Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Hotel Junk Box (2016-2017)

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Release date as it says below is Friday June 30th.

A few months back, they shared the new song "Electric City Rivalry" which can be streamed/downloaded at https://www.hoteljunkbox.com/

And as the track list shows for Hotel Junk Box below, is part of this record.

I am biased as I love these guys and a great number of their songs. And namely, consider Terror and Everything After as an all-time classic (debut album). So naturally, my interest is rather high for any new music from them. 2015's New World Sundown I did like a good amount of as well of course.

I guess though my take on what this album may be is sort of a combination of music from different times. Kind of like Enchant's Time Lost or even Nuts and Bolts from Kevin Gilbert in some ways.

The 5 new songs, including "Electric City Rivalry," I see is where HOTLT is at now.

The b-sides and demos? sure, some gems may be found.

One song that I likely posted in the past about in here, but is probably worth mentioning again being "Son of the Iron Sheep" can be streamed and downloaded on their Bandcamp Page Here. I recall loving a ton and felt was as good as much of the Terror and Everything After work.  That track is not on this album, however, per the post below, "Boomerang" is.

I just recall between adding "Weather Maps for Nikolai" and "Son of the Iron Sheep" I was totally thinking these guys could do no wrong. And those were all during that period, which is why "Boomerang" may be the track I'm most looking forward to on this album,

But, we'll see how this goes. I'm certainly excited to get all these new tunes to hear from these guys, and as the end of that post says, they are working on their next record, which I wonder if the 5 new songs on Hotel Junk Box fit more in with this approach/style, and their next release will be something a little different? who knows. I'm also just happy they are still releasing and making music (per many other very talented bands not able or even wanting to, etc).

I'll also be sure to bump this next week or a little later with any more thoughts (or a video?). Unfortunately, I'm still amidst the process of moving my stuff into storage. My Social Media presence isn't 100%, etc. Hopefully come July though I will have more time.  But from now until as it turns out, July 3rd 6AM, I am supposed to be focusing on Boxing things up, purging, cleaning, etc.

Moving is a bitch of course.

Our new album, 'Hotel Junk Box', will arrive 6/30. The album features five new songs, as well as 14 rarities and b-sides from the Hotel vault. We wanted to compile a lil somethin' for all you cats who have been around since the beginning. The majority of these rarities have never been released. The five new jams were recorded over the past year or so, featuring AJ, Brandon, Dan A., Dan B., Jon, and Justin. Fevers and Electric City were written during the Old Dominion era, Boomerang was a Terror leftover, The Fool was a New World Sundown leftover, and The Escape Artist dates way back to '06. We 2017ified them and we're really proud with how they turned out. We hope you guys enjoy the tunes. In the meantime, we'll keep working on LP5. 



1. Fevers
2. Electric City Rivalry
3. Boomerang
4. The Fool
5. The Escape Artist
6. Duo (Demo)
7. Bad Canterbury (Live Workshop Demo)
8. Aging Archimedes (Acoustic Demo)
9. Make Waves (Demo)
10. The General's Girl (Acoustic Demo)
11. Lazarus (Demo)
12. Howlin' Lessons (Acoustic Demo)
13. Winterside (Live Demo)
14. Temple Arms (Acoustic Demo)
15. Omar the Tentmaker
16. The Guns of Soho (Instrumental)
17. Winchester Devil Grass (Demo)
18. Weathermaps for Nikolai (Live at Nice Garage)
19. Arts n Economics (Live at Nice Garage)

Hotel of the Laughing Tree - new song "Steamwalker" (live)

I only heard a few seconds of it this morning, but I'm sure it'll be a track to anticipate on the record they are working on right now, likely coming out in 2014.

Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Mammoth Skin Pt. 1 [EP] (2012)

11/27/12 3:10PM





The whole thing can be streamed and downloaded (name your price). More comments should come on this entry and/or the Album Index which should be right around the corner.




1 link



1. Make Waves
2. People That We Please
3. Flowers and Lawyers
4. Waterfall Games
5. Brotherly Thunder




 from November 17th

Hello,
It has been quite some time since we have updated anyone on what we're up to.

We have had a lot of changes since we released Terror in 2011. Band members have left, new ones have joined.
We have reflected on our existence. Where were we, where we want to go. A lot has happened behind the scenes. We buried ourselves in a hole and we are now just preparing to come out of it. First though, we

'd like to share our thoughts on what has transpired during this time.

Hotel now consists of 4 members. These 4 members have been working on an EP for the good part of a year. Progress has been slow due to many factors. Mainly personal lives getting in the way, but also our complete jadedness towards the music industry in general. We've seen a lot of talented musical acts get the shaft in the past few years due to the fickleness of this unforgiving machine. I don't think it's any secret that the music industry is in chaos in it's present form. It's made us question if we really want to be a part of it.

At this point, we really don't even have all the answers as to what we want to do. We know we are done caring about record and merch sales, touring in a van that breaks down more oft than not, playing in venues that time has forgotten. We don't mean to sound unappreciative. We love you guys SO much. Maybe we lack the drive these days. Maybe adulthood has made us more logical and less passionate. Maybe we just don't really enjoy it. We're not charismatic, rockstar-esque . Half of us play video games over the weekends and have modest social lives. We enjoy simple things and the potential glamour that so many chase is not something we really desire. This band started because we wanted to write music that we enjoyed and would hope others enjoyed as well. You can lose track of that after awhile. We certainly have. And it made us hide.

We know one thing for sure, and that is that we love to write, record and play music. We are going to continue doing that. As I mentioned, we have been working on an EP that is now completed. The name of the release will be "Mammoth Skin Pt 1." We will be releasing this digitally. Pay what you want. We plan on playing shows whenever possible as well.

And that's it. No big promotion and whatnot. This is a release that is lacking any bells and whistles. We're just throwing some songs up and we hope you guys enjoy them.
We'll be releasing it on NOVEMBER 27TH, 2012.

For now, Hotel is taking it day by day, and we'll see where that takes us. As always, we appreciate the support we have always seemed to have gotten, undeserved or not. We figured we'd repay that with some truth.

Well, not enough time to add all that I'd like to about this, but 1st and foremost, it's good to see they are still a band and have this new DIGITAL EP coming next Tuesday, 11/27.

The music industry can suck all kinds of ass, since it seems you either have to be a flavor-of-the-month or a local/regional artist/band to sustain a reasonable length career. HOTLT are a band who have (had?) a ton of potential after an amazing debut record. Hopefully they will go the way of like Fates Warning, with even a reduced lineup, the importance to keep making music outweighs the challenges their lack of financial stability allows. Perhaps they'll be able to do what Water & Bodies seemingly are doing, be a regional/local and release new music every year or 2, even digitally. Maybe they could setup a Pledgemusic or Kickstarter for their next record.

But in the mean time, I'm pretty excited to hear these 5 songs next week. The fact it's titled "Mammoth Skin Pt 1." suggest they have ideas for a part 2 or more. Maybe a little like BTBAM latest concept. Although I'd be surprised if this EP is as long as the BTBAM EP from last year.

"If I were a Rich Man...yada yada ditel dum..."

Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Terror and Everything After (2011) (2.0)

Go Stream the whole thing here

Here's the original review link one more time

In celebration of this record finally being released in a mere hours on February 1st, 2011. I figured another brand spanking new entry about it seems like a good idea.



1 Barnaby Bison's Blind 3:38
2 Another Harvard Renaissance 5:17
3 Gods Great Gumball Machine 6:49
4 Noah 3:15
5 Winchester Devil Grass 5:05
6. Weather Maps For Nikolai 4:02
7 Sanctuary 4:30
8 Gunpowder Falls 5:33
9 Bad Canterbury 3:22
10 Forging the Family Name 1:26
11 Mont St. Michel 3:36
12 Ghosts in the Basement 4:55
13 Terror and Everything After 8:01
14 Lazarus 4:11

still amazing, and the best album of 2011 that I've heard, thus far. Hopefully a lot more people will now check it out and catch-on like I did the past few months.

Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Terror and Everything After (2011)

10/13/10 11:06PM

facebook link

Drop date for this album is February 1st, 2011. Here's the cover art.



Brookvale Records posting

"Barnaby Bisons Blind" and "Bad Canterbury" can both be streamed here, and both are awesome.

8/27/10 6:52PM

Terror And Everything After (Recording Doc) from Hotel Of The Laughing Tree on Vimeo.

here's a documentary on this album.

8/6/10 10:49PM

Terror and Everything After from Hotel Of The Laughing Tree on Vimeo.

So I just checked out this video they posted on twitter of the title cut (live) from their upcoming debut lp, and now must admit I'm a little more intrigued by this record.

now after hearing the title cut from Terror and Everything After, I may be right about them, probably more than I would have expected. Hopefully if it comes out soon enough, that will be more clear. But in the mean time, I can't help but be a little more excited to hear it.

HotLT I 1st checked out last year, with their debut ep Old Dominion



here's what I posted on rym (and maybe in this blog, I forget)

as much as this band seem HIGHLY influenced by some specific groups, namely The Dear Hunter and Margot and the Nuclear So and So's.

This is

a) a DEBUT ep

b) a collection of very well-written, hooky, layered songs.

I'm just guessing here, but I think Hotel of the Laughing Tree, if they play their cards right, won't fall into the trap of clone-bandhood. Certainly, there are many cases of bands who either have potential and never go far with it, or seem to limited to borrowing from other, better artists sound. However, most of the time, they don't develop as songwriters. There's enough here on this EP that may lead me to believe that. Not a bad track. "Lowlands 1887" is epic. "Arts 'N Ecomonic" is catchy.