The Hopefuls, formerly known as The Olympic Hopefuls, were an

indie-pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and ...

group from

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. The Hopefuls won both the Artist of the Year and Best Pop Artist awards at the 2005

Minnesota Music Awards The Minnesota Music Academyhttp://minnesotamusicacademy.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20031004090950/http://www.minnesotamusicacademy.org/about.cfm Minnesota Music Academy is a non-profit music institution in Minnesota. The Academy gives out t ...

Musical style

The Hopefuls' music is peppy, light, and often deliberately corny. They defined their music as "fun music for fun times" and kept their songs upbeat and fast-paced. They often used xylophone fills, synthesizers, and hand claps to, as their webpage said, "keep heads bopping and asses shaking." On their first album, Jackson and Appelwick switched off writing and singing songs; Appelwick sang the odd-numbered songs and Jackson sang the even-numbered. Their songs were typically about romance and the problems associated with it.

History

Darren Jackson and Erik Appelwick, (of Minnesota bands

Kid Dakota Kid Dakota is the musical moniker of Darren Jackson, sometimes accompanied live or in the studio by various band members. History Born in the small, isolated town of Bison, South Dakota, Jackson started performing as "Kid Dakota and the Tumbl ...

and Vicious Vicious, respectively) began recording and performing under the name of Camaro in the early 2000s. As their popularity on the Minneapolis music scene increased, they changed their names to The Olympic Hopefuls and were picked up by 2024 records, a local independent label. They released their debut album, ''The Fuses Refuse to Burn'' in 2004. In 2005 the band was forced to shorten its name to The Hopefuls after being informed that the

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) for the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado ...

owned the trademark to the word "Olympic." The song "Let's Go!" was featured on the second seasons of both ''

The O.C. ''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on Fox in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, with a total of four seasons consisting of 92 episodes. The serie ...

'' and '' Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County''. The song "Drain the Sea" was featured on the first disc of the "

For New Orleans Musicians' Village is a neighborhood located in the Upper Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. Musicians Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis teamed up with Habitat for Humanity International and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to create ...

" charity cd set produced by "Sugarfoot Music". In April 2006, Appelwick left The Hopefuls to play bass for

Tapes 'n Tapes Tapes 'n Tapes is an indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. History Formed in the winter of 2003 at Carleton College, the band has released four albums. First came the self-released ''Tapes 'n Tapes EP'' in 2004, followed by the full-lengt ...

. On December 20, 2008, The Hopefuls released their second album ''Now Playing at the One-Seat Theatre'' on local independent label Draw Fire Records. Due to their busy schedules, all four band members were never present in the recording studio at the same time during the album's recording. The band's last show was played the following year.

Band members

*Darren Jackson: guitar and vocals. *Heath Henjum: bass. *John Hermanson: keyboards, vocals. *Eric Fawcett: drums. *Erik Appelwick: guitar and vocals (until 2006). *Matt O'Laughlin: drums (until 2005).

Discography

Media

In 2018, Paul V. Allan release
''The Hopefuls: Chasing a Rock 'n' Roll Dream in the Minnesota Music Scene''
a book about The Hopefuls and many other related bands (

Spymob Spymob is an American alternative rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Best known for their appearance on the 2003 Star Trak Entertainment compilation '' The Neptunes present Clones'', with the song "Half Steering...", they also provided backi ...

Storyhill Storyhill is an American folk duo, composed of Chris Cunningham and John Hermanson. The acoustic songwriting duo formed in Bozeman, Montana in 1989 simply as Chris & Johnny. They did not adopt the name Storyhill until 1996. They started performi ...

, Vicious Vicious, etc.)

References

External links

*
Minnewiki Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopefuls, The Indie pop groups from Minnesota Musical groups from Minneapolis