THE LAUGHING put on a show at BEAUTY BAR in AUSTIN, TX at the end of Free Week. Their frontman Logan chatted with me before their show across the street at The Side Bar.
The Laughing are a local Austin band who recently released their first full-length. Logan was kind enough to explain to me the intricacies of “glock rock” and “jungle smut core” in the sound of his band. We also talked about taking criticism from the press, and how they’ve changed The Austin Chronicle’s mind after a past bad review. Logan tried to beat me at my own game, instigating an awkward off of his own.
Full Transcript (Audio):
Nichole Bennett: Hey, I’m Nichole, and I’m here with Logan of The Laughing. We’re at Side Bar in Austin across the street from Beauty Bar where they’ll be playing. If you had to tell the story of The Laughing as a theme park ride, which one would you use?
Logan Middleton: Well, I guess the obvious cliché is the rollercoaster that everyone says, but what would be a good rollercoaster?
NB: I mean you have kiddie coasters. Do you guys have loop-de-loops in your story?
LM: We certainly had ups and downs and metamorphosis. It would be a pretty cool ride. It changed looks and colors and faces several times. Now I’m thinking of a coaster that we should maybe make. Definitely early on some quick ups and downs and then a lot of changes. So far it’s been a quick ride.
NB: You guys have a new album, Fever. You had some EPs before that.
LM: We had two EPs and this is our first record.
NB: And you guys spent a lot more time on this one than you did on the EPs.
LM: We did, exponentially more. Our first EP—we were a new band—and we needed basically a demo, something to get shows and to put on myspace…sort of a calling card. For the second EP we were kind of messing around with different sounds and trying to establish a sound. I think on this latest record we really focused on realy making something, producing something with a theme and a start and a finish. We really dissected the songs that we had been working on and dissected the production techniques and went over things a lot longer. I think the amount of time we spent on the first two EPs is maybe an eighth of the amount of time combined that we put on the record.
NB: The EPs are nice snapshots of what you guys are—it’s definitely you, but I feel that this one is more of a work. In the press about you guys there are some really awesome genre names such as “smut core” and “glock rock.” Did you guys make those up yourselves?
LM: I’d like to say that those were dubbed by some British journalist right as we blew up, but I think that those names came from within the family of the band from several drinks and other controlled substances. “Glock rock” and the full title is “jungle smut core.” We’re pioneers of the jungle smut core. And now I don’t even know. It keeps changing. We haven’t come up with any new ones. We used to have a lot of saxophone, and we always considered that very smutty-sounding instrument. We’re thinking of dirty motel rooms.
NB: Speaking of that, do you guys read press about yourselves? I think I would find that kind of hard.
LM: I learned early on …when our first EP came out in our early demo years, Austin Powell [Austin Chronicle], who has since come around, had some interesting things to say about our EP. If something really cool comes up, I’d certainly like to show a friend or a loved one, but I just don’t know that someone who is creating music to always get the third-party analysis of it or try to read too much into it.
NB: Speaking of press, you guys were named one of Earfarm’s top ten bands to watch. If you had to say some bands to watch in Austin, who would you recommend?
LM: It depends because some of the bands I’m thinking of are bands that have really taken off. I watched the Brazos set the night before at The Mohawk. That was fantastic, and his album is great that just came out, Phosphorescent Blues. I highly recommend Brazos. There’s another band that played last night called The Tunnels that I like. There’s so many bands. We’ve gotten to meet so many just from playing shows. There’s a band White Dress that kind of a new band that’s really cool. They’re friends of ours, and they’ve kind of taken off.
NB: Do you guys have any favorite local places to play?
LM: My favorite-sounding venue is definitely The Parish, and I think it’s an underrated venue for regular shows. Not as many shows that I like happen to actually be there, but when they are there it always sounds fantastic. Mohawk is always a fun place. I love Emo’s, especially the outside stage because it’s got so many bands that I love that play there before Mohawk was really even doing stuff.
NB: If you could break a world record what would it be?
[silence]
LM: Longest period of silence on the radio, I guess.
NB: Most awkward interview! Do you prefer studio or stage?
LM: I love them both, but I love the studio environment. That’s where I feel the most in my element. My best contribution to being in a band and making music is probably in the studio. Not necessarily studio but on the creation end. I love performing, but there are so many different elements that can’t be controlled. I love live performance because it’s fun and you get drunk and it’s sloppy. It’s a good time and about energy, but I love the details of recording and writing.
NB: We talked a little bit about The Laughing’s sound, but if you had to describe it to a three-year-old, what would you tell them?
LM: Lots of booms and crashes. Lots of little oohs and aahs and whistles. Lots of little chimes and flutes. Bouncy! I would say it’s bouncy!
NB: We’ll end on if you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?
LM: Legs.
