Hotel St. George

Hotel St. George may hail from San Diego, but you would think they were the neighbors of British bands like Arctic Monkeys or The Cribs with their catchy guitar rhythms and their quick witted lyrics draped in irony. The band formed in late November 2007 after a chance meeting between singer/guitarist Matt Binder and bassist/guitarist Erik Visnyak. As a guest at Matt's Thanksgiving Party, Erik dropped a glass of red wine on Matt’s borrowed Wurlitzer Piano. After a sincere apology and some chit...

Hotel St. George may hail from San Diego, but you would think they were the neighbors of British bands like Arctic Monkeys or The Cribs with their catchy guitar rhythms and their quick witted lyrics draped in irony. The band formed in late November 2007 after a chance meeting between singer/guitarist Matt Binder and bassist/guitarist Erik Visnyak. As a guest at Matt's Thanksgiving Party, Erik dropped a glass of red wine on Matt’s borrowed Wurlitzer Piano. After a sincere apology and some chit-chatting, the two decided to form a band, enlisting Erik’s pal Simon Leader to play the drums and guitarist Brian Reilly. Two months later they recorded their first EP titled Yippee!!!, a simple and fun collection of songs reminiscent of early British Invasion. The song "Watch Out, It’s the Blues" won a SPIN Magazine contest and became a feature song in the new video game MLB 2K10. The release earned them two nominations at the San Diego Music Awards, including Best New Band and Best Alternative Album. The band followed up Yippee!!! with their second release titled Hundreds & Thousands. The new songs were slightly less poppy and fun but were richer in maturity and texture. A lack of money and time for touring led them straight back into writing. The next record City Boy Lemon was by far the boys’ most collaborative to date. The album was released in August of 2009 on vinyl/digital download only. With only 500 copies of the vinyl in existence, each copy was hand silk-screened by a member of the band. The new album will be featured in the second season of the hit MTV show The City. The boys are now hard at work on their fourth record, tentatively titled Fun Shine Line. Though Hotel St. George is predominately a guitar band, the new album is heavy in keyboards and bass synthesizer. While we won't see a release until 2010, the band is confident in the album's new direction.