The Shoebox: Hopewell Meet George Clooney - And Interpol And Bright Eyes

Hopewell have too many good things going for them.

They are of the true rock ilk: beating, alive, pure. These dusty-sounding upstate New Yorkers seem to be launching toward the same moon as psych-os like the Warlocks or the Heads, but their formula is neither tired nor tried: Hopewell’s music is cerebrally expansive but simultaneously ear-friendly, catchy and worthy of being blasted in a Hells Angels bar. They’re real. Plus they’re on one of our favorite labels, Tee Pee.

What a cocktail.

On their latest doohickey, the still-smoldering Good Good Desperation, the long-lasting (as in, five-albums-old) quintet is as, ahem, membrane-minded as ever. Jason Russo’s vocals sound intermittently like Perry Farrell coming down or Anton Newcombe rising up, and cushioning their impact is a bed of sturdy straw: thick, matted guitar riffs and handily interwoven melodies.

Actually, Hopewell’s newest ride is such a fun one that it was incumbent upon IndiePit to check in with them, to see if they’d humor us by participating in one of our features. And apparently, as the saying goes, all you have to do is ask.

Guitarist Lyndon Roeller was kind enough to chalk up a contribution to our ongoing “Shoebox” series, which focuses the magnifying glass on collectibles, artifacts and other precious gems. In other words, this campaign is us channeling our inner Indiana Jones.

We’ve had some classic entries so far, but Roeller’s measures up as perhaps the most prized. He name-checks so many bands we love that it makes our head spin like the guy Christopher Walken lances in “Sleepy Hollow.” We’re talkin’ Interpol, the Raveonettes, the Walkmen, White Rabbits, Art Brut, Grandaddy, Trail of Dead, Bright Eyes and beyond.

Except, he doesn’t name-check them to be all flashy and such. It’s because they’re perfectly relevant.

If you care to understand, please take a moment to love Hopewell’s “Shoebox” submission. We liberally edited Roeller’s text because there were a lotta lower caps and stuff, but beyond that it’s pretty much from-the-horse’s-mouth: 

Collectible rarity or useless absurdity… you decide.

Here’s a funny little artifact from Hopewell’s past:

The label Fierce Panda in London put out a short compilation of then unknown bands in 2000 called “Clooney Tunes.” It featured the likes of … and you will know us by the Trail of Dead, Bright Eyes, Interpol, Fiver, the Fire Show and Hopewell! Now the Fire Show and Fiver dropped into relative obscurity (although the Fiver song was produced by Jason Lytle of Grandaddy), but three of those bands basically went on to be huge, especially Interpol and Bright Eyes who are now no doubt worth millions as musical entities.

I doubt Fierce Panda pressed more then a few hundred of these. Amazingly it came out on both CD and double 7″! We once had a random collector guy wait outside our SXSW showcase in 2007 to get the 7″ version signed. He had spent years getting signatures from each band on the compilation and I’m sure was convinced this was gonna be worth megabucks once he had gotten the last piece of the puzzle.

What’s also amazing about this comp is that none of the big bands were on established labels at this point. I’m sure Fierce Panda licensed these songs for free. This was pre-Matador Interpol (then on Chemikal Underground records), Trail of the Dead were on Trance Syndicate, Bright Eyes wasn’t even on Saddle Creek yet. Fierce Panda itself went on to be a much bigger label with bands like Art Brut, the Raveonettes, the Walkmen and White Rabbits.

* Notice the “other music” price tag on the CD. A few years back while doing inventory there, they saw fit to donate this CD to the band, seeing as it has been sitting there for 6 years without selling. They originally got it in as an import. It was never released in the States.

“Island”

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Gracias, Señor Roeller. And finally, don’t sleep, as the rappers say - check out past editions of “The Shoebox” right here:

“The Shoebox: When Weezer Were Cool”
“The Shoebox: Searching For A Mekons Artifact? ‘Looke’ Here”
“The Shoebox: Rick Froberg Gives IndiePit Something Very Cool”
“The Shoebox: Silversun Pickups, Before They Got Big“