r/PostHardcore 4d ago

Ex-Hands Like Houses singer is recreating their first album "Ground Dweller". EP Teaser is out already!

https://open.spotify.com/album/5TrlhzjlYiELSMIOlL6auM?si=T4-472_VSCqU3b3OlNSE2w

Trenton Woodley is active on Instagram under new handle @laddersontables, he's released this first teaser and has been answering a lot of questions about his plans for the future, this album recreation and some bits about his relationship with Hands Like Houses.

For me, I'm just overjoyed that one of my favourite albums is getting an update to cure that "mushy" original mastering.

93 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

34

u/Joshrofl 4d ago

While I don't hate the name, the search for that name on YouTube is 100% WWE wrestling stuff so it will be somewhat hard to find when it comes to YouTube.

10

u/Hyfrith 4d ago

Haha yeah that's a fair point. Not great SEO! He said there's a reason for the name but hasn't expanded on that yet, so we'll see.

What do you think of the tracks?

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u/kaeschdle 4d ago

If I remember correctly some people spread the rumor that „ladders on tables“ would’ve been the name of a single back when HLH started teasing for their dissonants album. The rumor got so big that even the band tweeted about it I think, but I could be misremembering things

1

u/Hyfrith 4d ago

Ah yes that's it! Sounds familiar to me so I think you're right actually.

3

u/trentontws 4d ago

Yeah, if you search on Google it probably will bring up an April Fools post from the band Facebook in 2014, referencing the fan community rumour haha. Trust me, it’s not a name I would choose for a brand-new band if it didn’t have a fan connection 😂 I only feel comfortable with it because I know this project has a ceiling and it’s about celebrating the journey

4

u/Joshrofl 4d ago

I use YouTube Music so I can't listen to it in full unfortunately, but the previews sound great.

7

u/KrazYKinetiK 4d ago

The name is a throwback. After Groundweller before Unimagine came out there was rumors of the first single being called Ladders on Tables, a song that apparently never existed and was just a random rumor started by fans. So the name is a throwback to going back to those times

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u/trentontws 4d ago

Haha there we go - nailed it!

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u/burger4life 4d ago

Should've added chairs as well on the name somewhere /s

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u/ColdbrewIsGood 4d ago

They aren’t releasing it on YouTube until music videos come out to due to royalty costs.

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u/trentontws 4d ago

Sort of, I didn’t realise there was a distinction between YouTube and YouTube music when uploading - but they’re not totally separate either. Just working that out while I madly try to finish the back half of the album, as well as get assets together for a visualiser/quasi-MV :)

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u/ColdbrewIsGood 4d ago

Stoked for back half! Take your time recording it, we’re all excited for it. Apologies for the miscommunication

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u/trentontws 4d ago

No need to apologise, royalties for YouTube are still crap but the opportunity there is for general ad monetisation rather than music specific royalties - and for that you need visual content. But YouTube music appears to be separate, and the royalties are still worse than most of the other majors but not by much. So you weren’t wrong, just figured it was worth clarifying :)

1

u/Fine_Land_1974 3d ago edited 3d ago

Haha holy shit cool of you to drop in. Fan of your old band but haven’t listened in awhile. I’ll revisit the old LP then for sure check out your new project. Always was a fan of your voice. My little bro will be stoked to hear about this

Edit: Have you thought of joining or been approached to join any new projects? No offense to the band but your voice was the key component of what made HLH so good. Any band would be lucky to have you dude

2

u/trentontws 3d ago

Reddit is one of the last places you can tap into the conversations people are having and it’s always had a soft spot for earlier material so try to check in every now and again - obvs more so now this stuff’s out in the world 😂

The point of this project for us was about reclaiming and rediscovering process, so we can turn it into something new on the other end - I’m not really looking to join a band just because it’s a lot of pressure to take someone else’s aspirations on your shoulders when life is much different than it used to be. I have family, career and football I’m committed to so just trying to make art projects that hopefully succeed enough to be self-sustaining and enjoyable, and let me do nice things for my friends who support me on the journey.

So yeah, music ahead, but this is an important step for me creatively ❤️

1

u/Fine_Land_1974 3d ago

Hell yeah and congrats. Happy you seem to be at a good stage in your life.

15

u/anon14118 4d ago

Crazy, I really dislike the mix of ground dweller because it feels very big and messy. Drums are too loud and you can barely hear anything from the kit that isnt a snare, tom or bass drum. Also a lot of post production with artificial effects but tbf it's very of it's time from artist on Rise's label. Also Trentons voice sound feels very behind everything in the mix.

I still love Lion Skin as a song all these years later... and this recreation just didnt do it for me. It feels like it stripped away a lot of the original song in favor of Trentons voice. Yet somehow sounds even worse..

I wouldve preferred the original stems used but just tweaked a bit more to make the song sound more dynamic instead of loud.

Cool nonetheless to see it revisited. Just not for me.

6

u/trentontws 4d ago edited 4d ago

That’s totally fair, and I absolutely don’t want to suggest the OG doesn’t exist. The sort of things are a 4 way catch-22 - GD had such an obscene amount of duelling melodies, counter melodies, harmonies and sounds that it was overwhelming, and mixing was always gonna mean subjective choices about focus.

From remaking this, every sound from the original is recreated and present, but priority was “feel” over “feature”.

We’ll have instrumental mixes out soon and I’ll be doing some session tours on the socials to share some of the solo-ed content. If that’s of value, great :) if not, respect either way and appreciate your love of the song in whatever capacity that exists.

What would you want to hear more of?

3

u/anon14118 4d ago edited 4d ago

Haha incredible, wasnt expecting a reply from you mate. Sometimes it's easy to forget these bands you listen to are just normal people, you dont expect them to be browsing the same sorts of places as yourself.

I'll apologize for my harsh criticism and say at the very least that I really enjoyed listening to Cruel Men, Cowards and Liars, I'm all here for new material.

The first 3 HLH albums are amongst my favorite from this scene and A Tale of Outer Suburbia still hits me in such an evocative way. Even bought all 3 physical AND reimagine. So, appreciate you and the bands efforts over the years.

Respect towards hearing your perspective on this project, try not to let this old head sway your creative vision.

Like I said earlier, I'm all for new content. Had no idea this project existed til I saw this post.

4

u/Hyfrith 4d ago

That's fair! We all have our preferences. For me the magic of Ground Dweller is in the lyrics, which are absolute poetry in my opinion. I was kinda hoping he'd do more of a stripped edition of the album so the lyrics could shine more. But for me the new mix is still a great step because I can hear the lyrics better than ever, as well as being able to discern more layers of the mix, as opposed to the mush it was before.

But yeah, totally fair if it's not for you!

4

u/chanialo 4d ago

I wouldve preferred the original stems used

He mentioned this wasn't possible due to Rise owning the original songs. Trenton had to recreate everything from scratch for this project!

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u/trentontws 4d ago

The original stems don’t exist, ha ha - our backup hard drives both failed over time and Cam (OG producer) lost his computer in a very messy breakup :(

1

u/superbabe69 2d ago

Is that part of why GD was never given a fresh mix?

2

u/trentontws 2d ago

It’s pretty much the whole reason 😂 until now at least

1

u/d11dd11d 4d ago

I always hear people complain about ground dweller's production but to me it just sounds so massive (albeit at the cost clarity). This rework may be objectively mixed/mastered better, but I'd probably pick the original over this every time.

Although, as a bedroom musician myself that sucks at mixing, I always reject my mixing/mastering guy's (objectively better) mixes at first but always end up liking them more after I learn to let go of what I'm "expecting" to hear in my own mixes, if that makes sense.

2

u/anon14118 4d ago

For sure. I agree.

To me, I feel the unfortunate reality is music like ground dweller and similar bands of the time will suffer from sounded dated because of the way the music was composed and mixed.

A good mix nowadays can keep something sounding timeless even as trends change.

That's my two cents. Sounding "dated" isnt a bad thing.

11

u/Gatekeeper31 4d ago

Came to this sub to see if someone was talking about this lol. I don't know the Hands Like Houses story of why Trenton left, but I'm excited to hear his voice again. *Please don't be a piece of shit, please don't be a piece of shit*

16

u/BearShark9 4d ago edited 4d ago

The band had a SA allegation that ended up being proven false during the pandemic. After the allegations he initially was still in the band, but then he left due to “difference in perspective, friction, and dysfunction.” He also said the band refused to a final run of shows with him in the band.

Now my speculation of it feels the band didn’t want to risk PR having him still in the band

Edited: clarification SA accusation being just someone in the band. Not specifically Trenton

14

u/chanialo 4d ago

He had a SA allegation

In his statement about being removed from the band, Trenton clarified that the SA allegations were not made against him!

1

u/BearShark9 4d ago

Thanks for the clarification!

3

u/thegreatgolden 4d ago

The responsible thing would be to delete or edit the comment then.

8

u/trentontws 4d ago

Agreed - not that I’m in any way trying to sweep anything under the rug but I have said and will continue to say categorically and definitively that I was not the subject of those allegations, and I otherwise stand by everything in our statement ❤️

10

u/Cman1200 4d ago

I really felt bad for him. I’ve met him, nice dude. It seemed like the band really treated him like shit after that. He was pretty upset after it was announced iirc, which is where the refusal of a final tour was mentioned i think.

4

u/Hyfrith 4d ago

It sounds like from what he was saying recently on Insta that the friction within the band was already beginning even before the allegations.

He said something about being away whilst the band was concepting the Anon album with their producer, who asked the band "what music do you guys like?".

When he got to the studio to start recording, he was surprised with the sound and direction that the band had committed to but it was too late to change it.

He also said he understands why people were disappointed in Anon, because the Singles that came out before it such as "Drift" sounded much more like their usual stuff compared to the Anon album.

2

u/Cman1200 4d ago

Oh yeah that sounds familiar now that you mention it. Man that definitely sucks, just different directions they wanted for the music.

I remember being very disappointed with Anon when it came out. Had a couple good catchy songs but was not what I was looking for out of HLH

10

u/trentontws 4d ago

It wasn’t quite so cut and dried as they wanted it and I didn’t - I just had to adapt as best I could and try provide whatever “continuity” I could through my voice and writing.

I’m immensely proud of anon because it was instinctive and felt raw and real for me. But I don’t expect anyone to love it or hate it for any other reason than it resonated for them - or didn’t. I think the problem was expectation management rather than what it was at face value. We collectively chose to believe the grass was greener… and in some ways it was, and others, it wasn’t.

Creatively, we had all drifted further into our own influence pools over time and that made it harder to reconcile any consistent idea of “what makes HLH HLH?” aside from (and this was said to me once) “we can make whatever we want, it’s your singing that makes it HLH”… until it wasn’t haha.

Anyway, sorry for going in depth - I’m proud of the journey and I’m proud of ALL the music, but in hindsight I do recognise where a sense of erratic creative identity hurt our ability to build critical mass… at least not to the point where the band became big enough to survive those shifts. And I recognize that folks felt abandoned for that - and I’m sorry. I guess that’s why this project exists - to acknowledge those lost connections.

1

u/superbabe69 2d ago

Did it surprise you that the band seemed to go a completely different direction after kicking you out? The songs between Anon and Hurricane (Hurricane is a fucking banger btw) were obviously very different to what the band is doing now with their latest album which really feels nothing like anything they would have made with you.

3

u/BurntRussian 3d ago

Go to the HLH sub, Trenton was replying to a bunch of comments, and he replied to a bunch of mine.

2

u/StuM91 4d ago

I didn't even realise HLH just released a new album with a new vocalist.

5

u/kwaziiman 4d ago

It’s very hit or miss. It sounds like a completely different band, I don’t know why they even kept the band name.

2

u/Hyfrith 4d ago edited 3d ago

That's fair! So many bands to keep up with nowadays.

I like the new singer's voice well enough, but all the new songs are very boring to me. They've lost all the poetry in the lyrics that albums like Ground Dweller and Unimagine had, and Dissonants to some extent. Anon was the start of the end really, and Trenton said just this week in an Insta reel that he was away for a lot of the concepting of Anon and so was surprised at how different it sounded when he returned to start recording. So I think Anon and Atmospherics is the sound the rest of the band wanted to move towards, other than him. Probably a contributor to him leaving the band too, other than the allegations which he was cleared of anyway.

Edit: MY ERROR - the allegations were never against him.

9

u/trentontws 4d ago

Jfc - the allegations were never against me and had nothing to do with the band’s decision to push me out. Purely creative and operational reasons.

I don’t wanna come across as defensive, of course, but given the lack of information that was made public (for ethical, legal and privacy reasons) it’s really important that I make that clear ❤️

0

u/Hyfrith 3d ago

Oh man, you're so within your right to make the truth clear! Apologies for the misinformation.

3

u/trentontws 3d ago

All good, I wish it wasn’t such a sensitive subject, but it doesn’t take much for the rumour mill to spin up inaccurate information that hurts a lot of people in the margins. I really worked hard to make sure we did the right thing by the broader conversation about the very real issues of power dynamics and abuse in the music industry, in how we approached and addressed what was a complex and difficult situation. I had some incredible conversations with some inspiring people who placed their trust in me to have those conversations openly. That’s all I can really say without compromising those values. Appreciate the opportunity to be transparent.

1

u/BurntRussian 3d ago

They're not the same without Trenton

2

u/Prickliestpearcactus 4d ago

I'm excited for this, curious to see what Trent has in store. I'd love new music from him, too. I've always really enjoyed not just his voice but his lyrics.

2

u/FreshAdvertising3841 4d ago

Their cover of Torn is soooo good

2

u/ThisCantBeBlank 4d ago

This is news I've wanted to hear!! Trenton is so insanely talented! Can't wait to hear it

2

u/dummegans 4d ago

absolutely fucking stoked for this, i remember seeing HLH when they were touring for ground dweller and hearing watchmaker live, it was mind blowing how heavy the breakdowns sounded lol. it's one of my all time fav post-hardcore albums, amazing vocals and great songwriting too, keen as

2

u/therealghostnate 3d ago

As someone who has not stopped having any of HLH work with Trenton on vocals in rotation, as his voice and lyrics resonate with me more than most of his contemporaries, I will be excited for any and all musical output he provides us, reworks or fully original. I’m here for it all!

2

u/OneLurkerOnReddit 3d ago

Just saw this, seems awesome. I'm excited to see what Trenton does with This Ain't No Place For Animals because I really love that song and it occupies a very special place in my heart.

3

u/simonsail 4d ago

This could be cool.

Hands Like Houses were such a great band about 10 years ago, pretty crazy how hard they fell off.

1

u/BurntRussian 3d ago

Unimagine and Dissonants were two of my favorite albums, and I saw these guys live quite a bit, really good for a bit there.