found on the ‘Winter’ EP which marks the concluding part of the Very Most’s ‘A Year With The Very Most’ project. The EP is available to buy from Indiecater for the scrooge like price of €2. KD

The Very Most - Away In A Manger

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Very Most
Year: 2009

I seem to remember JJ72 taking some flack from certain quarters for having that slow/fast dynamic and a lead singer with a voice that could manage a decent falsetto. In other words they had deviated from the staple configuration that had fuelled Irish bands for generations. Let’s hope we have all moved on from that and the Dirty 9s are acclaimed for the bright sparks that they are. ‘Lucky Opus’, their first ever single, is released this Friday and what a luminous nugget it turns out to be. And for all that it starts off quite underwhelmingly but the early lull is quickly replaced by a warhead fuelled by raging guitars/vocals. Whelan’s, prepare for the inevitable invasion of Dirty 9s t-shirt wearing kids with the moshpit on their minds. November swimmers choosing to do it freestyle. KD

The Dirty 9s - Lucy Opus

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Buy Songs: The Dirty 9s
Year: 2009

If they make a song as perfect as ‘Fire Escape’ again then they’ll truly enter the pantheon of the greats. Yep, for exactly 180 seconds this London act turned sonic alchemists with that particular pot of indie gold. There are incredible near misses scattered all over their debut album ‘Reservoir’ which came out earlier this year. This is one, an epic in the body of a 4-minuter it creates the tinder for another great arcade fire and towards the end it becomes an altogether impressive blaze. The subject is of a man for whom flying saucers were a reason to get up in the morning. Not your average boy meet girls theme then, nope Fanfarlo have the bigger picture in mind and thankfully can supply an impressive canvas each time. KD

Fanfarlo - Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Fanfarlo
Year: 2009

Idlewild used to be very loud, they also used to be very good. At least until commerciality (as opposed to Roseability) stole their imagination and mushed it into a digestible-for-mass-consumption pulp. Along with ‘Is This It?’, ‘100 Broken Windows’ (the bands sophomore) soundtracked our 15 month trip around the world. The former for that most obvious of reasons, it being the incessant torrent of incandescent tuneage. ‘100 Broken Windows’ had a different tact, its huge swathes of violent guitar noise were on the closer inspection home to the cuddliest of sweet melodies. They were there on every tune, hidden in the crevices, extending a soft welcoming embrace. We were smitten which makes their later defunct works so utterly objectionable. A great band which took the carrot and completely lost their sight, what they'd give for a one idea track now. KD

Idlewild - Idea Track

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Buy Songs: Idlewild
Year: 2000

Because I couldn’t give a fiddlers for those who say it comes earlier every year (2000+, given that logic it should be all year round at this stage) but mostly because along with the Doucaine (all will be revealed on Monday week) the Singing Saw is my favourite new (old) instrument. You will know Julian Koster from the Music Tapes and Neutral Milk Hotel but he has a particular affection for the wood slicer come vibrating instrument come where did that index finger disappear to. KD

Julian Koster - Jingle Bells

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: Julian Koster Never Bleeds
Year: 2008

It turns out that the Jason Reece of Midnight Masses is the self same Jason who wrote one of the best albums this century (‘Source Tags & Codes’ if you must know). While his main band continue to freefall after that epic high there are grounds for optimism given the early movements of this supergroup of sorts (Here We Go Magic, TV On The Radio members also contribute). This is the closest thing I’ve heard to mount a serious challenge to the utter redemptive bleakness of that Late Cord record from 2006. ‘Walk On Water’ is the sound of the undead discussing the merits of purgatory before realising that like or not they are stuck there for eternity. Lucky us if they continue their wonderful dialogue. Even the drunks at the back will bow to this sublime artistry. KD

Midnight Masses - Walk On Water

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: Midnight Masses
Year: 2009

It’s been a while since we’ve featured a Labrador band on mp3hugger but thankfully the new Mary Onettes album ‘Islands’ means that wrong can now be righted. And like many things from that label POP seems to be the operative word. Or more precisely POP music that emerged from the dayglo ‘80’s, because ‘Puzzles’ triggers a hotch potch of memories, among them OMD, Erasure, T’pau, Fiction Factory and quite bizarrely the more recent phenomenon that is the Frank and Walters. While it lacks the chiselled chorus of their classic ‘Lost’ it nonetheless shoulder pads with epic production values and leg warms with a gloriously grand ambition. Proof if it were needed that real bands still stalk the underground. KD

The Mary Onettes - Puzzles

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Mary Onettes
Year: 2009

It’s creeping closer, the shop tills are beginning to ring and fairy lights will soon be adorning every dwelling in the city. Yep, don’t you just love the build up to Christmas? This year is going to be a bit more exciting than usual for us. Not only is baby hugger on the way (3 weeks time), a new house to move into (1 day shy of 3 weeks) but we are holding our first ever Indiecater gig in Whelan’s in the middle of December. We’ve invited 3 special acts for the occasion. Irish audiences should know the Ambience Affair and Storkboy Choons but our main act is travelling all the way from the good oul United States of America to be with us on the 12th. They are of course called the Very Most, a band who have spent more time in mp3hugger’s ears than any other act these past few years. Hard to resist their pristine melodies, charm and downright way with an indie pop tune so it seems sorta right that they should be releasing their brand new album on the occasion of the inaugural Indiecater night. Tickets are just €8 and are available to buy from the indiecater site right now. We promise it’ll be more headnod than eggnog. KD

This Year, Christmas Came November 4th

Watch The Video For Good Fight Fighting

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Tickets: The Very Most & Friends
Year: 2008