Hop Along Pull Back the Curtain on Touring Life in “Somewhere A Judge” Music Video
The video features footage from their North American tour
Photo by Tonje Thilesen Music News Hop Along
Hop Along’s new video for “Somewhere A Judge” is a study in the micro. It’s a compilation of all the fuzzy little moments that make up life on the road, from late-night noodle binges to hokey museum detours, to impromptu solo dance parties.
The song, off their most recent album Bark Your Head Off, Dog, released in April via Saddle Creek, is classic Hop Along. The song’s bouncy, buoyant guitar lines are anchored by singer Frances Quinlan’s poetic, often inscrutable lyrics. “Afternoon vanilla sun / crawls away across the lawn / through the phone I pull you / and drag your voice around,” she sings in the song’s chorus, capturing the alternating comfort/chaos dynamic of the touring lifestyle the video documents.
The video features grainy, home-video-esque footage of the band’s escapades in various bars, studios, venues and green rooms during their national headlining tour in support of Bark Your Head Off, Dog. It’s intercut with footage of the new Hop Along mural on the Studebaker building in the band’s hometown of Philadelphia, done by the artist Nosego. The video gives new context to the song’s final refrain. “I don’t know why I’m so mean each time I come to visit,” Quinlan sings as we see clips of the band performing for packed venues, intercut with Nosego finishing up the mural in their hometown. It sounds like an apology of sorts, for how the emotional highs and lows of touring can leave them all feeling drained by the time they finally come back home.
Hop Along will be wrapping up the North American leg of their tour at Pitchfork OctFest in New York City on Sept. 9. They embark again this fall for a European tour with The Decemberists.
Watch the video below, and find Hop Along’s European tour dates further down.
Hop Along European Tour Dates:
September
09 – New York, N.Y. @ Pitchfork OctFest
October
30 – Paris, France @ Pitchfork Avant-Garde
November
04 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street *
05 – Glasgow, U.K. @ O2 Academy *
07 – London, U.K. @ Eventim Apollo *
08 – Bristol, U.K. @ O2 Academy 1 *
10 – Leeds, U.K. @ O2 Academy *
11 – Nottingham, U.K. @ Rock City *
12 – Manchester, U.K. @ Albert Hall *
14 – Uthrecht, Netherlands @ Grote Zaal TivRe *
15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso *
16 – Berlin, Germany @ Asstra *
(* = w/ The Decemberists)