Hello Moon

Shrilling guitars that create an almost deafening brilliance is the best way I can describe the song 'Vanity' from Dublin, Ireland's Hello Moon. Their debut LP, Only Count The Sunny Hours, was released Sept. 10 from Any Other City Records (buy). It's a jangly twee sounding affair for the most
part, but I wouldn't lump it into a collection of songs that gets stale by the time you get to the fourth track. It has its darker, slightly more varied moments. - Chromewaves Radio

Hello Moon - Vanity

Hello Moon are a Dublin four piece signed to the Any Other City Records label. They were brought to the attention of ATL by fellow Dub scallywags Squarehead and like their capital city counterpoints they know their way around a pop song. It's that class indie pop sound, the sort made famous by Rough Trade and Creation in the 80's and 90's. It's chiming, jangly, reverb on the vocals and choruses to ride into battle. As a self professed indie fop it tickles me in ways that make me feel so, so right. - BBC Across the Line

Cheap wine loving, Van Halen ambivalent indie pop stars Hello Moon might just have created one of the best Irish albums of the year. The sparkling debut took a while in the making, echoparade had a chat with the band about the album’s creation and why we’re thanking the gods that Hello Moon didn’t succumb to the lure of spandex tights and cheesy 80’s metal…

Like countless bands out there, the members of Hello Moon experienced numerous musical misadventures before settling on a sound that they wanted and a line up that inspired. The band’s Alan Condon once found himself in the position of joining a band who’s main ambition was to perfect Van Halen’s Jump, he wisely decided to walk away.

Finally Hello Moon entered the world in December 2009, when mates Alan, Eamon and Alan got together after various mis-starts with different bands. Fuelled by cheap wine this new ensemble settled on a very modest goal, “to record songs we wouldn’t be embarrassed playing in front of people”. However like mindedness and vicious hangovers did not result in the sound they wanted, there was something missing…

Cue Amanda who “from the off was bringing these amazing ideas to the song writing,” according to Alan Condon this is when the band truly took off. With Amanda on board Condon remembers “being totally excited to the point of giddiness about this new band.”

Now almost two years later they are releasing their debut and the band are over the Moon with it (sorry, couldn’t resist), “we’re really excited because it has been a while in the making”. Lengthy it may have been but “Only Count the Sunny Hours” has been well worth the wait. The extra brewing time has resulted in an album that is both exquisitely arranged and bouncing with giddy delight.

While there is nerves and anxiety over how people will receive and interpret the album, the band themselves are very pleased, “every parent thinks their child is beautiful but we think we made a goodie”.

The album sound is deceptively light, behind that initially fizz instruments are expertly placed and clever vocals that don’t grate, as is the problem with many indie pop bands. “We have people like Antimo Puca who is an expert at drum sounds and a coffee making extraordinaire, who philosophy is ‘If it sounds great going in, it sounds great going out”.

Delighted as Hello Moon are with their sound, they remain all too familiar with the penny scrounging struggles of the starving artists. When they are not paying rent or feeding themselves, every penny goes into the band. Holidays and social outings have been boycotted for the sake of new guitars and practices but Hello Moon see these as small gripes, admitting that the “benefits far outweigh any negatives.”

Momentum now seems to be behind the band with further dates in the UK and Europe pending, a recent support slot with The Villlagers and playing Sheeben Chic on the 8th of October as part of the Hard Working Class Heroes. - www.echoparade.com

There has to be something good about a newish group that must surely listen to a broad mixture of music from Postcard-era Orange Juice, the school of C60 pop, and one or two shoegazing acts culled from Creation Records’ back catalogue. Dublin band Hello Moon have been around just under two years, yet have managed to scam/beg support slots with the likes of Cloud Control and Teenage Fanclub. Not that they share the same gene pool. Hello Moon blend pretty, sturdy pop ( Measure of Me ) and elegant, precise rhythms ( Sievehead ) with innately smart arrangements ( What’s the Use of Falling in Love? ). All of the above chimes and charms in equal measure, and if at times they fall prey to tweeness ( Awkward Hugs is aptly titled), then at least you know there’s a more considered tune on the way. See myspace.com/hello moondublin - The Ticket - the Irish Times

Only on a first tour of Hello Moon’s debut album ‘Only Count the Sunny Hours’ but already ‘Measure of Me’ sticks out like a beacon of brilliance. The LP sounds utterly under produced (and given its disparate recording locations it’s a wonder there’s so much organisation to the glorious ramshackle) but if it was any other way we’d be scratching our heads ’till we exposed delicate membranes. And pain is the last thing you want to be experiencing while the jingle jangle of Dublin’s finest exponents of lo-fi indie pop resides on your stereo. ‘Only Count the Sunny Hours’ is being put out on Any Other City Records (who do a neat line in new local amusements) and will be launched in the cosy surrounds of Crawdaddy on September 10th (in sunny hours that’d be in about 3 hours time). KD - MP3 HUGGER.com

ne of the highlights of the second compilation from Dublin indie-pop collective Popical Island was from a relative newcomer: ‘Barefoot’, a charmingly off-kilter contribution from Dublin four-piece Hello Moon. Their debut album is very much in the same vein, wearing its love of melodic, chiming pop songs on its scuffed sleeve. Only Count The Sunny Hours shifts between sweeping lo-fi sugar rushes (‘Vanity’, ‘Here I Am’) and dreamily hypnotic numbers (‘Measure Of Me’, ‘Sievehead’). Even when the irresistible boy/girl vocals are taken out of the mix, they make it work (on the jangly, jaunty instrumental ‘The Calculus Affair’). And just when you think the well of melodies might be running dry, along comes the wondrous, swooning closing track ‘Awkward Hugs’. Daniel Harrison



KEY TRACKS: ‘SIEVEHEAD’, ‘THE CALCULUS AFFAIR’, ‘AWKWARD HUGS’.

FOR FANS OF: THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THE FIELD MICE, HIRED HANDS. - AU Magazine

Purveyors of smiley happy indie jangle pop Hello Moon, release their debut album Only Count The Sunny Hours on Any Other City Records yesterday (10th September 2011).

Having began recording the album over a year ago and finishing at the start of the year it’s a shame that Only Count The Sunny Hours was not released sooner. Like pure sunshine on a CD the album would have been the perfect summer pop soundtrack. Instead, as the nights draw in, it provides the perfect platform to wistfully recall the past summers highlights.

“Alliterational” Dubliners, Alan, Eamon, Amanda & Alan have made an almost perfect record. Full of twee harmonies, cyclonic melodies that will make you smile so much your face will hurt.

It’s impossible to pick a highlight from Only Count The Sunny Hours, each track is a highlight brighter than the the sun. It is quite simply the cutest debut record I have ever heard.

We don’t give a score out of 10 here at This Is A Popscene, but if we did this record would be a 12. - thisisapopscene.co.uk

Having only recently introduced them I'm glad to receive news that Hello Moon have their debut all LP all polished and ready to go. The excellently titled Only Count The Happy Hours was mixed by Matt Pence of Yuck fame and will be released on the Any Other City label, with the launch party taking place on September 10th in Crawdaddy.


The Dublin four-piece have developed a sound that induces prolonged bursts of foot-tapping, humming and head-swaying - in other words, everything one could hope for in an indie-pop outfit. Hook laden and brimming with a quaint charm throughout, Only Count The Happy Hours delivers on the promise of their initial tracks and comes highly recommended. - Stop the Lights

Since forming in early 2010, gigging frequently, opening for bands like Lower Dens and Teenage Fanclub, releasing a track Barefoot on the Popical Island Compilation#2, Hello Moon have rolled up with a full album and it’s a treat. It’s been ready for a while but they kept it quiet: the recording process of Only Count The Sunny Hours was completed on New Year’s Day. Now, mixed by Matt Pence who worked with Yuck and Here We Go Magic, the album is set for release on 9 September through Any Other City Records (the early home of Villagers).

To my dismay, I only saw Hello Moon for the first time at the Popical Island launch in June and it’s funny that they claim to have bonded over “a love of of chiming, jangly pop songs” because that’s exactly what I thought of them. There are lots of facets to the album’s sound however, lovely and lighthearted mostly, there are places where it gets a little faster, darker or heavier for balance and contrast. I’ll have to listen more but in the meantime here’s Vanity, the first song from Only Count The Sunny Hours.

- Harmless Noise on Entertainment.ie

Hello Moon are from Dublin,Ireland and love chiming bright guitars. The band is set to release their debut album entitled Only Count the Sunny Hours next month on Any Other City Records. It treads a line between jangly twee songs that bounce along like they were from some forgotten Post Card single and wintry atmospherics that march through the driven snow like tiny toy soldiers. Maybe it’s an Irish thing, but Hello Moon excel in balancing their sensitive twee side with their bigger dramatic side. Only Count the Sunny Hours is a record that can put a spring in your step and a smile on your face and tug at your emotional side too.

- The Finest Kiss