New Year's Day goes pop

From today's Hotline: One Happy Island and friends go 'pop' on New Year's Day.

After you pop champagne corks on New Year’s Eve, pop music on New Year’s Day.

That’s what One Happy Island hopes. On Thursday night the local quartet will provide the soundtrack for the fourth annual Indie Pop New Year’s Day Night at the Middle East in Cambridge.

“The way I see it, New Year’s Eve is so 2008,” said One Happy Island guitarist Brad San Martin . “2009 is where it’s at.”

Joining the bittersweet boy-girl backbeat styling of One Happy Island is the hip-hop performance art of local bad girl Cathy Cathodic, Vermont-based twee-popsters the Smittens, and Cotton Candy featuring Teenbeat Records’ Mark Robinson and Evelyn Hurley of Blast Off Country Style.

“This bill is actually a pretty cool cross-section of indie pop as it is happening now,” said San Martin. “All the bands are very DIY, but they all take that aesthetic in different directions.”

Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and there is a $9 cover.