
Hopewell have a new album set for release on Tee Pee some time this Spring. I hate being this vague, but the title, track listing, and release date have yet to be published. Now, if I was a bettin' man, I would wager that this new tune, "Afterglow," found inside the massive SXSW band listings, will find its way on that unnamed new album. Hopewell - Afterglow [ download ] In related, but not as vague, news, Hopewell recently shot an episode of Soundcheck at Southpaw for VBS.TV where they debuted another [...]
Hopewell The Notbirds EP Label: Sunny Lane New York's Hopewell have a superb 6-track EP on their hands with The Notbirds . We read somewhere that this is the album the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy should have released this year, and that couldn't be more true. Psychedelic rock with alt-country sensibility, this EP sets up the group's highly, highly, highly anticipated third album in '07, and if new tracks like "Beautiful Targets" - recorded one day in Kingston, NY by Hopewell & Mercury Rev [...]

Hopewell released the six song ep, Notbirds, last week, and damn, this one has been stuck in my sound system ever since. It's not earth shattering, it's not ear splitting, it's simply a fine listen. There's one song on this ep in particular that I can't escape, and that's "Beautiful Targets." It was recorded in one day with the help of Mercury Rev. It has this easy country-fried psychelic feel accompanied by some well placed atmospherics and memorable lines like "We are such beautiful targets/We are such endless heartaches." I can listen to this one over and over and over [...]

(Editors note: Blogger was down and screwed up my posting schedule so I had to squeeze this in. But now I'm back on track with Canadian music week.) The loungy folk of Lily Frost is sexy in a French chantreuse kinda way. She's from Canada, Toronto actually, and sings in either French or English. The song "Enchantment" from Cine-Magique (Aporia Records, Sept. 19) comes like a cross between KD Lang and Aimee Mann. "Enchantment's" first line of "I'm lying awake on my bed and I wish [...]