Song of the Day 7/5: Hippo Campus, “Way It Goes”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Indie pop-rock tends to get overshadowed these days, but the dudes abide. In this case in a band called Hippo Campus. They make brisk, melodic, bright and tight songs, leading with guitars and some sublime vocals.

“Way It Goes” is a perfect example. In fact, it makes a good song of the summer, even though it was the summer of 2017 when the song came out on the band’s first full album, “Landmark.”

They met at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in Minnesota, where three of them were studying jazz and lead singer Nathan Stocker took up opera. Then they decided, hey kids, let’s start a band. They did, and it took off quickly. NPR and Paste declared Hippo Campus a band to watch. They appeared at South by Southwest.

Hippo Campus put out a second album to go with some EPs. “Good Dog, Bad Dream,” another EP, comes out Aug. 6. The group is named for a part of the brain the guitarist read about in a psychology book.

Here’s a track from the upcoming EP. The music’s a little jumpier and the guys look a little different. But they’re rolling right along.