Christmas is far and away my favourite time of the year. That’s why come December my normal petty indie snobbery is thrown out the window and material from the likes of Shakin’ Stevens, Mariah Carey and Wham start giving me hailstone sized goosebumps. That’s the magic of the season really so ‘An Indiecater Christmas’ is our attempt to provide it with a new soundtrack. As soon as the indiecater compilations started to make some noise back in the summer I knew I couldn’t let December pass by without putting a seasonal compilation together. So towards the end of July we started pestering some of our favourite bands to write a Christmas song for that very purpose. The response initially was icicle cold but come the end of September the endless begging started to bear fruit. By November there were over 50 original Christmas songs sitting on my computer and I was panicking as to how to prune it down to a more manageable collection. It was a job and a half and I probably ended up disappointing a few people along the way. ‘An Indiecater Christmas’ is an album of 17 original songs and it might take a few days for you to warm to its twisty-turny directions but I’m confident that this is a record that you will be toasting this December and many more December’s to come. It costs €6.50 and the majority of this goes back to the artists, so not only will you be dancing to a different drum this Christmas but you’ll also be giving these great bands a helping hand along the way. Here is a sublime little taster from the album from our own Nina Hynes. KD

Nina Hynes - Twinkle

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: An Indiecater Christmas
Year: 2008

Christmas officially starts today on mp3hugger and more especially over at our record label indiecater. We are releasing our Christmas compilation this afternoon and we can’t wait. Much more about it later on but for the moment here is something to get you in the mood. Vermont’s My First Day on Junk have already left a big impression with their molten guitars and shimmering vocals readily finding favour with our shoegaze obsessed ears. The bands debut album ‘No Order’ came out in the summer and I put this song aside for frostier times. ‘Heavy Winter, Heavy Snow’ comes in at under 2 minutes but has the intense persuasion of an 8 minute epic. It’s the all encompassing sound that does it but being the experts at this neugaze lark that they are My First Days On Junk never forget to pack a lovely tune too. Like a blizzard then, only warmer. KD

My First Days On Junk - Heavy Winter, Heavy Snow

Watch The Video To From A Parked Car

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: My First Day On Junk
Year: 2008

At this stage Brooklyn can probably be crowned the centre of the indie universe. It was a remarkable year for the borough (a quick search on mp3hugger alone will prove that) as each new week brought forth exciting newbies (the way Canada used to). The City and Horses come from that neck of the woods and although they’re not exactly new they have just released their charming debut LP. ‘I Don’t Want To Dream’ contains a batch of easy going gems. Putting it another way it is ideal listening for watching things gently falling to earth, be it snow, dandelion seeds, autumnal leaves or for that matter stock markets. In essence it’s a year round pleasure, a gentle stroll that’ll bring some order to your chaotic life. Take ‘I Love The Girls’ for example and realise that life’s simple pleasures has a brand new addition. KD

The City and Horses - I Love The Girls

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The City and Horses
Year: 2008

Oh the beauty of the internet. An email arrives in my inbox wearing only a link to a myspace in which the party in question has the sum total of one friend. Not much to go on so some careful email probing reveals that Stroik is actually Dru Walker from Las Vegas. And he’s a prolific sorta chap, he claims to write a new tune every day and by the looks of his volumious freebie catalogue of tunes it’s hard to argue. He thinks that most bands being blogged today are overhyped and not very good. And he’s probably right and if it makes him feel a bit better I'd like to say that this is better than good. Ok, it is undernourished from a production point of view but it possesses a certain fizz that we don’t come across too often. I’d go so far as to say that ‘In The Fresh’ could be quite niftily used in an advert for comfy shoes or colourful umbrellas such is its vibrant disposition. Let the hype begin. KD

Stroik - In The Fresh

More Info: Official
Year: 2008

It has been a pretty good year for Irish music, more for the burst of top notch random tunes that arrived merrily on our doorstep since early September. The album front has been the usual mix of the great and the not so. Falling squarely (although you could never accuse this band of being square) into the former category is the self-titled debut from Dublin’s the Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. Here is a band with one foot stuck in the glorious past and the other firmly dug into a bright future. We’ve featured ‘In Country Dark’ previously (in fact we loved it so much it made it onto one of our compilations) and the album is awash with similiar leftfield diversions. In the main they leap from the speakers at full throttle, a glorious barrage of sound with distinct vocals and an identity all of their own making. On occasion though they just plump for the profound and so ‘Christchurch, 6 Bells’ floats enigmatically for several minutes like a classy seasonal stream of quiet triumphalness. KD

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock - Christchurch, 6 Bells

Watch The Video To The Hare

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock
Year: 2008

Mew are one of the best bands of the new century, I mean ‘And The Glass Handed Kites’ couldn’t have been more perfect could it? It balanced the excesses of prog with the all-encompassing noise of shoegaze to create something epic. And that’s what instantly jumped into my mind when I heard Vadadi and this song in particular. ‘Loveless’ as a term has been patented by an Irish band of a certain vintage but Vadadi has still gone and used it to tag this wonderfully blissed out piece of neugaze. And what’s more amazing is that Vadadi is the work of just one man from Sweden. His self-titled debut has surprising depth, in parts it is quite tender and is currently on sale for the steal-at-twice-the-price of €2.50. You know what to do. KD

Vadadi - Loveless

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Vadadi
Year: 2008

This would probably be better suited (as much of Lake’s music would) to warmer weather but I guess someone somewhere is reading this wearing a sun hat so we can get away with it. Anyways Lake’s music is an all year round pleasure, how could any sensible ear turn away the loose delivery and off kilter charm of ‘Heaven’ taken from their third LP ‘Oh The Places We'll Go’. This is a constantly shifting collective with as many past members as present, which will hopefully ensure that their material will forever remain as fresh and interesting as this. In some ways it’s completely incidental and in many other ways it is utterly vital. KD

Lake - Heaven

Watch The Video

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Lake
Year: 2008

A short one this. Pity really because it could have been something even more special. As it is it is a pretty fine way to spend 81 seconds of your day. It comes from Poughkeepsie man Jon Sebastian (moonlighting away from his day job with the Color Wheels) whose solo album ‘Goodbye God’ consists of 9 other similarly curtailed ditties. Not that you could call ‘The Pendulum’ a ditty per se as it is more an excerpt of brilliant noise. Fast and furious it is like a mouthwash in the antiseptic bland conveyor belt of haircut obsessed wannabes. Wow, where did that come from? Oh, I know, it was the song that made me do it. KD

Jon Sebastian - The Pendulum

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: Jon Sebastian
Year: 2008

What a ripe sugarplum of a song. I mean have your heard any other song in indiedom this year that is so euphoric, so irresistible, so jump up and down happy as ‘Happy As Can Be’? It also sounds a bit Christmassy too so given the time of year that's in it it seems even more delicious. Cut Off Your Hands are from Auckland, are mostly based in the U.K. and now find themselves signed to NY label Frenchkiss Records who released their ‘Happy As Can Be’ EP last month (their debut album ‘You and I’ has already been released in the southern hemisphere but will be introduced oop North in early 2009). And what an introduction it turns out to be. The band cite Phil Spector as an influence and the wall of melodic sound they create is certainly comparable in its magnetic power. This’ll sweep you off your feet from the getgo, returning your shaking torso a couple of minutes later after what may have felt like an celestial encounter. Heavenly in other words. KD

Cut Off Your Hands - Happy As Can Be

Watch The Video Oh Girl

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Cut Off Your Hands
Year: 2008

Lo-fi doesn’t get much better than this and with Bobby Aherne treating us to his hi-fi popcorn at an alarmingly prolific rate there’s no time to waste. He’s already released 28 tracks this year in 3 batches through the Dutch label Rack & Ruin Records. And as is R&R’s want all their records are free to download. Dublin Duck Dispensary is Bobby’s moniker and in many cases the music he makes is just as quirky. But that doesn’t mean it is in anyway disposable, in fact you’ll greet each new DDD effort as another bold attempt to write the perfect underground anthem. I keep hearing Daniel Johnston, which as you’d expect will mean that DDD will never truly appeal to a mass audience. That said tracks such as ‘Rabbit In A Hat’ could easily become an essential fixture on a thousand different mixtapes. It really is a scatty gem. KD

Dublin Duck Dispensary - Rabbit In A Hat

Watch The Video

More Info: Official & Myspace
Downloads Songs: Dublin Duck Dispensary
Year: 2008

In a fortnight or so this site will be listing its Top 42 songs of the year. It’ll be our third and I must say I always look forward to the annual trawl through the archives. At this stage you’d think the list would be more or less complete but then songs like ‘Bruises’ come along and instigate a revision. It comes via Chairlift (perfect name) who are based in the centre of the indie rock universe (at this moment in time anyway) Brooklyn. The song and the band have been catapulted to fame already courtesy of a music player advert and we gotta hand it to that particular marketing department for they sure do know a catchy number when they hear it. Chairlift’s debut album ‘Does You Inspire You’ was released in September and ‘Bruises’ should provide the necessary attention for a band who originally set out to play live music in haunted houses. One of the songs of the year no doubt. KD

Chairlift - Bruises

Watch The Fan Video Version!

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Chairlift
Year: 2008

What happens when a couple of your favourite bands from yesteryear collide in wholesome creativity? Well you end up with sweet things like Ride’s cover of the Pale Saints ‘Sight of You’. Dreamy doesn’t begin to describe it even if the Pale Saints were probably a softer sonic proposition that the Oxford foursome. How else can you explain the wig out of the last few minutes, where clouds of explosive chords replace Mark Gardener’s fey vocals. The recording was made for a BBC session some time in the early nineties and later found its way onto the band’s ‘Waves’ collection. Many thanks to the excellent new Shelflife blog for the reminder on this one. KD

Ride - Sight of You

Watch The Video To Leave Them All Behind

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Ride
Year: 1993

I’m sure it’s pretty obvious where our affiliations lie given that the Van Allen Belt have already graced one of our compilations (and appeared here too). To be honest we are besotted by their psychedelic retro futuristic sound. Granted on first listen their grandiose sound can be a tad overwhelming but once conquered you could well be salivating to within an inch of drowning. Their debut album ‘Meal Ticket to Purgatory’ is a lavish affair, almost Motown in its scope (we kid you not), so much so that it really does require the full subwoofer experience to do it justice. Add the fact that they are supreme purveyors of sarcy observations and you have a lethal cocktail of ingenuity. So here is ‘Vancouver’, a city made famous by a band from Pittsburgh. KD

The Van Allen Belt - Vancouver

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: The Van Allen Belt
Year: 2008

On the occasion of Cass McCombs awkwardly sublime performance in Whelan’s last weekend those in attendance were also treated to a fresh new band from Dublin called Villagers. There was so many of them (well, 5 anyway) the stage seemed a bit strangled but all that was forgotten when the Conor O’Brien led troupe caught fire. And believe me we are going to be hearing plenty more from this band, their songs are alive with potential and their polished delivery on the night proved that recordings of note can’t be that far away. In the absence of anything concrete I badgered Mr. O’Brien to give us something to feast on until the fireworks are released next year. And back popped this home demo (which will appear in sleeked up fashion down the line) called ‘Twenty-Seven Strangers’. Yikes, if this is what they do in their bedrooms imagine what’ll happen when they get the run of a studio. Talent fills the air, it’s inevitable, this is the start of something cherishable. KD

Villagers - Twenty-Seven Strangers

More Info: Official
Year: 2008

Seems This Scarlet Train missed out on the services of the internet chroniclers. Well, it was 1987 after all and I’m sure the countless fanzines that featured their mugs on the front cover back then have long since succumbed to that aging brownness. ‘Picture Frame’ was the lead track on an extended EP of theirs called ‘Fimbria’ which came out on the Scottish label Nightshift Records. And what a package of delights it was, full of tempestuous chords, understated vocals and primeval beats it goes straight to my heart and steals a little bit of it. They probably do make them like this somewhere but I’ve yet to uncover where they are. KD

This Scarlet Train - Picture Frame

Year: 1987

‘The Captain & The Sea’ EP is Automatic Drawing’s second introduction to the world and I for one am glad for the meet. The L.A. 5 piece have a rambling, almost shambolic approach to indie rock but that gives them the edge over your standard alternative assembly. Drew Kirkpatrick’s vocals are warm and wholesome, displaying a certain George Harrison persuasion, and the music is loose limbed and inventive. ‘Appalachia’ is my favourite track from the EP (a difficult choice as it is uniformly strong) due to its raw and spontaneous nature. In fact it almost sounds as if it was recorded in one take, that’s the attraction I suppose because there’s a bundle of kinetic energy stored between the grooves. A lovely find and we'll await further developments with anticipation. KD

Automatic Drawing - Appalachia

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: Automatic Drawing
Year: 2008

Happy New Year! Oh shit, it’s not even Christmas yet and I had been holding this over to announce 2009. But, I love it too much to shelve it until then and I’m a bit odd that way (like preferring Christmas songs in July and such like). To tell you the truth I have a love/hate relationship with the Walkmen, sometimes they press all the right buttons (‘Bows + Arrows’ for e.g. where they displayed some AYWKUBTTOD genius) but sometimes I get a headache searching for the hook which is undoubtedly there but fastidiously hidden amongst the guitar carnage. ‘You & Me’ is their latest opus and as well as arriving really cheaply with profits going to a worthy cause it has tracks like this brightening our day. This has pretty much everything a good Walkmen record should have, Hamilton Leithauser’s signature screech, elegantly turned out rambling guitars and a drifting yet still leading the way percussion section. On such things are made life changing resolutions. KD

The Walkmen - In The New Year

Watch The Video To The Rat

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Walkmen
Year: 2008

This is not what you’d expect coming out of the west of Ireland (it’s been that sort of year though) and a little investigation reveals that Low Sea aren’t Galway natives. The duo actually started out in France and their template should be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with a certain Glaswegian pair. For newbies I’m sure ‘Couldn’t Help Myself’ will sound like a champion new sound. Moody, dark but inherently elegant it might just be the perfect soundtrack for afternoon sulks. For the rest of us it is a faithful reconstruction, a smile inducing memory tinkler and an opportune time to wipe the dust off those enduring classic’s of yore. KD

Low Sea - Couldn't Help Myself

More Info: Official
Buy Songs: Low Sea
Year: 2008

Grant Birkenbeuel and JinJa Davis are Utah Carol and that simple structure is carried through to the music that they make, a lazy hazy stroll through the country with a warm breeze in your hair. ‘I’m Sorry Maria’ is taken from 2007’s ‘Rodeo Queen’ and won’t ruffle many feathers as it slowly meanders to the finish line. It’s sedatary and delicate but that doesn’t mean it's incidental; in fact due to its slim running time it might take a few listens to truly appreciate the charms it can bestow on the attentive listener. KD

Utah Carol - I'm Sorry Maria

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Utah Carol
Year: 2

This is a song that doesn’t really want to be one. It could quite easily have been a conversation were it not for the understated musicianship and pretty vocal patterns weaved by eternal wanderer Tim Howard (he used to be in the Mobius Band). But for all its awkward posturing it leaves an impression, one that won’t be all that memorable initially but as the play counts add up it’ll slowly encase you in its delicate web. It’s taken from Soltero’s current album ‘You’re No Dream’, a confusing title that subtly introduces this most enigmatic of artists. KD

Soltero - Out At The Wall

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Soltero
Year: 2008