The Hugs are a Portland four-piece who've sat on my radar for a few years now, thanks to a heads up from my mate Nick. It's been interesting seeing them go from a precociously talented pair of baby faced High School students with some irrepresibly sugary pop songs, to having their (now ex) guitarist steal guitars from You Am I (controversy!), to being heralded as "next big things" (largely on their own myspace). They got a hip British rock photographer as their manager in Roger Sargent and signed with 1965 records and Columbia in the UK, in a year that saw them being groomed as a raucous garage rock band in the vein of then label-mates The View.
They've parted ways with that record label now and are back in Portland doing what they do best, making catchy as, irreverent pop songs with their long-time producer Shay Scott and putting out records on their own. Their latest, Again & Again, sees a return to the whimsical, unabashedly happy pop of earlier tunes like "Shoe Swapping", but with an even greater early Beatles vibe in the weaving melodic guitar riffs and "Sha la la" choruses.
