The Hotelier - Goodness (May 27, 2016) Album • Page 15

Yeah I'm feeling Jake's vibe on this one. I don't love the mix on the song, but I don't think it particularly matters all that much because the song itself is incredible no matter what the production sounded like.

Some of my favorite albums don't sound "good" from a production standpoint, chiefly among them La Dispute, which just doesn't sound right at all, but the songs speak for themselves.

 

I love the mix. The snare being at the forefront of the mix sets the pace, imo. And I like the vocal mix fluctuating.

 

Ill be real the first time I listened to Piano Player I was like "whoa yeah this mix is weird"... But as I've listened to it more, for me, it doesn't sound off at all.
I think It Never Goes Out and Home are just so similarly produced, my brain was used to Hotelier songs sounding a specific way. So when I heard this the first time and it was different, I was a little put off. But I honestly love it now, and love how it sounds. I also don't think the vocals are as far back in the mix as I initially thought (other than the first verse, but that's obviously on purpose). Without a doubt they're further back than we're used to in Hotelier songs, but I think the song sounds pretty normal vocally for the most part.

 

The vocals are low but mostly they're being masked by the very intrusive snare sound

 

just listened to this for the first time, the one opener on the tour that i hadn't heard of yet (though they're not on my date). actually only looked them up because i was googling the drummer of mal blum, Alyssa Kai, who plays in this band too. they were one of the better drummers i've seen in that style of music, was really great

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Hotelier gets a lot of praise here, but I haven't yet been able to get into them. I keep trying, expecting something to click.

 

If you listen to Home and don't feel anything, I don't know what to tell you. One of the most powerful albums I've ever heard. Try reading along with the lyrics as you listen, if you haven't already.

 

I don't know your personal life, so I can't really recommend any songs that would just "do it" for you. This is one of those bands that writes stuff people connect with on a deeply emotional level. For me, the loss of friends at a young age really hit home. Maybe someday it will register for you after you experience something. "Your Deep Rest" and "An Ode To The Nite Ratz Club" got me through some rough times. Perhaps somewhere down the line a Hotelier song will do the same for you. I hope it does.

 

Listen with lyrics

 

Definitely will give it another shot! Thanks guys.

 

It took me a number of listens to "Home" to get into them. Then one day, the first time I was alone in our new house, "Introduction" popped into my head out of nowhere, so I blasted the record and then I was hooked.

As others have said, the lyrics are deeply emotional and I think it's great for a turning point in your life.

 

I literally been trying for this album for over a year. It only clicked with me a week or two ago. Glad I've given it this much of a chance.

 

If I'm ever feeling like shit sometimes I'll put in Home so I can feel like shit even more and I'm perfectly okay with that.

 

idk, I don't think Home is a depressing album as much as it is a cathartic and emotional one, so I don't really get listening to it and feeling sadder than you were before, but whatever works for you

 

Put on Among The Wildflowers or Dendron and watch my insides deteriorate.

 

i focused on Alyssa more than I did Mal honestly haha

 

Hey peeps,

Happy March. For all of y'all whom this is new for, welcome to my semi-regular newsletter where I keep you in the loop of what is going on in my work/life/head. For those of you returning, thanks for not unsubscribing or sending rude reply mail or signing us up for Ted Cruz's email list. Going to get right into it.

So we put our record up for preorder...! Which is the second most exciting day to putting out a record next to releasing the whole thing. The two cooler colors (imo) have sold out. But you can still get it in blue/orange or classic black. Or if you are a wild collector type you could buy the four color bundle, that has all the variants. But like, they all sound the same... soooooo there are no wrong decisions..... except for not buying the record.... that would be the wrong decision. Link here: Tiny Engines

I know it kind of took us a while to get preorders up after announcing the record. There are a couple reasons for this. One being we had to come up with an alternate album art for Amazon/iTunes/Google. This was something we suspected would happen but something we didn't act on until it was pressing. This is mostly because I am stubborn and want the album art to be what it is. To me, it is semi-inseparable to the material. So the alternate is a response to the original and the circumstances and not an equally representative piece. It is, however, able to stand on its own for people who want it and that is cool.

Second was that Xirin and I were working on a video to release for y'all in conjunction to the preorder. In 2013 I got a camcorder handed-down to me from a partner's parent. While in a lot of ways VHS is now seen sort of as aesthetic junk, I thought it was cool then and still do think it's kind of cool. I shot a bunch of stuff while on our first US tour in 2014 with Oso Oso and then that camera broke and we bought a digital camera to shoot with. There was a funny idea of making a mini short film called "A Sad, Boring Movie" that had all the natural cuts that VHS has this is generally uneventful and follows no narrative but sort of is changing frequently enough to keep you interested. That's sort of what I like about VHS. Anyway, I bought a new camera to get all the footage converted to digital and got to watch it all which was fun. The idea for the video was just to focus on good moments with one another and use datamoshing, also sometimes seen as aesthetic junk, in a way that literally allowed certain moments to "sustain". Sort of like how good moments can. David Milstein did a good job of working with my intention for using that style of editing and make it work in a really cool way. Anyway, thanks for being patient. Our new song Piano Player is available for free or name-your-price download on our bandcamp. Both Piano Player and Goodness pt. 1 are available on iTunes, Spotify, other streaming services (with the alternate album art as described above). Here is a link where you can read a write up that Ian Cohen did for Spin about Goodness and shows the video for Piano Player: The Hotelier Find Love In a Hopeless Place | SPIN

Releasing this record has been pretty funny up to this point as we are for the first time releasing music that is going to be responding to an expectation. To this all I'd like to say, if you follow music writers who have the record/are talking about the record: tune them out. We are all really proud of this record, but we would like to let you all have your own personal relationship and reaction to our new material. That means having your own expectation and interacting with it in regards to that. I'm excited to hear what everyone thinks of it.

In other news, we leave on tour in a few weeks and I'm pretty stoked to probably have to do less work and be able to travel around with bands I adore as people and musicians. For all you peeps who may have not heard of all the bands we are about to tour with, I'm going to simultaneously give you info about our tour and try to sell you on them.

Before we leave we're playing a few shows which will sort of serve as practice for our buddy Jade who is filling in on guitar for these tours.

Mar 26: Worcester, MA @ The Raven w/ Scott Ayotte
Apr 4: Boston, MA @ Northeastern University w/ Kevin Devine, Petal (students only)
Apr 8: Newark, DE @ University Of Delaware w/ Thin Lips
Apr 9: Storrs, CT @ University Of Connecticut w/ Florist

Then tour starts in Europe with Rozwell Kid. Sadly we will not have copies of Goodness on this tour, but we will play a bunch of new songs. We've toured more with RK than many bands at this point and I think it'll be really fun to go to a bunch of cities we've never been to with them. Rozwell Kid, for those who haven't listened, is a really impressively fun band and probably the most 'solid' band I've gotten to meet. And by that I mean, everything from their lyrics to musicianship to performance has no frills. It's a band with so much care and playfulness to their craft that is just unflinching. Really rad 'cheeky' pop music.

Apr 19: Paris, FR @ Le Klub
Apr 20: Orléans, FR @ Le 108
Apr 21: Luzern, CH @ Treibhaus
Apr 22: Bologna, IT @ Covo Club
Apr 23: Turin, IT @ The Astoria
Apr 24: Vienna, AT @ Arena
Apr 25: Prague, CZ @ 007
Apr 26: Leipzig, DE @ Conne Island
Apr 27: Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia

Then we break off for a second and play a couple shows without Rozwell Kid.

Apr 29: Oslo, NO @ Pokalen
Apr 30: Stockholm, SE @ Hangaren
May 1: Gothenburg, SE @ Skjul Fyra Sex

Then we meet up with Rozwell Kid again, as well as Into It Over It. Evan has been a bid for a little bit and someone I got to talk with a bit about our new record while I was writing it. We played an acoustic show together back in November where we shared our respective records with one another and I sort of found myself laughing uncontrollably through most of it. By that I mean, I generally find music funny. Especially when it blows me away. Especially when it hits me unexpectedly. The new Into It Over It record is really great. The first half is very clean and nice. The second half is wild and chaotic and the most impressive musicianship I've heard from them. Excited to see these songs live.

May 3: Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
May 4: Cologne, DE @ Underground
May 5: Amsterdam, NL @ Winston
May 6: Antwerp, BE @ Kavka
May 7: Southampton, UK @ Joiners
May 8: Bristol, UK @ Thekla
May 9: London, UK @ Scala
May 10: Manchester, UK @ Soundcontrol
May 11: Glasgow, UK @ Restless Natives Fest
May 12: Leeds, UK @ Brudnell Social Club
May 13: Nottingham, UK @ Bodega

I've already made this email a little too long, we have US dates as well. I'll talk more about those for an email in May. All Facebook events and ticket links can be found here: The Hotelier Tour Blog, Shows

Beyond this, I've been playing a lot of backgammon, dominoes, and poker. I just started getting into The Lonely Forest a bunch which my friend Scott has told me about for forever. Their songs have not left my head for a week. My friend Michelle is streaming her new record as Japanese Breakfast which is sooooooo good. I'll put the link here: Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp: Exclusive Album Premiere on Hype Machine

Other than that, excited to play these shows. Excited to keep doing music in a way that feels good. If you want to add friends to this mailing list, send them this link: The Hotelier Loveletter
If you want to unsubscribe, click this link: The Hotelier Loveletter

Thanks for listening/buying/talking.

Later!
-Christian

 

don't think pasting the entire email was necessary really, hahaha

 

oh my god this is so fucking good

i'm sorry guys

 

the way goodness pt. 2 kicks in full force after a minute of kinda uncertain tension is amazing

that's all i'm saying for now okay bye

@Jason Tate is the end of goodness pt. 2 intentional or is it just my .....unofficially obtained copy?

 

howwww whyyyyy

 

Sounds like some people I know hahaha

 

I'm more impressed he mentioned that because it has been getting so much good press.

 

Hey, if the critics' opinions don't matter, send me a copy.