Hello Friends! Thanks for following along here for so many years. I am very excited to be presenting a new website, active starting June 2018. For up-to-date info please visit adam-hopkins.com. See you on the flip side!
Signal Problems (Danny Gouker, Eric Trudel, AH, and Nathan Ellman-Bell) are releasing our second album in the coming weeks, entitled Love Letter. We are going on a little tour next week to celebrate this. Danny made a pretty funny promo video that has almost no music in it. We will be playing in the following places, and would love to see you there!
April 17th 11:00a: Masterclass at Towson University
April 17th 8:00p: Signal Problems//The Fun Boys @ The Hippo Hut
April 18th 7:30p: Scott Clark 4tet // Signal Problems at Black Iris (Richmond)
April 19th 5:00p: Happy Hour w/ Signal Problems! (note we’re NOT playing the “Love Letter” set at this one)
April 20th 7:00p: House concert in Ellicott City, MD (message for details)
And here is a preview track from the album, with a little background info about the piece, written by Danny:
Love Letter is a one-of-a-kind 25-30 minute, semi-theatrical suite created by the band, Signal Problems over the period of several years. It starts with a musical interpretation of a mad-lib, and an engine of free association and word play propel the suite on a journey that is unique to each performance. Though there might be a secret theme to any given performance, every performance has many different possible interpretations, and often these differences in interpretation are enacted by the band in real time. Performances are often humorous, but can turn serious in an instant and turn back just as quickly.
Alright alright, Party Pack ICE is hitting the road on December 13 & 14 for a mini-tour to release our recent self-titled album. You can check the album out right HERE on Bandcamp. You can also read a pretty cool review of the record over at avantmusicnews.com where they said nice things like “Every so often an album comes along that is so strangely charming and forthright in its lack of convention that one cannot help but enjoy it.” Pretty nice, yeah? Here is info about the shows! We’ll be hitting Richmond VA and Baltimore MD. Baltimore will be extra special, as our first show was there and it really is our hometown. We hope to see you out to help celebrate! Details:
Wednesday December 13
Party Pack ICE // ScottClark4tet @ The Camel
1621 W Broad Street, Richmond VA
9:00pm doors, $5
Thursday December 14
Party Pack ICE // Dave Ballou // Mondawmen @ The Windup Space
12 W North Ave, Baltimore MD
8:00pm doors, $5
***double album release for Party Pack ICE and Dave Ballou’s Quadrants, both on pfMENTUM***
Party Pack ICE is:
Adam Hopkins – bass, compositions
Patrick Breiner – tenor saxophone
Eric Trudel – tenor saxophone
Dustin Carlson – guitar
Nathan Ellman-Bell – drums
Back when Out of Your Head Brooklyn was taking place at Threes Brewing in Gowanus, I invited my good friend and Signal Problems leader Danny Gouker to co-curate a cycle. One of his more courageous lineups was a set of three bass players and three trumpet players. It worked, so he booked a recording session in a church. That worked too, so we released it under the title Sanctuary. We think this ended up being pretty damn cool, and so did the fine folks at pfMENTUM who decided to release it. Trumpets and Basses is Danny Gouker, Kenny Warren, and Jake Henry on trumpets, and Will McEvoy, Zach Swanson, and myself on basses. Album art by the ever-amazing TJ Huff (huffart.com). Recorded at Cadman Congressional Church and mixed by Nathaniel Morgan at Buckminster Palace, and mastered by Wayne Peet at Newzone Studio. It is OUT NOW–please check the links below for a few listens, commitment free.
Party Pace ICE Album Release, August 10, 2017 @ happylucky no. 1 (734 Nostrand Ave, BK NY) 8:00pm. Album art by TJ Huff (huffart.com). Release by Adam Hopkins & pfMENTUM. $10 door includes CD or Digital Download and complimentary refreshments. Full album for purchase and streaming via Bandcamp:
I am a Myk Freedman. You are maybe a Myk Freedman too, but you maybe are not. Lap steel guitarist Myk Freedman is definitely THE Myk Freeman, and he put a band together some years ago to play his amazing songs. Myk has two full books of one page songs that can be played in a variety of styles at a variety of tempos, and still work to make you feel things. A year ago, to the day, we recorded this music in Brooklyn. That day (and most days) the Myk Freedman’s were Myk Freedman (lap steel guitar), Patrick Breiner (reeds), Kenny Warren (trumpet), Jason Vance (banjo/spoons), myself on bass, and Carlo Costa (drums). You’ll notice many frequent collaborators in there, which is a good sign for a great recording. The record came out today, exactly one year after it was recorded. It is good and it is different and I think many of you out there will enjoy it. Feel free to take a few free listens via Bandcamp. If you like what you hear I recommend buying it.
The very fine people at happylucky no. 1 records (mainly and completely Liane Fredel, who paid for the recording, musicians, pressing, and did the amazing art and layout herself) did a great thing for us by putting out this record. We’d love to pay them back in some small part by selling a few of these and getting it heard by the world. I hope you enjoy it! If you do, please spread the word. You can check it all out here:
In recent news, the 65Fen Music Series, which I help curate with a crew of awesome people, is going on a hiatus after our May 15 show. The series still has a lot of momentum, but we are searching for a new venue to host our weekly Monday night series. Some things in the works, but not firm enough to announce just yet.
So that makes May 1 my last curated concert in the current space, which is near and dear to my heart. I can’t think of a more exciting way to go out than to share a set of music with one of my favorite musical collaborators Chris Hoffman on cello. We’ll play a duo set of some varied things–trying out some new material for Bells & Wires, but in this reduced format. We play at 10:00p, but be sure to come early to hear Jason Mears & Quentin Tolimieri at 9:00p. I’ll miss the current space for sure, but am hopeful and excited for the future of the series. I made a flier:
UPDATE: Hank Roberts has awesomely agreed to play with Chris and I on May 1 at 65Fen. I have been trying to set up shows with Hank and Chris to play duo for some time, so I hope I don’t mess up that idea. Hank is one of my all-time musical heroes, so this makes a show that I was already quite excited about that much more exciting!
My friends Danny Gouker & Kenny Warren run one of my favorite series’ in NYC called A.E. Randolph Presents. The series was started by Will McEvoy over two years ago, and it continues to run strong at the Bar Below Rye in Williamsburg (247 S 1st Street). It was very awesome of Danny & Kenny to allow me to curate the entire month of March, and I am very excited about the concerts. Please come support the series if you can! These will be great nights of music. The lineups are as follows:
Wednesday March 1:
NO SHOW
Wednesday March 8:
9:30pm: Grey McMurray (guitar/vocals) w/ Clarice Jensen (cello) & Qasim Naqvi (drums)
https://soundcloud.com/grey-mcmurray
10:30pm: Hank Roberts (cello) / Gerald Cleaver (drums)
http://www.hankrobertsmusic.com
Wednesday March 15:
WRY: Tim Berne (saxophone) / Mary Halvorson (guitar) / Ches Smith (drums)
TWO SETS: 9:30pm & 10:30pm
Wednesday March 22:
9:30pm: Little Cobweb: Angela Carlucci (vocals/guitar) w/ Leslie Graves, Casey Holford, & TJ Huff)
https://littlecobweb.bandcamp.com
10:30pm: Ideal Bread: Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone) / Kirk Knuffke (cornet) / Adam Hopkins (bass) / Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
https://www.facebook.com/LacyBread
Wednesday March 29:
9:30pm: Jean Rohe (guitar/vocals), others TBA
10:30pm: Moonheart: Kim Mayo / Michael Sachs
So it’s been a full year (almost) since I’ve posted on this page. Having nothing to do with it being a new year, I’m going to leave some more stuff here in the coming months. It has most to do with me being excited about a lot of upcoming things, regardless of the year.
For starters my sextet’s next show is also our last show before going into EastSide Sound Studio to record on January 16. The band is sounding on top of it, so this would be a good one to check out. Show details:
Wednesday January 4 @ Bar Below Rye (A.E. Randolph Presents)
247 S 1st Street, Brooklyn NY
Music @ 9:30p, Sextet (to be named) at 10:30p
Lineup:
AH-bass, compositions
Anna Webber-saxophone
Ed Rosenberg-saxophone
Josh Sinton-saxophone
Jonathan Goldberger-guitar
Devin Gray-drums
I’m excited about this music. Some other things on the horizon are the release of Party Pack ICE (details VERY soon–been a long time in the making), recording with Chris Hoffman’s trio (one of my favorite bands to play in), a number of great shows (listed in the Performances section of this very site, and pulling together the bills for March at A.E. Randolph Presents which I’ll be curating. Also, as always there is great music at 65Fen Music Series in Flatbush. We have a great crew of curators–we’ve welcomed Caroline Davis and Jean Rowe to join the long time crew of myself, Anais Maviel, Patrick Breiner, and Jake Henry. So stay tuned. I promise some good things to come.
A long-standing band of mine, Party Pack Ice, recorded an album last year. The playing on the record sounds great, and I’m currently working with Nathaniel Morgan to finish the mixes. We should have a finished product by the Spring time. One of my favorite tracks on the album had two versions that I really loved, but it didn’t make sense to have the same song on the album twice. So I have released the alternate take of a song called The Stephanies via Bandcamp. Please enjoy the track free of charge! It was mixed and rough mastered by Nathaniel Morgan, and features these awesome musicians:
Patrick Breiner-tenor saxophone (solo)
Eric Trudel-tenor saxophone
Dustin Carlson-guitar
AH-bass
Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums
adam-hopkins 