• hop along 22

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June 5th, 2013

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Hop Along - Sister Cities

Just wait until you hear this voice...If you want to talk about commitment and intensity, look no further than Frances Quinlan. "Sister Cities" presents her front and center as a powerful and honest storyteller, one who pours everything into her performance. We dare you to look away.

Over the past year or so, it seemed to be an almost weekly occurrence that someone would tell us we must, absolutely must, check out the 90’s-inspired Philadelphia based rock group, Hop Along. Headed up by guitarist, singer and song-writer, Frances Quinlan,with her brother Mark Quinlan on drums, and Tyler Long on bass guitar, Hop Along and their blistering song Sister Cities did not disappoint! 
   One of the primary goals of Shaking Through is to share the inner workings of the creative process, from how songs are inspired and written, to how they are committed to tape. Sister Cities was a breath of fresh air--an explosion of visceral guitars that set the stage for a vocal performance that has to be heard to be believed. The song conjured The Replacements, The Breeders and Throwing Muses, but Frances’ ripping delivery sets her squarely apart. 
   Hop Along arrived at Miner Street on a sunny day in April. The band was joined by Philadelphia guitarist Joe Reinhart (also a local engineer), and keyboard player Peter Helmis. After an hour of setting tempos and guitar sounds, they were well on their way to nailing basic tracks. It was at this point we knew we were on to something amazing. 
   The word of the day was “performance”. While it seems this should be the theme of any recording session, Hop Along really did recall a different era, where “what you say” can be easily eclipsed by the importance of “how you are saying it”. It was an interesting process to watch, and Frances is unrivaled in her focus and dedication to getting her part right. Her lyrics were 95% complete coming in, and that remaining 5% - a line or two, really – had to organically materialize, inspired by the delivery. 
   As you can imagine, this meant we spent a lot of time on the vocals. "I'm known for recording vocals over, and over, and OVER again," laughs Francis. "This was the first time I was working with people who WANTED me to keep going, usually people get sick of it." But the more she explored her performance, the more serendipitous moments bubbled up, many of which became pivotal moments of a song. Considering the final take, we would have let her take all the time in the world...

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LO-RES

16 bit / 44.1 Kbps

582 MB

590.3 MB

139.6 MB

HI-RES

24 bit / 88.2 Kbps

1.7 GB

1.7 GB

147 MB

TRACK SHEET

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