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veterans of the Minneapolis music scene, The Hopefuls have earned their
stripes in many other groups. Adventurous musicians, the longtime friends
began experimenting with a sound that was completely different from their
other bands. And this is how The Hopefuls’ unabashed indie pop was born.
Born a duo named Camaro, they played with several transient members, airing the charming innocence of ‘60s-era pop cuts like ‘Drain the Sea’ and the bittersweetness of anti-love songs like ‘Pretty Bigmouth’ to enthusiastic crowds. To appease their fans and stalkers, they recorded the album that had become long overdue. Their full-length debut, titled ‘The Fuses Refuse to Burn,’ is slick in all the right places but always full of soul and surprises, and combines a bit of Weezer guitar grit with the playful, carefree anthems of bands like The Cars and The Apples in Stereo. The mission statement of the The Hopefuls succinctly, ‘It’s fun music for happy times.’ And although that’s a bit of an oversimplification, the bulk of the The Hopefuls output is lighthearted feel-good rock with fist pumping bacchanalian anthems (‘Let’s Go!’) and speeding motorcycle devotionals (‘Motobike’) setting the tone of the record. Nearly every song combines buoyant hand claps, absurd xylophone fills, backing oohh and aahhs galore, trashy synthesizer lines and razor sharp guitar leads in a shameless effort to keep heads bopping and asses shaking throughout the entirety of the albums' 10-track, 37-minute sonic joyride. ‘The Fuses Refuse to Burn’ is so full of glorious, hook-filled, drunk-on-pleasure pop confections that it's impossible not to get snagged on one of them. With an assault of chord changes so familiar they resonate, The Hopefuls are a perfect example of why great, fun pop songs--when written, sung, and played with intelligence, chops, form, and feel--can be transcendent and extraordinary even while seeming familiar. And the echoes of those coital outbursts survive today, in every teary-eyed ‘Oh, sweet Jesus, I love this band!’ that comes from the crowd at an Hopeful's show. In addition to winning a variety of regional titles and awards, they’re gaining some serious national steam and have been heard on VH1’s Best Week Ever and The OC. Onstage, guitarist and vocalist Darren Jackson, bassist Heath Henjum (The Beatifics, Little Man), drummer Eric Fawcett (Spymob, N.E.R.D.) and multi-instrumentalist John Hermanson (Storyhill, Alva Star) complete the The Hopefuls lineup. |
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