Hotpipes

Debuted: March 6th, 2009

Now Playing:

“Future Bolt”

This was actually the name of the Dave's(the guitarist) Junior league basketball and football teams when he was a kid. I always loved that name, and before there was a song, we were already going to call our next album "Future Bolt." An early idea was every song title have either future or bolt within. Kinda like the Liars "Drums not Dead," but, you know, it was a bad idea so we didn't go through with it.

The song was one of the first we wrote as a four-piece, everyone in the band had a hand in putting it together. Lyrically, it is about the yearning to escape modern life and all it's complexity. Was man meant be carried at high speeds, on the ground or in the air? Was he meant to have his water filtered with many chemicals, disbursed through pipes that carry toxins? Eat his food and have no idea where it came from? Was he meant to hate nature, cement over it, kill pollinators because they are bad for the grass? Destroy the world's oldest forests(see Appalachia) so that we can see at night, and all the other creature comforts we enjoy on the backs of dying minors in little towns you've never heard of? you know, hippy shit.

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Hotpipes

Debuted: March 6th, 2009

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I must admit that It's been a joy to sit back and watch the Hotpipes evolve over the past six years or so. Someone should write a book... or at least a couple paragraphs. Though heard by few and long out-of-print, Hotpipes' first two e.p.'s, Heroes & Villains and Cool, Calm, Collected, have a very special place in my music library. There's something wonderful about how these recordings showcase a very, very young band searching, almost desperately, for their sound. It's regretful that it took this band such a long time to find an audience, because in my opinion, these guys have had something special right out of the gate. It seems they never really gained the respect they deserved until they shook their Midwestern rock and roll roots and embraced a slender and hyper-focused weirdo pop vibe. But that's how things go around here, so there's no reason to look back with what-ifs.

Anyway, it wasn't until their 2007 self-titled full-length and last year's Future Bolt that folks finally started to get it. And maybe that's because Jon, Dave, Justin & Dan finally started to get it themselves. It's become evident they they know what they're doing and believe in it wholeheartedly. And it's always a wonderful thing to witness, whether it be on record or on stage. Hotpipes give off a an air of contradiction. Of innocence and wisdom. Of being totally serious and goofy-as-hell. Of good times and bad. Of the future and the past. And you know what? It makes absolutely perfect sense. I, for one, can't wait to see where they take us.

Godspeed, boys.
-jbc