Live From the Hotel Café | ||||
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EP by Matt Hires | ||||
Released | October 7, 2008 [1] | |||
Recorded | At Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles | |||
Genre | Rock, pop | |||
Length | 15:17 | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Matt Hires chronology | ||||
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Live From the Hotel Café is a 4-track EP by American pop-rock singer-songwriter Matt Hires released on October 7, 2008 and reached the top 10 on iTunes' Top Singer/Songwriters Albums chart upon its release. The EP contained three live performances and one demo track which selected performances at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles.
An extended play record, often referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single, but is usually unqualified as an album or LP. Contemporary EPs generally contain a minimum of three tracks and maximum of six tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well.
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies.
Matt Hires is an American singer-songwriter from Tampa, Florida. Drawing inspiration from influences as disparate as The Band, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco and Ryan Adams, Matt became the first artist to sign with F-Stop Music, an imprint of Atlantic Records.
Live From the Hotel Café has received positive reviews from music critics.
Andrew Leahey from Allmusic said: "Hires sings, sounding like a younger Dave Matthews. His craft may not be up to par with that songwriting giant, but Live from the Hotel Cafe shows that Hires' influences are in the right place." [2]
David John Matthews is a South African-born American singer, songwriter, musician, actor and record label owner, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. Matthews was born in Johannesburg, and moved frequently between South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States while growing up. Matthews started playing acoustic guitar at the age of nine.
"His talent level is enough that even in four songs you know what a Matt Hires’ song sounds like. He’s etched his sonic mark in a very short time." -Awmusic [3]
Upon his first release, Hires was often compared to John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Mat Kearney and Jack Johnson.
John Clayton Mayer is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but disenrolled and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook. Together, they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters. After their split, Mayer continued to play local clubs, refining his skills and gaining a following. After his appearance at the 2001 South by Southwest Festival, he was signed to Aware Records, and then Columbia Records, which released his first EP, Inside Wants Out. His following two full-length albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Your Body Is a Wonderland".
Mathew William Kearney is an American musician born in Eugene, Oregon, now based in Nashville, Tennessee. Kearney has received critical acclaim and widespread recognition for his Columbia Records debut, Nothing Left to Lose. So far, he has a total of 5 top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart.
Jack Hody Johnson is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, record producer, documentary filmmaker and former professional surfer. Johnson is known primarily for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. Johnson has reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart with his albums Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006, Sleep Through the Static in 2008, To the Sea in 2010, and From Here to Now to You in 2013. Johnson's In Between Dreams album peaked at number 2 on the chart in 2005 and again in 2013.
"Looking at Hires you can’t help but think of Jack Johnson, whose laidback eco-friendly personality figures heavily in both his appearance and his music. Johnson embodies the oceanside, surfing troubadour and Hires, with his trademark sandals and curly blonde locks, is aesthetically a Jack Johnson disciple." "There are times when you firmly believe you may have slid a Dave Matthews CD in by mistake. His songs, his rhythm and even his voice are so Dave Matthews you wonder openly wonder about the frailties of intellectual property." - Awmusic [3]
Andrew Leahey said: "Open your mind and let your beauty flow like wine" Hires sings, sounding like a younger Dave Matthews. His craft may not be up to par with that songwriting giant, but Live from the Hotel Cafe shows that Hires' influences are in the right place." [4]
Hires responded: "I like those artists. I don’t necessarily listen to a lot of their stuff so I don’t think my music sounds like them. I didn’t feel any pressure from that." [4]
Live From the Hotel Café [1]
# | Title |
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1. | "You Are the One (Live from the Hotel Café)" - 3:26 |
2. | "Oh, Sunrise (Live from the Hotel Café)" - 4:00 |
3. | "Tangled Web (Live from the Hotel Café)" - 3:54 |
4. | "Honey, Let Me Sing You a Song (Demo)" - 3:57 |
Dave Matthews Band, also known by the initialism DMB, is an American rock band that was formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and backing vocalist Carter Beauford, and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley joined the band as a violinist soon after. In August 2008, LeRoi Moore died due to complications from injuries sustained in an ATV accident. Soon after, Grammy Award winner Jeff Coffin joined and since filled Moore's spot as saxophonist. In May 2018, a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct was filed against Tinsley by a former bandmate in his side project, an accusation that Tinsley denies. As a consequence, Tinsley was officially fired from the band.
Dave Carter was an American folk singer-songwriter who described his style as "post-modern mythic American folk music." He was one half of the duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, who were heralded as the new "voice of modern folk music" in the months before Carter's unexpected death in July 2002. They were ranked as number one on the year-end list for "Top Artists" on the Folk Music Radio Airplay Chart for 2001 and 2002, and their popularity has endured in the years following Carter's death. Joan Baez who went on tour with the duo in 2002 spoke of Carter's songs in the same terms that she once used to promote a young Bob Dylan:
"There is a special gift for writing songs that are available to other people, and Dave's songs are very available to me. It's a kind of genius, you know, and Dylan has the biggest case of it. But I hear it in Dave's songs, too.
Something Corporate was an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. Their last line-up included vocalist and pianist Andrew McMahon, guitarists Josh Partington and Bobby Anderson, bassist Kevin Page and drummer Brian Ireland.
Kathleen Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2003 debut album, Failer, contained the singles "Six O'Clock News" and "Hockey Skates". Her next two albums – Back to Me and Asking for Flowers – both made the Billboard 200 list and reached the top 10 of Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. In 2012, Edwards' fourth studio album, Voyageur, became Edwards' first album to crack the top 100 and top 40 in the U.S., peaking at #39 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and #2 in Canada. In 2012, Edward's song "A Soft Place To Land" won the SOCAN Songwriting Prize, an annual competition that honours the best song written and released by 'emerging' songwriters over the past year, as voted by the public. Her musical sound has been compared to Suzanne Vega meets Neil Young.
The Jordanaires were an American vocal quartet that formed as a gospel group in 1948. They are known for providing background vocals for Elvis Presley, in live appearances and recordings from 1956 to 1972. The group has also worked in the recording studio, on stage, and on television with many other country and rock and roll artists.
Cary Brothers is an American indie rock singer-songwriter originally from Nashville, Tennessee, United States. After moving to Los Angeles and becoming a regular performer at the influential Hotel Cafe venue, Brothers first gained national attention with his song "Blue Eyes" on the Platinum-selling, Grammy-winning "Garden State" soundtrack. As an independent artist, he has since toured worldwide, released two full-length records, and become one of the most-licensed artists in film and television. In the electronic dance music world, Brothers has collaborated with Tiësto on a club remix of his song "Ride" and an original song for Tiesto's album Kaleidoscope, and he co-wrote and sang the title tracks for the Cosmic Gate releases Wake Your Mind and Start to Feel.
Alexzandra Spencer "Alexz" Johnson is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, actress and philanthropist. Her debut album Voodoo was independently released in 2010, followed by the demo release of The Basement Recordings in 2011, with its sequel, The Basement Recordings II, and EP Skipping Stone in 2012. The Basement Recordings III was released in 2013. A follow-up extended play Heart followed in 2014; with her sophomore effort Let 'Em Eat Cake being released October of that year. Johnson's third studio album A Stranger Time was released in 2017. Alexz Johnson released the single "Weight" on April 19th 2019, a rerecording of the song originally recorded during her deal with Epic in 2008.
Daniel Dodd "Dan" Wilson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, producer, and visual artist. His songwriting resume includes "Closing Time", which he wrote for his band, Semisonic, "Not Ready to Make Nice" and "Someone like You". He earned a Grammy nomination for “Closing Time” and won Grammys for Song of the Year and Album of the Year.
Matthew Albert Costa is an American singer-songwriter from Huntington Beach, California, United States. He has 13 independent releases: 7 self-recorded EPs, 6 complete LPs, 4 of which are released via Brushfire Records. His first album in five years, Santa Rosa Fangs, was released on May 18, 2018, on Dangerbird Records.
Matt Finish are an Australian rock band formed in mid-1979 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Matt Moffitt (1956–2003) and drummer, composer and producer John Prior. In early 1978 Moffitt had formed a funk band, Matt Finnish, but it disbanded after several months. The 1981 line-up of Moffit, Prior, Richard Grossman on bass guitar and Jeff Clayton on rhythm guitar recorded their debut album, Short Note, which peaked at No. 14 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. The title song, "Short Note", peaked at No. 18 on the related Singles Chart and became a standard on Australian radio stations. Grossman was later a member of Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus. On 13 August 2003 Moffit died in his sleep, aged 46. From 2006 Prior has continued Matt Finish with various line-ups.
Uplifter is the ninth studio album by American rock band 311, released on June 2, 2009 by Volcano Records. It is the band's first album in nearly four years, the longest gap between albums in 311's career. Uplifter was produced by Bob Rock, who has produced or engineered albums by numerous notable acts, such as Metallica, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, The Cult, Our Lady Peace and The Offspring. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, their highest position to date.
Take Us to the Start is the first full-length studio album by American pop-rock singer-songwriter Matt Hires, released exclusively through iTunes on July 15, 2009 and then released August 25, 2009 on Atlantic Records.
"Honey, Let Me Sing You a Song" is a song by American pop-rock singer-songwriter Matt Hires from his first full-length studio album Take Us to the Start, the song featured in many uses in media, including ABC's hit show Cougar Town and Life Unexpected on The CW.
A to B is a 4-track EP by American pop-rock singer-songwriter Matt Hires, released on August 17, 2010. The Ep includes the original album version of "Honey Let Me Sing You a Song" – first found on the Tampa-based tunesmith's acclaimed 2009 debut, "Take Us to the Start", it also features 2 new songs "A To B", "Rock N' Roll Heart" and a new recording of "Honey, Let Me Sing You a Song ". The EP was released exclusively through digital service.
Wonders of the Younger is the sixth studio album by American rock band Plain White T's. It was released by Hollywood Records on December 7, 2010 and was produced by Ian Kirkpatrick. The collection of the songs was designed to evoke the feeling of awe and the yearning for adventure remembered from youth. On September 9, the album art was revealed on the band's official MySpace account. On September 13, the album finished up with mastering engineer Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.
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