Biography
Centered on the collaboration between singer and guitarist Renee LoBue and drummer-producer Ray Ketchem, an eccentric New York City five-piece called the Melting Hopefuls offered indie rock that occasionally veered into odd territory yet remained largely tuneful, merging folk leanings with noisy elements. LoBue and Ketchem launched the Melting Hopefuls in 1990, bringing in bassist Sue Kresge and electric guitarist Max Siebel—LoBue generally preferring her folk-tinged acoustic—before gigging around area clubs. Their self-released demo cassette Prune Juice appeared in 1991, with Magnet for Stains following in 1992 and Heal Back Harder arriving in 1993. After signing to the Philadelphia-based indie Big Pop, the Melting Hopefuls cut their first full-length, Space Flyer, across multiple sessions spanning 1992 and 1993, though the album surfaced only in early 1994. By then the band had enlisted a third guitarist, Lorraine Turri, whose name appears on the sleeve despite her absence from the recordings. Space Flyer earned strong notices, and the wry single “Pulling an All-Nighter on Myself” earned notable spins on alternative radio. That track was reworked for the band’s subsequent outing, the eight-song EP Viva la Void. Siebel, Kresge, and Turri departed before further sessions could occur. Following a stretch of rehearsal, LoBue and Ketchem added guitarist Peter Langland-Hassan in 1997. LoBue switched to keyboards and bass synthesizer; as the reconfigured trio’s sound evolved and Langland-Hassan began co-writing with LoBue, the group renamed itself Elk City. Its debut album under the new moniker, Status, came out in 2000.
Albums