It's been a long weekend at de Hotel. The crew went into to Relay Recording with Jon Fintel at the helm and layed down all the drum and bass tracks for 4 tunes on Friday, then layed all the guitars and percussion stuff on Saturday and then immediately left the studio to play the Stefanie Speilman benefit show at Oldfield's at 1:45 a.m. We played until the lights went on and then played some more after the crowd asked us to plug back in. It was a short set but it was good to get together with some great bands and support a serious cause. Hotel will be going back in to finish up the remainder of the CD on Wednesday. After that all we need to do is add some extra instruments that we wouldn't normally play live and get the package ready for production.
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Well, songs are being written, pre-production is killing us and more songs are being written. Hotel recently hooked up with recording engineer Jon Fintel at Relay Recording to lay some tracks on an EP of 5 or 6 tunes. Without Fintel a Hotel CD may have never happened, with recording costs so high, so we are forever grateful to him. Look for The Last Hotel to do some group gigs in the near future at the Stefanie Speilman Benfit for Breast Cancer Awareness at Oldfield's on High and then again in November at the 2nd Annual Jeff Buckley Tribute show. Guess which tune we're doing again?
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Matt Toledo of Planet-12 was nice enough to take some photos of the last Oldfield's show. Check them out at this web address: http://www.matthewtoledo.com/photo/2002-07-18_ryanhorns/index.php
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The Last Hotel recently performed at Oldfield's on High Street and apparently rocked the house so much the lights went out. Unfortunately, Two Cow Garage was unable to close the night after a power outage at the bar. For fans hoping to catch them still Two Cow Garage will play on July 27 at Bernie's.
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Well in the time since we last gave you an update, The Last Hotel has a new line up made up of a great bassist named Adam Dowell, a solid new drummer named Dan Bell who played in Stonevelvet, along with Horns, Learned and Faller. They went in to record at Workbook Studio with Neal Schmitt on June 22 and 23 and layed down drum, bass and acoustic guitar tracks on "The One Thing," "The Hope of Getting Out," and "Find a Home" Future recording dates are on the horizon. The sound of the band has improved a great deal with our new members and they are all excited to get out there and perform some shows.
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The Last Hotel will be cramming all five of its members into the WOBN Otterbein Radio studio Tuesday May 14 for "The Local Buzz." Horns will be singing in a hallway underneath a TV and Dirty Bill will be in the woman's john (actually he's almost always in the woman's john
anyways, so no biggie...)
For those not in the Westerville area, stop by the website www.wobn.net and give a listen during Hooch's "The Local Buzz" from around 10 p.m. - 12 a.m.
New Music from the band!
For those who guess at which point Dirty Bill rubs the mic on his crotch, a free malt liquor of your choice if and when you can track Horns down!
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It's amazing when you think that since Dec. 2002 when Hotel started there have been three different drummers. The latest blow is that current drummer Michael Lehman will be moving to Washington DC and regretfully has to leave the band. Fortunately, drummer Andy Kuhar (formerly of Born Digital and now Middleground) will be stepping right in to take up the open spot. The quick replacement will hopefully mean a low down time. Either way, the group is happy to have Kuhar join the ranks, having formerly worked with him in the now-defunct Gigawatt.
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"The Last Hotel" stickers and buttons are now available at all upcoming shows. Be sure to say something if you want one. Thanks to Premiere Printing for doing the job for free!
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MARCH 2002 - The Last Hotel recently debuted its newest line up at the Columbus bar Andyman's Treehouse to great audience receptions. Ryan Horns and guitarist Bill Learned have kept the services of drummer Mike Lehman and added the piano work of Jessica Faller.
Currently Learned has filled in on bass awaiting the return of the prospective bass player from an extended vacation in Florida.
Recording is set to recommence on their debut full-length CD with engineer Neal Schmitt at Workbook Studio. The newer sound of Hotel was described as "very full" with a stronger emphasis on the melody and songwriting abilites of the team.
The band will take the remainder of March off for rehearsing and learning new tunes.
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THE LAST HOTEL has recently suffered a line-up change. Due to a difference creatively and personally, bassist Jeff Rosenbloom is not in the band anymore.
Ryan Horns will now be backed by the capable hands of Columbus' own GIGAWATT (angelfire.com/indie/gigawatt) as the new line up.
Due to the change, Hotel will not be performing shows throughout February and the latter half of January. Look for future Hotel shows in March around Columbus, Athens, Dayton and Toledo.
see you soon,
-The Last Hotel
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OCTOBER: Day One in the studio with Neal S. is completed. Horns, Rosenbloom and Lehman spent the day on Norwich from Noon until after 1 a.m. recording just the basic drum and bass tracks with Neal Schmitt.
Completed were:
1. The Hope of Getting Out
2. Like a Fire on the Ground
3. Find a Home
4. Cold Cars at Night
5. On Your Back
6. How Can I Change
Things were sounding good and the band will be scheduling more days in the next month or so to lay down vocals. Hotel will later bring Learned in to throw a big beautiful dirt pie on all those melodies. The idea, so far, is to record six now and finish them up, then record six more later and do the same. Then the best 10 will be selected for the eponymous album...unless, of course, we find they are all too damn good to leave out
:)
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FINALLY... After almost two years of Ryan Horns playing solo, and one line up change, The Last Hotel will finally begin recording for it's full length album. It will be some time before that comes out, mind you, but for now the band has scheduled one full day with Neal Schmitt at WorkBook Studio.
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The Last Hotel will be opening up for Elephant 6 Recording label's The Minders in September at Bernie's Distillery. The Minders toured with fellow Portland native Elliott Smith last year to critical acclaim. The band hails from Portland, Oregon, via Denver, via Europe. The show date has not been set, but is slotted for September.
UPDATE.............
The date has been set for September 12 at Bernie's Distillery on High Street. The Minders are joined by Bobsled Record's The Waxwings. The Last Hotel will open. That is all.
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The Last Hotel has been included in the new Columbus ALIVE! Compilation CD "Local Music Meltdown 2001," along with many other talented local Columbus bands such as Salthorse, Miranda Sound, Go Robot Go!, Watershed, and The Sovines. Be sure to listen to the track by Magarac. We've never heard of the band before, but the tune is great. The CD was handed out during Comfest for free. Close to 2,000 disks found their way into the sweaty drunken hands of Goodale Park patrons.
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The show was for ColumbusMusic.com. At around 2 a.m. we were surprised to find we were actually going to play. Maybe we should have stopped drinking at Midnight...but we didn't...oops.
This is the review we found in The Other Paper, come Thursday...
The Ryan Horns Band capped off the evening...hushed, sensitive electric folk with dreamy patches of swerving lead guitar. The Treehouse, for whatever reason, relaxes and loosens a full band tremendously, but while Horns and his mates appeared shaky rhythmically, they still got the mood across. The band's songs tend to blend together, four lonely chords slowly chasing each other down a meloncholy folk-pop lane (think Radiohead's Nice Dream). The set was more of an overall vibe than a collection of distinct songs...but they're well on their way to a meditative identity, a brand of lilac wine all their own.
-Rob Harvilla, The Other Paper (Columbus, OH)
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Various Garageband.com reviews of The Last Hotel...
i am hearing john lennon calling from the great beyond...eerily beautiful...intruiguing and fun to listen to...
Reviewed by: oofah from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania
(The Last Hotel) is kinda' like watching "Dancer In the Dark" for the first time and thinking about it forever afterward. I would like to hear more from this artist.
Reviewed by: Morphe from Waco, Texas
Well-done, dark, acoustic pop.
Reviewed by: RTFan from Allston, Massachusetts
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