Hippo Campus is a band of four boys from Minneapolis who thought it would be cute to split the biological word “hippocampus” into two. So very high school, which isn’t coincidental considering that the band members graduated from high school in St. Paul in 2013. That being said, I like their music. A lot. Indie pop/rock on the same line as four-man band Capybara, Hippo Campus woke me up to the kind of summer happiness that is rare in the middle of a Midwestern winter.
Hippo Campus depends on a clever bass line and a distinct vocal harmony to match. “Suicide Saturday” contains a rare maturity, with musical coordination and lyrical savvy that’s difficult to come by in most contemporary independent music, let alone music produced by a quartet of hormonal teenage boys. The song captures the isolation of teenhood in a way that becomes more and more clear through every listen, whether through the dreary intro strum of heavy guitar strings, or the vague lyrics on a your average emotionally stunted teenaged girl.
The band, which just recently released EP Bashful Creatures, already deserves to be more popular than they are. With youthful excitement and a fresh sound, Hippo Campus gives us a novelty worth remembering.
Cool stuff!