Hotel Of The Laughing Tree
Hotel Of The Laughing Tree, from Long Island, New York, USA, are a five piece band comprising A J Estrada (Vocals / Guitar / Keys / Saxophone), Brandon Peterson (Vocals/ Guitar/ Keys/ Percussion), Neil Scalesse (Drums / Percussion), Mike Nixdorf (Percussion / Glockenspeil / Keys) and Anthony Arma (Bass), who started life in late 2008 as a three piece outfit and finally came together in 2009. They have started life with some frenetic activity, already having released their debut EP Old Dominion and due to release their first LP in mid 2010. In addition they have become an known fixture in the New York venues.
Hotel Of The Laughing Tree
They have worked hard to create a tight outfit, with some interesting and diverse musical out-put. Reggae beats are overlay ed with the stretched vocal style of Lemmy and a saxophone which resonates of a Galois filled cafe on the artisan streets of Paris, creating a creamy flux. This bounces against 70’s Beach Boys surf pop, which is again mixed with a range of influences, I am sure I could hear The Buggles in the foam.
The evident enthusiasm of Hotel Of The Laughing Tree, is well controlled and songs which could easily tip our of control are held together by well crafted lyric and structure. While the music appears to skip across a huge space, they are with no doubt clever musicians and it will be interesting to hear their development.
The overall effect leaves me with visions of watching dandelion seeds being blown over a sun-lit wheat field in mid-summer. They have a brightness and ease to the ear, which at the same time contains some subtle complexities.
As an introduction to Hotel Of The Laughing Tree, the debut EP Old Dominion 
* is a great starting point.
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