Hope Of The States were the great “nearly” band of the 00s as far as I’m concerned. Not sure how much love there is for them amongst the AW fraternity, but the more discerning of you may be interested to hear that when HOTS split, most of the band immediately went on to record an album under the name Dark Houses. It sat unreleased on a hard drive for a decade, but has now come out via the Lost Music Club. It’s on the usual streaming services, and giving it a listen now, it could be the third HOTS album. The story of the record might lead you to think it’s a scrappy collection of demos but these are fully formed songs with strings, horns, choirs, everything I used to love about HOTS. It’s a lovely unexpected end of year treat.
http://thelostmusicclub.bigcartel.com/product/dark-houses-dark-houses-album
Kid Dynamite says
Kid Dynamite says
fentonsteve says
Hurrah!
Leicester Bangs says
Yum, I’ll have a look and keep my fingers crossed that it’s closer in spirit to the Lost Riots than Left.
Kid Dynamite says
I remember being disappointed with Left when it came out (especially as I had to work really hard to find a copy), but I went back to it a couple of years ago and found it surprisingly decent. It’s all in the expectation…
Kaisfatdad says
I will definitely give them a listen after your enthusiastic recommendation. Ta.
Kid Dynamite says
Good for you. If you’re completely new I’d start with the first album The Lost Riots rather than this. They were a really promising band who got derailed shortly after that debut by the guitarist’s suicide. They kept going, and the later stuff is worthwhile, but that first record is a pointer to what could have been, and never was (that’s why I called them a “nearly” band in the OP). Sad in so many ways.
newpathstohelicolin says
It was actually during the recording of The Lost Riots that Jimmi Lawrence killed himself. I’ve been a massive HOTS fan since before their debut EP was released and I actually remember the moment I found out just as vividly as people remember where they were when they heard Lennon or JFK died.
Hope Of The States really were amazing. They basically condensed the epic string drenched post rock sound of Godspeed You Black Emperor into shorter indie rock songs. Their live shows were amazing with found footage videos synchronised to each track and their debut single Black Dollar Bills is in my top 5 favourite songs of all time.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Newpath. This suicide was probably all over the news in the UK. I had no idea there was a tragic story behind the band.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/may/17/popandrock
newpathstohelicolin says
No, they were never very well known. I heard about it on the NME website while I was working in a record shop.
pawsforthought says
That’s strange. I was just thinking about them yesterday.
Neil Jung says
Ooh, that’s great news. Love the Lost Riots. Thanks for the heads up.