New Laughing Stock / A Dan Rico Show in Chicago

Busy week!

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you had a good week. Personally I’ve had a busy one. I picked up some extra shifts at work, some extra dogs to walk, all while preparing for one audition and another high pressure rehearsal this weekend. This means I spent more time learning songs than listening to them and even less time writing about them. Pardon the shorter letter. Allow me to get to the point(s).

Laughing Stock released two new songs, “Grift” and “Cubehead”. We recorded these songs and several others with Dan Howard at Chateau Grand in Brooklyn, New York. I finished my drums for these sessions after two days of recording punctuated by spicy Chinese food and chicken and rice from the Dominican bodega down the street. These two were among the last songs that we finished writing before I moved from Brooklyn to Chicago last year. “Grift” was most audacious attempt at my mission with Laughing Stock to emulate the sound of a programmed drum machine and features some of the most physically challenging drumming I performed with the band. “Cubehead” is the prettiest song we ever wrote, and writing it was a joy start to finish. I wasn’t present for any of the recording or mixing process, but the boys knocked it out of the park. These tunes sound fantastic. You can find them on our Bandcamp, Ampwall and your streaming platform of choice.

On Tuesday April 29th I’ll be joining my buddy Dan Rico on drums for his homecoming show at The Empty Bottle in Chicago. Dan and I recorded a bunch of music together back in Brooklyn, and we’ll be playing some of those at this show, but most of the setlist will instead draw from Dan Rico’s garage rock days before he moved east. Since Dan and I somehow never met when we both lived in Chicago I’m looking forward to connecting with his crew and seeing him thrive in his element. If you’re also in Chicago you should swing by!

Ok, I gotta get back to work. See ya next week!

\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /

Here are five micro reviews of albums from my vast Rate Your Music catalog. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.

Elaenia by Floating Points (2015) - Progressive Electronic

A record by and for people who have listened to a lot of records, particularly from the 1970s. Floating Points blends Eno-ish ambient, progressive electronics, and jazz fusion with an especially light, but lively touch. Discrete and unobtrusive, your enjoyment of this record may hinge on how much it strikes you as bougie dinner party music for millennial aesthetes, but if you give it the leeway to do its thing I think you’ll find a lot to enjoy. It is quite pretty, especially on the longer Return to Forever style fusion tracks where the live drums are allowed to get wilder. A debut record whose promise would be fulfilled, appropriately, by Floating Points’ contributions to 2021’s Promises.

A Stirring in the Noos by John Frum (2017) - Death Metal

A one-off death metal collaboration from members of The Faceless, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Cleric, though it doesn’t really sound much like any of those bands. From the lyrics and branding, full of references to cargo cults and the malleability of reality, you might expect something un-listenably dense. But despite talking a big conceptual game John Frum’s chief pleasures are surprisingly straightforward. These guys clearly know how to write a song, which parts to repeat and when. They also know how to pace a record, gradually cranking up the psychedelic and brain-bending elements until they take over completely. I don’t often hear anyone talking about this album, maybe it’s too meat-headed for the micro-tonal free improv crowd and too brainy for the ODSM cavemen. Well in that case call me Goldilocks!

Wisdom of Elders by Shabaka and The Ancestors (2016) - Jazz

I find pretty much everything that saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings releases interesting, but this project might be my favorite. Joined by a seven-player ensemble of South African jazz players, Hutchings sprawls out on this extra-long record. Practically speaking this is two records separated by an intermission. The first half is slinky, nocturnal fusion in the vein of “In A Silent Way” while the second half spirals out into late era-Coltrane wildness. My personal taste prefers the first side, especially since it so prominently features the Rhodes. “The Observer” is the stand out track, but “Natty” is a heck of a trip too. Not recommended for anyone only looking for jazz as background music, this one is going to demand your full attention.

Voulez-Vous by ABBA (1979) - Pop

The best ABBA album? Probably not, since I’m in no expert position to determine that, but only because I keep listening to this album instead of checking out the rest of their records. This album is excellent (well, except for the two ballads, but that’s just me), full of songs with verses that could be choruses and choruses sent straight from the Mount Olympus of pop. Even the obligatory song where the dudes handle lead vocals is not that bad! I mean, frankly it’s refreshing to hear a guy from the 70s singing about NOT flirting with a minor for once. The music is relentlessly peppy, that opening track is a shot of espresso, but the lyrics cut that exuberance with a post-break up melancholy. You probably know “Angeleyes” but you MUST check out “If It Wasn’t For The Nights”, easily my favorite ABBA track.

Body Talk by Robyn (2010) - Pop

A compilation of EPs, so as a full album it feels a bit stretched out and unfocused. The pieces more than make up for the whole though. You probably know the two big tunes (“Dancing On My Own” & “Call Your Girlfriend”, both justified classics of modern pop) but there are loads of great deep cuts (“Indestructible” and “Hang With Me” are my personal favorites). Very much a product of its time, the production is peak electro-pop and might, depending on how you spent the early 2010s, give you some powerful 4Loko sense memories. Did Robyn invent the concept of the hipster-friendly pop star? Hard to imagine the careers of Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX, etc shaking out the same way without the pathway this album carved in music culture.