Small Favors #3, Hoop Dreams - "XCPR b/w Memory Light"
Sometimes a band poised to become surefire hit-makers only manage to release one short recording (say, a 45 rpm 7”), before disappearing from view. Every so often listeners will get lucky and the false start will mutate into a different band of equal quality (like when ex-members of Sweet Bulbs formed Butter The Children). In other, less fortunate times, you might just stop hearing about them.
Such is the case with Blacksburg, VA band Hoop Dreams. They released one 7”, the masterful “xcpr” b/w “Memory Light” on Captured Tracks Records in 2011. An album was said to be forthcoming, but as of February 2014, it has not yet arrived. Rather than trying to guess at what circumstances might have befallen the lost Hoop Dreams full-length, “xcpr” should be celebrated for what it is, two songs that stand as an excellent, cohesive artistic statement. There’s certainly nothing wrong with only getting one 7” out; as Tom Scharpling once opined, “Sometimes you only get one, man.”
The title track opens with a few pensive guitar arpeggios and rumbly bass/drums. Over the top of this, in a voice with just the right amount of post-punk authority and drama, comes the perfect Springsteen-esque smart/dumb opener: “You need to move, but you don’t got nowhere to go”. Take the double negative any way you want, the need to get ANYwhere is clear. Soon enough the band unleash a dance-punk (whatever that was) chorus so strong it’s actually shocking the song wasn’t tapped to appear during a key scene in Gossip Girl', alongside singer Max Brook’s call to “Run, but don’t be afraid, yeah”. Also of import: the secret ingredient to Hoop Dreams icy-powerful sound, Julie Shepherd’s violin, which is integrated so smoothly into the band’s instrumental blend that I mistook it for a keyboard at first.
Over on the flip side, Hoop Dreams outdo themselves with “Memory Light”, an introspective alien funk with echo-chamber snares and string instruments so saturated in effect that they become indistinguishable from synthesizers. Sort of like Abe Vigoda covering ABBA. Max Brooks again steps up with a credible Ian Curtis timbre for the vocals. Fans of Calgary band Women should pay close attention to the angular, interlocking melodies of the coda.
It bears repeating: Sometimes your band only gets the one 7”. It’s a hell of a lot more than most bands get (or deserve, but that’s another matter). So, it’s a buyer’s market, get a copy of Hoop Dreams’ “xcpr” now before it gets included on the 2010’s version of Nuggets and some jerk tries to gouge you for it on eBay. I’ve been there, it’s no fun.
