Notes on Hope Conspiracy, Stoodio53, and Carter Tanton
By SARAH TOMLINSON | January 18, 2006
Hardcore screamers the HOPE CONSPIRACY have been through some changes over the years, but they’ve reassembled a who’s-who of the band’s past incarnations to record a new album with Converge’s KURT BALLOU at his Godcity Recording Studio. The line-up includes bassist Jonas Feinberg, drummer Jared Shavelson, singer Kevin Baker, and Neeraj Kane, who played with the band through Cold Blue, as well as Tim Cossar (American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost). Although no release date has yet been set for the as-yet-untitled album, Feinberg says the band’s sound will be familiar to fans. “It has the ferocity and filthiness of Endnote but a more ‘mature’ sound. A friend of ours called the sound ‘Hope Con with beards.’ Despite the fact we currently have beards, he was referring to the music. Our beards are more due to the cold!” Check out the sound (and the beards) when the band play February 11 at the ICC Church with Paint It Black and Blooodhorse. Also look for Shavelson’s New Jersey–based side project, None More Black, who drop an album on Fat Wreck Chords this spring. . . . Some local-music fans are channeling the power of broadband Internet to revisit the wonders of the garage/punk mixtape. The STOODIO53 MIXTAPE SERIES, masterminded by the founders of local arts collective Stoodio53, Stefan Scott, Scott Mullen, and Johnny Vu, features original mixes of local and international music that might otherwise go unheard. The series was launched three months ago, but two weeks back it was made available as a podcast — and already the mixes have drawn more than 800 downloads. On the horizon are mixes by local-music-scene fixtures including JOHNNY KONK, JOE TAMPOFF, WMBR DJ JOANIE LINDSTROM, and TARA MCMANUS and JUSTIN HUBBARD of the Turpentine Brothers. Among the organizers' favorite moments is a song, “Mod Cowboy,” that closes their friend DJ MOO’s set. It was recorded by the Central Pennsylvania–based band Crop Circle for Moo’s now defunct label ProTeen Records. “This song embodies what the MixTape Series is about,” says Scott Mullen. “A moment you wish you were there for.” Download at www.stoodio53.com. . . . He may be the new kid on the local block, but indie singer-songwriter CARTER TANTON has been writing and performing smart music since his Bard College days, when his band Catch a Fly’s homonymous debut was the first release by local studio/label Lifted and Gifted, which is run by the kids in KETMAN. His early solo output was gathered on 2005’s Birds & Rain, which was released by Park the Van, also home to indie upstarts Dr. Dog. With another 30 songs all ready to go, Tanton plans to self-record his next solo album for Park the Van in April. Catch a sneak peek at “Hyenas” and “Stay Undone” when Tanton plays with drummer Greg Hatem and bassist Eric Wormood at ZuZu January 23, on a bill that includes Dirty Holiday’s CHRIS WARREN.
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