Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel

Posted In: Cheap Hotels

Selene Jockers says...

This is an excellent album that is worth purchasing.Many of the songs represent the combination of a casual back-porch twang of a Will Oldham single and the indie-rock noise coined by Sonic Youth.There are clear comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel's (NMH) In the Aeroplane over the Seaas this is a melancholy, self-deprecating album sharing a similar whining croon borrowed from Jeff Mangum.That being said, if you have spent the greater part of the last decade listening and re-listening to that album, you may be immediately put out by these songs and the suggestion that an album is being compared to NMH, but I implore you to get past that right now as you will never appreciate this record fully otherwise.



Expensive Vomit In a Cheap Hotel lends itself well to listeners of different genres.The cover art and some of the fervor of this album will help old-school punk fans relate.The lyrics tend to be deep and sometimes even violent.In the song "Gas Mask Blues," this is perfectly portrayed in the haunting lyrics "If you have my daughter, I don't know what I will do because I am going to want to hit her once she looks like you."This level of passion carries throughout and lays out a map of heartbreak and anger. With the deep range of influences, anyone who listens to more conventional indie rock such as The Wrens, classic folk artists including Neil Young, and rising pop artists like The New Pornographers, any listener may find something they like in this record.



Ultimately, this is highly recommended.This is a must-have for most music enthusiasts, but not quite a musical masterpiece.

Posted on September 23, 2011

Debera Or says...

"No hotel room has yet changed my life," begins Daisann McLane in Cheap Hotels, "but many of them have made me, unexpectedly and inexplicably, happy."

This book makes me inexplicably happy.McLane loves travel for all the right reasons, and her joy is infectious.A many-decades veteran of "blind dates" with cheap hotel rooms the world over (as Frugal Traveler for The New York Times, editor and columnist for National Geographic Traveler, and longtime cultural observer for Rolling Stone, Vogue, the Village Voice and others), McLane knows her way around a ryokan.This book is her unabashed love letter to all the places from Bali to Bangor where she has "found happiness."A keen and ideosyncratic observer, brilliant writer and gifted photographer, McLane ferrets out and photographs -- gorgeously -- the grace notes that define a culture: the fragrant frangipani on her pillow in Rarotonga, the elephants parading beneath her window in Madras -- even the killer bedspreads that attack her in lodgings from Texas to Tokyo (do you know how often Motel 6 washes its bedspreads?McLane does, and she is not amused).

A far cry from the featureless, fashion-slave catalogues that pass for most travel guides, Cheap Hotels is a touching personal memoir that wraps itself around you like the beautiful, white, all-cotton sheets in McLane's belovedHotel Castelar in Buenos Aires. Which is not to say McLane is uncritical: trained as cultural historian, she is crack-smart and very funny -- a great travel companion.

Bryan Burkhart's strikingly attractive design so perfectly complements McLane's vision that is hard to imagine one without the other.Compleat with tricolor, trilingual text (English, French and German) as befits its global theme and Taschen imprint, Cheap Hotels is a handsome coffee-table artifcact:a lovely art book, poignant memoir, cutting cultural critique and super travel guide. And, it makes me laugh.

Ok, I'm crazy about Cheap Hotels.For I, too, love to travel -- and now I remember why.

Posted on September 23, 2011

Autumn Pozo says...

Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel.With a title sounding something like a punk invention, Sleeping in the Aviary puts a notion into your mind.By the end of this record, that notion is completely shattered.What occurs is a journey through 11 songs, beginning with the building Write On.This album is equal-parts Neutral Milk Hotel, Bright Eyes, and in some moments, Elliott Smith.Personally, I have a difficult time picking out a weak track.Maybe You're The Same is a lover's lament, but the performance is intimate and a new spin.Girl in the Ground is a catchy number, one you have to hear for yourself.The album is solid, entertaining, and all-around great.While some would claim Sleeping in the Aviary's first album was lacking, I'd be shocked if they didn't change their minds with this album.



Why don't you know these guys?It's a question your mainstream fan is going to ask you soon enough.You're going to slap your forehead and then buy this album--and love it.Why prolong the inevitable? Get it now.

Posted on September 25, 2011

Kristopher Prible says...

I must admit that I am really disappointed with this book.I don't think it's worth the money at all.The information in the book is meager.It offers nothing more than some pretty pictures, a lot of blank space, and a list of all the hotel's contact information in the back.What I hate the most is the tiny, hard-to-read captions about each picture.For Christ' sake, for all the blank space in the book, the editor could not choose a bigger and more readable font?I was expecting more detailed description about each hotel listed in the book.As for the writer's comments about the repulsiveness of the polyester bedspread in the charaterless chain hotel rooms and the charm of those little, cheap hotels, she is preaching to the choir because people who would spend money to buy this book are already the kind of travelers looking for this kind of lodging.

Posted on September 27, 2011

Torie Bonebrake says...

This book makes me want to pack my bags and go! so badly... and at the same time it evokes happy memories of sunny, adventurous, and spectacular trips. Leafing through this book is like digging out your shoe box full of photographs -- just better. You see the pictures that YOU would take -- of the places that YOU would check into, and you will find yourself marvel at memories that you have yet to make. This book is not meant to be a guide -- it rather is a combination of art book and photo album. It combines pictures and little stories of more than 200 friendly, welcoming, and caring budget places around the world -- many from Asia and South America but also finds in the US and Europe. The list of addresses in the back enables the reader to directly contact the hotels for reservations. However the book is a huge inspiration to forego the depressing chains on your next trip and rather go search for these happy-making gems. When I am in need of a mood-booster I just love to spend some time in the travel section of a book store and "plan" my next trip. This book has the very same uplifting effect with one variation: It focuses on the place where you are STAYING rather than the place you are GOING. This concept is a bit baffling but makes sense: The place you are staying replaces your home for the time of your trip and should be oozing just as much hospitality as the town or country you are visiting -- without eating up the best part of your travel budget.

Posted on September 28, 2011