Thursday, September 25, 2008
By John Benson
The band will try out some songs from its fifth studio effort at Cedars Lounge.
When Hopewell founding member Jason Russo describes his Brooklyn, N.Y.-based indie rock act, the first words out of his mouth are “catchy but oddball.”
After touring briefly with Mercury Rev, Russo formed Hopewell 14 years ago with the idea of doing something different. Though the act is somewhat unique with its sonic guitars and lush soundscapes, its MySpace site (myspace.com/hopewell) lists soul as the band’s genre.
While many groups like to play around with the MySpace genre listing — crunk seems to be a popular choice among metal bands — Russo doesn’t back away from describing Hopewell as a soul band.
“We have a lot of soul,” said Russo, calling from his New York City home. “We’re very earnest about what we’re doing. We don’t take it lightly. We have soul in a sense that we’ve been at the pinnacle, and we’ve been down, beaten like dogs. That’s what I mean by soul. I think that’s the original meaning of the slang back in the day. If somebody had soul, they’d been down. They’d seen the dirt.
“So we’ve been up and down with lots of great highs. We’ve done a lot of exciting things that we thought we’d never be able to do, like Peel Sessions in England. But it’s not something we’re choosing to do or not to do in terms of, ‘Are we going to be famous?’ It’s just what we do.”
What Hopewell is doing is recording its fifth studio effort, which the band will be road-testing Wednesday at Cedars Lounge in Youngstown. The audience can expect to hear new unreleased song “Realms of Gold,” as well as fan favorite “Calcutta.”
“The next album will find us moving into more of a tribal, darker, psychedelic area than the previous album,” Russo said. “We play live rock shows and people seem to love them and then we make records and they’re kind of different sounding. People like them too but for different reasons, so when they come to see a show, they’re kind of like, ‘Wow that was big and crazy and tribal and insane.’
“And then they listen to our records and we’re trying to recreate ‘Abbey Road.’ So we’re actually trying to make the next record like the live show.”
To further the tribal aspect of the band’s sound, Russo said the group’s keyboardist is also doubling as a percussionist. He believes the sonic results are something close to an early Jane’s Addiction sound. In fact, the band has been playing a cover mix of the Perry Farrell-led band’s “Three Days” and “Of Course.”
While Russo said Hopewell has played numerous shows in Youngstown in the past, he’s hoping the band’s next Northeast Ohio gig is a little bit less Quentin Tarantino-like.
“We’ve gotten in some trouble in Youngstown,” Russo said. “Last time, we were there we slept over someone’s house we didn’t know, and were kind of run out of there. It was somebody with a shotgun, and we had to leave really early. Yeah, not all of our pants were on when we left, and I think we washed up in a gas station.”
He added, “There was a girl involved. It would have been a good episode in an indie rock sitcom.”
So this time out, will the band be crashing at some audience member’s house?
“We’re probably going to get a hotel,” Russo laughed. “But we’re fearless. Bring that guy on.”