children turn on your radio and don't go out don't go out don't

May 20, 2016 2:38 AM

Hop Along's Frances Quinlan Performs "Buddy in the Parade" ¹

Hop Along is an indie four piece from Philly and I've spend most of this year with Painted Shut and Get Disowned on repeat. Here's a playlist:

Horseshoe Crabs² (soundcheck)

Texas Funeral (studio) (kexp)

Sister Cities (kexp)

The Knock (kexp)

Waitress (world cafe)

Interlude: Is Frances Quinlan the best voice in rock music today? (Yes, see Tibetan Pop Stars below)

Tibetan Pop Stars (live) (studio) (kexp)

Happy To See Me

No Good Al Joad

Diamond Mine

Hop Along Bandcamp page.

¹About Buddy "King" Bolden
²About Jackson C. Frank

posted by eyeballkid (9 comments total)

She's wonderful!
posted by james33 at 3:42 AM on May 20, 2016

Yes! I love Hop Along. Saw them a couple of weeks ago, and they did a mind-blowing cover of Nirvana's Sappy. As a matter of fact, there video of the very song at the very show I went to.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:47 AM on May 20, 2016

Love these guys, been obsessed since i managed to stumble upon Waitress about a year ago. I would love to find other bands that are doing what they're doing, but as I can't really put my finger on what it is I even mean by what they're doing , it might be a lost cause.
posted by eykal at 6:01 AM on May 20, 2016

Painted Shut was hands down the best rock album from last year. Frances is amazing solo, in my opinion, but even if you find her solo delivery a bit raw for your taste, I encourage you to listen to the album. The full-band treatment has won over a buddy of mine who couldn't quite take her idiosyncratic earlier solo work.
posted by The Minotaur at 7:26 AM on May 20, 2016

eykal: so, no one holds a candle to these guys right now. But they have some sort of connection (not sure exactly what) to California band Joyce Manor, whose 2014 release Never Hungover Again featured a photo including Frances on the cover. The music isn't exactly the same vibe--it's more punk--but that album is amazing and expresses some of the same energy of wistful optimism as Painted Shut. They're also similar, for me, in that when I listened to each album for the first time I was like "this is good" and then by the tenth time I was like "THIS IS AMAZING." Love when that happens.

Another recommendation: Pinegrove just put out their first full length, Cardinal. The lead track, Old Friends, is really good. The album is solid. It isn't the masterpiece Painted Shut is, in my opinion, but they're a young band and I see a bright future. It has something of the same vibe. (I read something that described Pinegrove as "positive rock." Sure.)
posted by The Minotaur at 7:54 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I stumbled on these guys almost a decade ago when they were called hop along queen ann's lace, just randomly showed up to this tiny tiny concert in a room with 30 or 40 folks packed in right up to the artists. it was AMAZING. Their sound was a lot less rock and lot more folk then, but the vocal performance was still just as good. If you can get your hands on their early stuff its awesome.

I am so not into music the way the "cool kids" are that I so seldom would ever be able to brag that I "saw them back when" but it was clear at the time they were going places. They rocked then and continue to rock now.
posted by stilgar at 9:24 AM on May 20, 2016

Boy this is good. Thank you.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:11 AM on May 20, 2016

Here I will gush over how much I like the lyrics on Painted Shut. Such vivid storytelling ("By the time it's old my face will have been seen one and a half million times"). I can't pick a favorite song, kind of torn between "Waitress", "Horseshoe Crabs", and "Powerful Man" .
posted by zchyrs at 11:05 AM on May 20, 2016

Nice wail. Reminds me of Ida Maria.
posted by whuppy at 4:43 PM on May 20, 2016