The Laughing

Imagine yourself in a jungle. Birds are chirping,
and in the distance a tiger cries. This is the mindset The Laughing would like you to be in when delving into their music.
Formed less than a year ago, these self-proclaimed
“smut-core revivalists” are already making a huge name for themselves in the Austin music scene. The Laughing’s intelligent arrangements,
skillful playing, and raw energy combine to form a powerhouse not to be contended with. Intriguing vocals combine with infectious guitar riffs, textured keys, and a myriad of different instruments, including the baritone saxophone and theremin, to make a sound begging to be compared to recent indie golden bands, but hard not to distinguish as something entirely new.
Not only will The Laughing kick your ass musically,
they will impress you on all other fronts. Aesthetically, along with Tiger Beat magazine good looks, the band employs a uniform of teal and white denim to add to the ingenuity. Their debut EP Tiger Cry is packaged in a homemade masterpiece that even glows in the dark. Tiger Cry is a good metaphor for the band in general. On the surface, they and their EP are an odd visual sight, not giving many clues as the what is inside. Inside Tiger Cry is a clean, powerful record that effectively showcases exactly what makes The Laughing poised for success. Produced by Erik Wofford [Voxtrot, Okkervil River], this EP tells a tale only comprehensible after an intense listening session.
The Laughing is a band to seriously not be taken seriously. Rarely can a group combine smart, spastic, surging
music with tigers and tears, but The Laughing does it and then some. - The Austin Independent 3/07

There's something about The Laughing's new Tiger Cry EP that reminds me of 2005. What is it? The layered vocals a la Devendra Banhart? the tintinnabulation of Arcade Fire? the delightfully disorienting production of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? the frenetic growls of Wolf Parade? the big-cat nod to Neko Case? What?

All of the above, natch, but Tiger Cry does more than allude to the some of the most heady debuts to streak across the indie rock sky of that banner year before last: It stands should-to-shoulder. With their carnivalesque vocals in the manner of contemporary snake-oil salesmen wielding digital megaphones and full-to-bursting enthusiasms, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is the closest comparison. The Laughing, however, are more laid back and prone to in-jokes: Their myspace labels them "ghettotech" and "tropical," an inaccuracy that is a joke – and a funny one - on the substitution of appellation for analysis and appreciation, signaling just how serious (not very) the Laughing takes itself. Another example: According to their website, Tiger Cry tells the clearly tongue-in-cheek story of Svän, a "mythical beast" and expert instructor on "how to survive and grow," and indeed the songs circle and circle back to the tiger motif ("Show Your Stripes," "Lions Can't Fight," "Wait Until He Roars," the title track) without any apparent connection to deeper meaning or meanings. It's all just good dirty fun.

Tiger Cry announces its arrival in the manner of royalty, with a lengthy horn intro to open track one, "Wearing the Colors." The world is our oyster (because that's all it is), they seem to be saying, and we'll do with it as we will: "We're all dressed in white / hiding in the night / … / take a picture of me / show how much I care / we'll paint them up / and dance around / wear all the colors / and make us proud." If this is a promise not to skimp on the quantity of instruments, sounds, and beats, it is well kept by these six songs, which, while maintaining a verifiable sonic style, are myriadically sourced. Track two, "Lions Can't Fight" (one of the funniest song titles of all time, in the context of this EP), is heavy on the synth; track three, "Show Your Stripes," on the alternation between hard-driving rock-and-roll and a glockenspiel; track four, "Wait Until He Roars," on the anxiety and paranoia ([laid over a furious hi-hat] "I used to be a man of vision / I had my own ideas and missions / laid all out / I took pride in my heart's convictions / then one day she came in and took them / she took them all away"). Probably the best song on the album is the drawlingly lonesome title track, seven-plus minutes of sampling the wind, synthesized imitations of nervous breakdowns, more horns, and a ballast of seemingly genuine emotion ("Late one night / I had a vision from / an old friend / who wanted stripes / all dressed in white / in a dream / he said you learn real quick / what makes the tiger cry") keeping it real. The kicker is that the song actually is about a sad old big cat: "It's a sign / that we never had a name for him / except the one / that walks on fours." You just don't hear that every day, and it's great great stuff.

The Laughing released this EP at the historic Victory Grill this past Saturday with hot up-and-comers The Always Already. They are also affiliated with Green Potato Ventures, the booking agency that seems to be everywhere lately on the Austin indie scene. For all of these reasons and more, expect to hear more Laughter in Central Texas as the days grow warmer, and the tigers come out to play.

- B.D. Fischer - AustinSound.net

The Laughing’s debut EP Tiger Cry loosely ties together themes of fantasy and reality, intertwined and channeled thru a self-aware group in matching outfits with ironic accessories, and the results are phenomenal. The Austin group grabs your attention with their thematic gimmick of obsessing over white tiger imagery on their bodies, album cover and in their songs. What results is a strongly cohesive album that rocks, screams and bangs in all the right places. Each track stands alone as an innovative dance rock single and collectively the EP establishes the band as a true force to be reckoned with- any naysayer will have to face the wrath of their stuffed white tiger mascot Svan.

But I digress. Tiger Cry is as mature as it is fun. This EP is going to fit right into (and even trail blaze) the trend of dance rock, following in the footsteps of Q and Not U, Hot Hot Heat, and dare I say it the Killers… you know… only more interesting. There are odd time signatures, glockenspiels, old school synthesizers, and wicked hot bass licks. The multitude of instrumentation is hard to grasp at times because each song comes packed with a simple and memorable hook. The fullness makes it hard to believe that this is their first recording. The expectations of this amazing live band are met and exceeded thanks largely in part to Cacophony Recorders' Erik Wofford who has previously worked with such Austin luminaries as Voxtrot, Explosions in the Sky and Okkervil River.

Opener Wearing the Colors sets up the disk with a building horn riff that returns at the end of the song as a sleazy and self-aware 1970s audio equivalent to a porno mustache. The horn sounds like the Wreckx-N-Effects RumpShaka sample, and frankly there is not enough of that in modern music. The high-pitched vocals float over the synths and drum fills until a climatic build is immediately brought back down into the zone of choppy Bloc Party beats. The song’s structure is not the traditional verse/chorus/verse, but rather a continually tearing down and rebuilding on its own themes. The band is talented. Period. For further proof: let the drums murder you on Wait Until He Roars, as percussionist Grant Van Amburgh nails each beat with fast and repetitious fills that become as much a part of the song as guitarist and vocalist Logan Middleton lamenting as a “man of vision" who actually has visions.
I can’t recommend this larger-than-life album enough. If you don’t trust me, I am sure you will trust one of hundreds of critics who are about to start talking about the Laughing nonstop. Tiger Cry we be one of the best releases of 2007.

- Partyends.com 2/07

These teal-shirted, white denim-vested tiger-lovers have been popping up around town since August, piquing our curiosity as to their legitimacy. Touted by some as the “best new” in Austin, The Laughing are set to release their first EP Tiger Cry tomorrow night at the historic Victory Grill.

We’d hate to just hype (since we haven’t seen them yet), so we’ll do our best to give it to you straight. The EP is dance-rock fun. Founded on drum beats designed for the dancing set, the tracks top off with lively lo-fi vocals, engaging beats and synthetic noise. There’s even a glockenspiel that pops up on “Tiger Cry,” though we’re hoping to see more of that at the show. The first track “Wearing The Colors” begins with a saxophone-drone and is actually a lament from the endangered white tiger itself. Probably the best song on the EP is “Wait Until He Roars,” a toe-tapping head-bobber with an organ to boot. We thought the relentless tiger references would be annoying, but well, they’re not. And we hate to compare them to the Brit-rock sounds of the Killers, but well, we will. - Austinist.com

Only in Austin could someone take a solid concept like street gangs and turn it into something hopelessly lame. The Laughing is like one of those gangs in West Side Story, only even more effeminate. Teal shirts? White sneakers? Denim vests? Theses dudes are gayer than a stack of strawberry pancakes. Still, despite being a really shitty gang, they’re one of the more exciting bands I’ve seen on an Austin stage in a while.
Channeling a rocked-up Milemarker or The Faint during one of their bi-curious phases, their debut EP “Tiger Cry” is a dance rock record that won’t make you feel dirty afterwards, even though it opens with a sexy baritone sax riff fresh from the “Rumpshaka” sessions. It’s hooks with substance. Creative weirdness with the musicianship to back it up. A theremin, a million synths, and a glockenspiel up the nerd factor a bit. And the production is super crisp so every sleigh bell and tech fill come through. I hadn’t gathered this from their live shows, but the album’s lyrics push the “emo tiger” concept album to new heights. The record is a heartwarming allegory of an outcast tiger’s quest for redemption in a world that just can’t understand him.
Even though their live show sorta looks like a Bugle Boy commercial circa 1988, I can back this band and still maintain a shred of masculinity. - Misprint Magazine 3/07