Can't Miss Artist of the Week - Week Eight

By Tim Barber

Love as Laughter
MySpace, Official Website, Blog

Sound Breakdown and Analysis
Love as Laughter hail from the BK. They have been around since the mid 1990's and have built a reputation for energetic live performances. Their sixth full length album, Holy, turns another page in the evolution of this band. As put by Spin Magazine in their album review found here, singer-songwriter Sam Jayne "attempts to capture two disparate vibes on Holy: Pixies' loose-limbed chatter and Neil Young's big-sky heartache". What this means is Love as Laughter has come into their sound today after dabbling in 70's style garage rock and incorporating new millennium indie rockness.

Released on the Red Int/Red Ink label, "All Parts of Me", the bongo-happy, group vocalization tune, and "Coconut Flakes", the acoustic mellowness, "cheer up a friend" diddy, demonstrate the range and "variety of contrasts" used "to create a complex and thought provoking musical experience" on their new album, according to their MySpace. "Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz" begins with a ratatat-tat on the drum and leads into lyrical creativeness. This lengthy indie rock groove sounds great live, as demonstrated here. Singer-songwriter Sam Jayne shows he has wit and sass in his lyrics to go with the band's almost 15 years of musical experience.

Why You Should Be Listening
Love as Laughter is currently on tour with fellow Brooklyn based group Oxford Collapse. Having built up a bit of a reputation from their previous album, Laughter's Fifth, which was released in April 2005 and received much acclaim, even being called "clever", "genius", and "hilarious" by several critics, LAL has plenty to live up to. Their new direction in the indie rock circuit should garner interest from new and seasoned fans alike. And again, they seem to have a great reputation for live performances. Much of their current album is available on their MySpace.

Release Date: Their latest album, Holy, was released in June 2008

Overall Artist Rating: 7 out of 10, but it may grow a bit on you!