Hoops debut full-length Routines is due for release on May 5th via Fat Possum, today the band are sharing the albums’s second single “On Top.” “I just felt like writing a cheesy feel-good positive song,” Kevin Krauter (vox, bass) explains. In the song’s trippy music video, Hoops perform on a public access TV show when all of a sudden the viewers find themselves immersed in the performance.

Hoops was born in frontman Drew Auscherman’s teenage bedroom as a solo ambient and beat-driven project à la Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica. Auscherman named the band after the hoop houses at the nursery where he worked (not for his home state’s mania for basketball). Eventually he corralled a few of his friends to flesh out his songs, and the music inevitably shifted toward something new: more melodic, more guitar-driven, more extroverted.

After a few months of touring, Hoops – which consists of 3 songwriters and an ever-shifting live set-up where the band often alternates instruments and positions on-stage – returned to Indiana to set up their gear in Krauter’s parents’ basement and began experimenting with the studio-recorded tracks. Some songs they only tinkered with, others they scrapped completely and rebuilt from the ground up. They were determined to make a record that sounded like Hoops. The result is Routines, the sharpest and clearest delineation of the band’s sound thus far, drawing from and emphasizing each members’ distinctive influences and personal styles: a couple of guys making music that is larger than themselves.

Hoops is Drew Auscherman (vox, guitar), Kevin Krauter (vox, bass), Keagan Beresford (vox, keys, guitar), and James Harris (drums).

Tour Dates – new dates in BOLD
5/02 – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug and Pint
5/03 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
5/04 – Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen
5/07 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
5/08 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
5/09 – Brighton, UK @ The Green Door Store
5/10 – London, UK @ The Lexington
5/14 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival
5/15 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
5/17 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links *
5/18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
5/19 – Austin, TX @ The Sidewinder *
5/21 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf *
5/22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar *
5/23 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
5/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
5/25 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall *
5/27 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
5/28 – George, WA @ Sasquatch Music Festival
6/01 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry *
6/02 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
6/06 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
6/07 – Washington, DC @ DC9 ^
6/08 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right ^
6/09 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott ^
6/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle ^
6/12 – Montreal, QC @ Brasserie Beaubien ^
6/13 – Ottawa, ON @ Pressed ^
6/14 – Toronto, ON @ The Baby G ^
6/15 – Detroit, MI @ El Club ^
6/17 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi

* w/ PARTS
^ w/ Joy Again