Spirit Hotel: A Dream Within a Dream on 'Rêve'

Spirit Hotel sent us "Fever Dream" through the submissions page, and it took about ten seconds to hear why it leads their album. The Salem, Massachusetts band released Rêve, their first vinyl record, on March 13, 2026 via Little Cloud Records: seven songs in just under thirty minutes, pressed on translucent amethyst vinyl.

A project that became a band

Spirit Hotel started in 2023 as a recording project for singer, songwriter, and guitarist Leila May Hauck. The early singles, "I Was A Knife" in August 2023 and "Moon Eyes" in October 2024, come from that era. Over the following year the project grew into a live band, and when Hauck went back into the studio she brought the band with her: Tayler Fitzpatrick on bass, Dan Jennings on guitar, and Josiah Webb on drums and percussion, with Hauck herself covering vocals, guitar, Farfisa, and drums. Jeff Berner produced, engineered, and mixed the record at Studio G in Brooklyn, and Carl Saff mastered it, the same mastering ear behind Dummy Ache's Shakers.

The band calls the result "a dream within a dream," which fits a record named Rêve, French for dream.

What it sounds like

In the band's own telling, the first thing you hear is shoegaze: layers of reverb-heavy guitars. Then the Farfisa organ echoes through, a sitar drones here and there, and the psych influence comes into focus, while tribal drum beats lean the whole thing toward postpunk. Their Bandcamp bio adds noir-esque lyrics and a goth streak to the list, and their Instagram bio sums the aesthetic up in one line: "Your own personal noir movie." From Salem, the spectral coast suits them.

Listen

Watch

The "Fever Dream" video, shot by Bruce Bettis with Neo Ciampi assisting:

Start here

• "Fever Dream" — the album opener and the song they sent us. Start where we did.
• "Moon Eyes" — first released as a 2024 single, reborn here with the full band.
• "Rêve" — the five minute title track that closes the record.
• Then take the whole album in one sitting. At under thirty minutes, it asks nicely.

See them

• Nov 5 — The Press Room, Portsmouth, NH, on the bill for Dummy Ache's Shakers release show (a band we covered earlier this week)
• Nov 7 — Underbones, Davis Square, Somerville, MA
• Nov 14 — Sleepwalk, Brooklyn, NY

Where to follow

• Bandcamp: spirithotel.bandcamp.com
• Instagram: @thee.spirit.hotel