New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Hippo Campus is a band of four Minnesotan boys making music that is simple, joyful, and thematically soaked with the sense of cynicism accompanying the youthful search for self-meaning. On November 18th, the band will release their debut EP Bashful Creatures that was produced by Low's Alan Sparhawk. The six songs that comprise the EP were recorded in just two days at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Bashful Creatures is now streaming in full before it's 11/18 release date via the NPR
Music Station The Current out of St. Paul, MN. "All six tracks on their all-too-short Bashful Creatures EP reveal them to be a polished band that manages to be just as playful as it is sophisticated," says
Andrea Swensson. "As a final chorus of voices rings out over fading guitars an air of anticipation lingers, and the promise of this exciting new group feels palpable."
In the short time since songs from the EP have surfaced online, the band has been met with great acclaim, including being noted as a "Buzz Band of the Week" in the print edition of NME. Writing in NME online, Jonathan Garrett said, "Much like
Oasis in their self-assured, swaggering prime, the appeal of Hippo Campus lies in the delivery - Jake Luppen's lilting falsetto and Nathan Stocker's arpeggiated leads. They sound nothing like Oasis, mind - their record collections lean heavier on Wu Lyf,
Bombay Bicycle Club and
Vampire Weekend than The
Beatles - and yet like Oasis, they're all about the feeling, subtlety be damned."
Neon Gold premiered the track "Suicide Sunday" and said, "barely out of high school, the 18 and 19 year old quartet make themselves known on barnstorming sophomore single 'Suicide Saturday,' standing strong somewhere between the anthemic throes of Tokyo
Police Club and Jinja Safari with a bit of the sunkissed swagger for
Vampire Weekend thrown in for good measure.
Earmilk premiered the track "Sophie So" and said the band is "just on the edge of the radar, navigating their way towards the center."
You can find 4 embeddable songs via the band's SoundCloud.
Band members Beans, Espo, Stitches, and Turntan are inspired by "Kids, Adults, Youth, Age, Tumblr, and Cigarettes. Boots, Younger brothers. Older brothers, Brothers from other mothers, Summer, Friends, alcohol, drugs, and a touch of Boredom. Heterochromia, Heterosexuals, Teachers, English class Ratchet-ness, Lips, and Dancing in Tank tops. Sneaking out for Friends, Sex, Art, but mostly just art school girls. Playing with Guns, American exceptionalism, 'Suicide,' Shyness, confidence, and Grace."
Bashful Creatures EP
1)
Sophie So
2)
Little Grace
3) Souls
4) Suicide Saturday
5) Opportunistic
6) Bashful Creatures
