Friday, October 9, 2009

The Laughing Has A Fever


Recorded over the course of a near year, FEVER is the debut album by Austin band, The Laughing. With an aural aesthetic pulling from somewhere between early Roxy Music and the stretches of contemporaries such as Animal Collective, The Laughing has quickly attracted the attention of audiences looking for a little dance in their rock as well as a little art in their pop.

Though grounded in a traditional rock line up of guitar/vocals (Logan Middleton), bass (Sean Neesely), drums (Grant Van Amburgh), and organ (performed on FEVER by Austin Jenkins and Middleton), The Laughing also utilizes a vast array of percussion, bells, dulcimers, ukuleles, synths, clarinets, flutes, blankets of noise and lush harmonies. Varied instrumentation and ornamental arrangements adorn core song structures and melodies that take cues from the likes of Harry Nilsson, Os Mutantes, Jorge Bem, Silver Apples, Love, Roxy Music, Sonic Youth, 13th Floor Elevators and more.

The Laughing has constructed an album of songs that bears only slight resemblance to its broad spectrum of influences, in turn creating something special and unique. Of the album title, band leader Logan Middleton explains, “‘Fever’ was the title of a book I discovered as a child that had extensive accounts of my now deceased grandfather’s work as a missionary doctor in West Africa and his discovery and treatment of highly fatal disease known as Lassa Fever.”

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