While on tour with The Dead Deads, Hurts to Laugh found themselves joining the headliner during their set a few times and sparked an idea for a 7″ split of covers of one another. With the release of “The Lonely Sound” we can hear what one side of that record sounds like – with Hurts to Laugh covering the original track from The Dead Dead’s 2014 Rainbeau record.

The original is a surprisingly effective blend of danceable big riff rock, a pop-y chorus and some
downright sinister elements. The Hurts to Laugh take trades the dance-y portions of the song for their trademark crunchy guitars but manages to maintain the pop and sinister portions, albeit in their own style. They’ve always excelled at big, thunderous rock songs but with the addition of Matt Mahaffey producing the track, they seemed to have stepped it up a level or three.

Keep an eye on Fat Elvis Records Instagram page for news about the 7″ release and steer yourself over to Hurts to Laugh Bandcamp page to pre-order the bands new EP, Nineteen Eighty More, set for release on April 30th. You can also catch them live at The 5 Spot on April 11th along with The Dead Deads and The Katies; I imagine there will be a cover or two involved.

It’s been a little over one year since we’ve heard from Karate Blocks and it seems they’ve been using their time wisely. The newest single, “Speaking Tongues“, is a high-energy, sweaty, rock explosion. The ebb and flow of the verse to chorus energy is brimming with a propulsive restraint, feeling like the tension of what’s coming next will burst forth in just a moments notice.

There’s a longer EP that this is taken from right on the horizon and this track serves as an excellent anticipatory introduction. Make sure to give this a few listens as there are production flourishes tucked away throughout the four minutes that can be easily missed on first pass. This isn’t just your average big riff rock song, there are hints of swirling keyboards and horns layered in there for multiple play enjoyment.

The band plays April 11th at The East Room to celebrate the tracks release.

It’s on record that “Davy Crotch Rockett” is one of the more enjoyable band names around town. It’s a bit infantile and a lot absurd but certainly memorable and amusing. Much the same can be said of their new EP JAWS 7; four songs of big, sloppy rock. Don’t be fooled tho; labels like “infantile” and “sloppy” aren’t so much pejoratives as they are indicative of the good time that the band brings to the table.

Lead track “Cool Car” is a great example of the kind of tongue-in-cheek amusement they thrive in, containing a call-and-response lyrical play that includes “Hot Damn! Trans Am! Cool Car!” that begs for a live audience to sweatily repeat the lines back at the band. Tracks “You Can’t Afford Me” and “Hemingway” have a swaggering, proselytizing vibe; preaching to the listener in a crazed manner.

Overall, it’s loud and thunderous, both in production and in performance. It’s likely best experienced live as a completely immersive cacophony but if you can’t see it live, this is a worthwhile substitute.

Way back in 2016, Twen released a live EP and started playing relentlessly. Those efforts seem to have paid off as the band has announced that they’ve signed to Frenchkiss Records, announced a large chunk of tour dates with White Reaper and debuted a new song on Stereogum.

The new track, “Waste“, contains the same kind of dreamy, shoegaze influenced, emphatic pop that we heard on the live EP but with quite a bit more polish. The guitar + vocal combo creates a huge wall of sound, cut with plenty of flourishes to keep re-listens even more interesting. There’s no details on the forthcoming release via Frenchkiss but if there’s an additional 5-10 tracks done in this style, we’re in for something great.

Reinvention is a decidedly tricky experience. Musically speaking, whenever an artist explores new aural territory they risk undermining expectations, which the Internet has confirmed to be a treacherous undertaking. If an artist is already known for consistent reinvention, lack of innovation may result in the same upheaval. Finding the balance of growth and inventive exploration has no tried and true equation, the danger is persistent. To add to the complexity, a listener must ask themselves; should this be listened to in the context of other releases? Or should this be appreciated entirely on its own? In all art forms, Context is King but at what point does the past inhibit the future; both from a creation standpoint and an appreciation outlook? Kurt Wagner’s Lambchop has, in one form or another, been attempting to answer those questions for the past twenty-five years.

For some time, Wagner’s reinvention was a slow roll. Listening to 1997’s Thriller to 2000’s Nixon to 2008’s OH (Ohio) to 2012’s Mr M reveals a band exploring fascinating blends of Country, R&B, Soul, Pop/Rock and even a dash of metered Ambient compositions. There’s no hard line in the sand where one influence bleeds through more distinctively than another; they simply ebb and flow between tracks and albums. That’s not a knock, it’s an impressive concoction. It’s not until 2016’s FLOTUS that a dramatic shift appears. Some may claim this to be the first reinvention of the band but the entire history of the band had been built on pursuing these curiosities, it was just somewhat more bold with FLOTUS.

With 2019’s This (is what I wanted to tell you), Lambchop builds on that FLOTUS sound with a collection of delicate, beat-driven, vocoder-heavy, crooning ruminations. These songs are immersive and contemplative; asking the listener to sit for a spell and take note not only of the lyrical laments but of the subtle flourishes and changes behind them. And just to keep you guessing, the album ends with the track “Flower”, which is almost entirely devoid of the elements used everywhere else on the record. Lambchop’s one consistent trait is their ability to switch it up, even within the course of a single record.

There’s no article on Lambchop that won’t mention the collaborative nature of the band. This is largely driven by Wagner working with producer and co-writer Matthew McCaughan (Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger), and previous albums have been similar collaborative works with the likes of Ryan Norris, Roger Moutenot, William Tyler and a host of others. The shift in sonics is often attributed to these collaborators but without Wagner’s willingness to take the risk, it’s unlikely we’d ever have heard them.

Summing up the latest offering with no stake in the past is, presumably, how Lambchop would prefer you participate. Doing so would free you of the shackles of expectations but would rob you of the appreciation of variety. Even if this isn’t your favorite iteration of Lambchop, there’s no predicting what the next version will be like. Whatever it may be, we should all be so lucky that it’s as open to unpredictability.