[UPDATE: Hippo Campus's appearance on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" has been postponed from Wednesday to Jan. 19, due to Corden testing positive for COVID and cancelling all tapings this week.]
With its third album less than a month away, Twin Cities pop-rock quintet Hippo Campus is kicking into high gear with a new single and a late-night TV appearance.
The band is due to perform Jan. 24 on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" (11:35 p.m., CBS). And the band dropped a lightly bobbing, sweetly romantic new song just after midnight Tuesday titled "Ride or Die" — one of three tracks the band could play on Corden's show that have already been issued from the new album.
Those other two tracks, "Boys" and "Semi Pro," were posted online starting in October to star the roll-out of "LP3," which will be released Feb. 3 via New York label Grand Jury Music and is now available for pre-order. A video for "Semi Pro" was also recently issued featuring footage shot at the St. Paul Saints' CHS Field.
For "Ride or Die," Grand Jury sent out a very-limited-edition flexidisc single to be given out for free Tuesday at independent record stores nationwide (including Down in the Valley, Eclipse, Barely Brothers, Electric Fetus, Mill City Sound and Rock Paper Scissors in the Twin Cities). The band also posted a fun video for the song that cleverly shows them up to no good in a downtown alleyway.
"LP3" is the band's first full-length record since 2018's "Bambi," though the group did drop an EP last summer to help tide fans over, titled "Good Dog, Bad Dream."
In the interim, the band members have been active with solo recordings, side projects such as last year's album by Baby Boy, and other studio work producing for the likes of Miloe and Gully Boys. Oh yeah, and they also had that pandemic to deal with.
Speaking of: Hippo Campus is due to hit the road again starting with European dates the first week of February, which are pending the many different variations in travel restrictions overseas due to omicron. A U.S. tour is scheduled to begin Feb. 17 at the Sylvee in Madison, Wis., and then wrap up April 23 at the Armory in Minneapolis. Good luck, boys.
