http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tel008e8bM

like always, paul says it all.

American Dream, the new album from Frank Hopkins and Line Of Force is now available. We'll be having a grand ol' shindig in honor of the album on Nov. 22nd at Bubba's Sulky Lounge in Portland, Maine at 9pm. There will be a host of special guests and performance you won't want to miss if you dig creative original rock.
here's the press blurb for your perusal:
Eclectic, uplifting rock and folk with a funk/jazz twist and a heavy dose of political conscience from a critically acclaimed career performer and producer.
tracks include:
    1 Hammer
    2 Erasure
    3 American Dream
    4 Mindwalk
    5 Fiddle While Rome Burns
    6 Forgiveness
    7 Modern Man
  8 Skydiver Song
    9 Plasticine
    10 Open Sleeve Blues
    11 F*k The Man
    On a first listen to eclectic writer/producer  Frank Hopkins' third album, one might think the songs within were reflections upon most recent current events. As it turns out, this collection has been in the works for a long time...

  "I started working on this album really four or more years ago.. some of these songs were written and being performed live as early as 2004. Being known a bit for ranting about the state of affairs in this country, I really wanted to treat the recording process as unhurriedly as possible to be sure as I could that they sounded as good as they could, without losing a sense of urgency and a sense of hope that we can work our way out of our problems.  In the course of that, a whole other album kinda dropped out of me.. (Jan.2007's Make Love 'Til Doomsday) Doomsday was more of a gut reaction, I guess. I got certainly emotionally caught up in the fear of losing my beloved democracy, and out came something a bit more despairing than I usually intend. 'American Dream' for me is a return to what is right, a longer term view that our society is a continually evolving process, that right now, yes, we have turned into a bunch of rotten fascists, leaving our core ideals of civil liberties and the constitution dragging in the dirt, but remember also that nature controls much longer processes and has a much larger view with which to see the world. And nature always wins. So I'm trying to forgive the fascists now so as not to get caught up in their cycles of negative energy. Somewhat strange subject matter maybe for a simple songwriter, but I have always thought music should be much more than yet another pacifying bit of the the zeitgeist the men behind the curtain want spewing out of the entertainment machine. And so, it ended up taking a few extra years to cut the stuff. Strangely, the relevance of the lyrics revealed themselves more and more the further downward we spiraled, so I figured I was onto something good..."

    Whether you agree with his politics or not, there is certainly much to enjoy on this album that is simply universal truth and sometimes just a plain ol' good time as well. The triumphant uplifting feel and funkiness of 'Skydiver Song'  is an anthem for anyone trying anything new or overcoming fears. There is reggae rock, exhorting us to not forget the deep human capacity to love in 'Erasure'. There is barreling country-funk slide to make the whole bar dance in 'Open Sleeve Blues'. The special guest appearances from a whole host of some of the most talented musicians in the Northeast make it a family event.

Line of Force is:

Frank Hopkins (vx. guits.keys.flute)

Chuck Gagne(drums, b.vx)

Matt Hansen(bass)

w special guests:

Megan Jo Wilson (b.vx)

Kenya Hall (b.vx.)

Adam Waxman (b.vx.)

Steven Williams (b.vx.)

Brent Avato (b.vx.)

Katrina Abramo (b.vx.)

John Maclaine (trom.)

Eric Ambrose (trom.)

Lucas Desmond (alto sax.)

Joe Parra (bari. sax.) 

Anna Maria Amoroso (violin)

Mike Chasse (drums)

Thanks ever so much to the Portland Phoenix for their mention of 'make love 'til doomsday' as one of the top 20 albums of 2007. not only because I feel it justly deserved, but also because somebody might buy the other one.
oh and it was icing on the cake to find this list later the same night...
see kids? starving is worth it for all that critical praise!
I am honored to be in the midst of lists of such crazily awesome folks as these.

WCYY Spinout Top Local Spins of 2007

Too Late The Hero – who are you yelling at ?

Headstart – what are you waiting for ?

The Sophmore Beat – four squares

Eggbot – i'm dead

Sidecar Radio – vital signs

Dominic and the Lucid – summer yawns

Daro – entitled

Jake Roche – can't keep my money

Cult Maze – slow vein

Spouse – tonight

Covered in Bees – within the woods

The Leftovers – dance with me

Varsity Drag – skinny ties

Cosades – malarkey

Bullyclub – right to life

The Gray Davies – see, smell, touch

Ruin – bleed to death

Blue Collar Product – addict

Confusatron – minor treat

Ogre – the centurian

Twisted Roots – dig

Highway Jackson – train

Roy Davis – in the end

Dean Ford – as starts shine

The Baltic Sea – no heart march

Hiss and Chambers – glory 1

Lost on Liftoff – greens and yellows

Station 85 – freedumb

Boombazi – something for the dr.

Damien Zygote – ragamuffin

Project Dark - residue

Meantone – two hookers and a case of beer

Frank Hopkins – make love until doomsday

My Disaster - silhouette

Jeff Beam – its hard to wreck a nice beach

Last Chance to Reason – owned by a stingray bard

The Sea Captains – come on, sugar

Rustic Overtones – light at the end

i knew there was a reason I hadn't been writing for a while.
it's cause I'm too damn busy,
thank god summer's here.
i've always been kind of a news junkie, and the last few months I've just quit paying attention all together. It really binds me up in a cycle of hatred. But I happened to notice some news yesterday, that the 'face' of the protest movement, Cindy Sheehan, got tired of being the 'face' and is going back home. This woman has given so much to this country, and the country responds by buying more cheeseburgers, sending more poor kids off to die, and rejoicing because Halliburton stock is through the roof.
My heart aches for her to find peace.




'Us Against Them'



i'm not too broken up no more
bout guns or drugs or games
or the man's tired old and feeble lies
bout from where and from whence they came
i can see right through the blares and glares
of a media long lost in the static in the air
and I don't want none of the circling cycle
 repeating the same verse again
yet I write and I blather and sit on my ass
until the sword is mightier than the pen
i'm more interested in retribution a grand redistribution
of the billions of stolen moments of lovers that have
gone to the angry maw of the machine
i'm more interested in the sanctity of a kiss

i'm not too broken up about all the broken families
who've been bloodied for generations
by a perpetually funded and preconceived notion
that it's a pertinent game of 'us against them'
and even now I'm on the hunt for the next stolen moment
from the work/tax/kill situation
in a superfluous attempt to escape the onslaught
of information over time and exponential increases in 'us against them'
i will sit by my window and listen
listen
listen
to the cycle the circle the undivide
the beginning the middle the ride

i'm not too tired to respect
what is given and taken away
or to forgive the man and his lies
for breaking the family and robbing the grave
i'm done with the mediocrity of the mediocracy
that celebrates the divine in the cheap
I'm done with it eating me up from behind
as my protest becomes the method of enslavement
and I'm done bustin my hump just to finance the pump
and bigger and shittier pavement

i'm more interested in gardens and grapes and joy
not yet gone to the angry maw of the machine
I'm more interested in the sanctity of forgiveness
I'm more into devising an inaction uprising
that chooses not to participate in the game
to take down the notion of mindless devotion
to a 'cause' that is 'us against them'
right now let us prowl look around you now
and find somebody to love
in a last ditch attempt to forget our bodies exist
and eradicate 'us against them'

check it... i got a sweet review in the portland press herald on monday. I'll try to post a copy cos' they gushed and didn't screw up my quotes. not that they would, it just happens a lot and I don't need other people to screw up my talking. I talk bad enough me.

but I'm really proud of my new letter in the Bollard. Go to thebollard.com like you should anyway for Portland news, and under the Views section there is a letter to the editor appropriately headlined 'If They Want Piss They've Got It'

And if you want decent acts traveling through Portland again someday,
FREE THE SKINNY!


June 18th there's a town hall meeting on this subject. The Skinny needs yr help, so come on down and join yr voice to others to support art and life in the downtown district instead of condos and retirement homes. seriously, that's what Florida is for. The Old Port is for drinking, sweet music, art, and soul.

1. powerful and continuing nationalism

2. disdain for human rights

3. identification of enemies as a unifying cause

4. supremacy of the military

5. rampant sexism

6. controlled mass media

7. obsession with national security

8. religion and government intertwined

9. corporate power protected

10. labor power suppressed

11. disdain for intellectuals and the arts

12. obsession with crime and punishment

13. rampant cronyism and corruption

14. fraudulent elections
(this list was put together by political scientist Laurence Britt, after researching Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal, Papadopoulos' Greece, Pinochet's Chile, and Suharto's Indonesia. all generally regarded as very bad for everyone involved.)

just in case anybody else wondered about that line in ghost story and whether it was true or not.
pretty chilling, i'nt it?

mebbe you've heard of peak oil, maybe you ain't. but the most concise reading I've found is matt savinar's  intro essay at www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

you start where he says 'dear reader', right, and learn why I'm saying :

'thanks for being a myspace friend. i'm leaving now to sell my gear and go farming. see ya!'

yours,

frank w. hopkins

here's a preview from the upcoming 'make love 'til doomsday'
ghost story... check it out, y'all.

so for those of you who don't know where I've been, I've been recording an album. I think it should be mixed and mastered by Friday night, which is ambitious since I'm sick as hell. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered in a two week period, and thanks to mr. kyle gervais of cosades fame, I now have the order figured out. The album will be called 'make love 'til doomsday' and will be officially released on January 13th, 2007. It will contain the blueprint for enjoying human survival in the next century, along with some hilarious musings on the current state of sociopolitical affairs.

The first hundred will be a limited edition with no bar code. After January anybody who isn't cool can buy it on i-tunes or whereever, but I expect all of you hip myspacers to want your indie music chem-free and underground and all that.

the album includes the fantastic drum and bass work of my cohorts in 'Line Of Force', Chuck Gagne(of dominic and the lucid fame) and Matt Hansen(of matt hansen fame)

tracks are as follows:

einstein song

the day ignorance won

i was alone

true cost economics

ghost story

cattin' around

tin drum

make love until doomsday

nobody home

don't leave me awake tonight