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Mark Hoppus’ Pick: Frightened Rabbit

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When he’s not commandeering the stage as the boisterous bassist for SoCal punks Blink-182, Tweeting wisdom to more than 1.6 million followers, or handling album production duties for bands like Motion City Soundtrack and New Found Glory, you’d think Mark Hoppus would turn down the music.

Not. Possible.

In our continuing series Hopp on Pop, Hoppus shares his favorite acts, culled from his incessant pursuit of all that rocks. (Click here to discover Mark’s previous picks, including SXSW performers Broken Bells, Rogue Wave, and Neon Trees, pop punkers We the Kings, and many more.) Check out his new entry below, and come back to SPIN.com every Wednesday for Mark’s latest discovery.

Be sure to follow more of Mark’s opinions and exploits via Twitter and on his blog! And check out Mark’s 8 Favorite Albums of 2009!

FRIGHTENED RABBIT

HOMETOWN:
Selkirk, Scotland

THE BASICS:
Led by frontman Scott Hutchison’s occasionally morbid but mesmerizing worldview, this Scottish quintet broke through with their second album, 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, and its two cornerstone songs: “The Modern Leper,” in which Hutchison compared a break-up to having leprosy, and “Keep Yourself Warm,” with its hallmark line, “It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.” They’ve just released another stirring collection, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, and triumphed at last week’s South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

WHERE HOPP HEARD THEM FIRST:
“I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, and, on a day off, went on the hunt for some new vinyl. I found this album on the shelf of Bleecker Street Records. I’d heard of them before, but never any of their music. Picked it up there, and have been enjoying their music ever since.”

WHY THEY ROCK:
“This band reminds me a lot of Teenage Fanclub. Maybe it’s the accent. Dreamy, ’90’s alt-rock guitars. Ethereal. Great music to chill to after a long night out.”

HOPP’S TOP TRACK:
“‘Nothing Like You.’ Upbeat, 16th note guitar chorus, with the strange hook of ‘She was not a cure for cancer.'”

LISTEN: Frightened Rabbit, “Nothing Like You”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CD8z7eP9xnU

FIND OUT MORE:
MySpace