MOANING - UNEASY LAUGHTER VINYL (LTD. 'LOSER' ED. WHITE)

LIMITED 'LOSER' EDITION WHITE VINYL

Release Date: 20th March 2020

VENUS VINYL OF THE MONTH - MARCH 2020

The second album from LA-based trio who have taken their guitar-heavy grungy post-punk to include more of the synthesizerd side of that 80's sound. Uneasy Laughter is a grown-up record from a band that have matured both personally and musically since their excellent 2018 self-titled debut album. Their sound is more rounded and melodic, embracing electronics and infusing them into their punk sound like some of the best post-punk pioneers of the 80s... but don't worry, there's still a shit-tone of ripping guitars!! 

For Fans Of/You May Also Like: Preoccupations, Ought, Makthaverskan, Flasher

"What happens when an abrasive rock trio trades guitars for synths, cranks up the beats and leans into the everyday anxieties of simply being a functioning human in the 21st Century? The answer is ‘Uneasy Laughter’, the sensational second Sub Pop release from Los Angeles-based Moaning. Vocalist/guitarist Sean Solomon, bassist/keyboardist Pascal Stevenson and drummer Andrew MacKelvie have been friends and co-conspirators amid the fertile LA DIY scene for more than a decade. They are also immersed in other creative pursuits - Solomon is a noted illustrator, art director and animator, while Stevenson and MacKelvie have played or worked behind the boards with acts such as Cherry Glazerr, Sasami and Surf Curse. On ‘Uneasy Laughter’, they’ve tackled challenges both personal and universal the only way they know how: by talking about how they’re feeling and channelling those emotions directly into their music. “We’ve known each other forever and we’re really comfortable trying to express where we’re at. A lot of bands aren’t so close,” says MacKelvie. Adds Solomon, who celebrated a year of sobriety during the ‘Uneasy Laughter’ sessions, “Men are conditioned not to be vulnerable or admit they’re wrong. But I wanted to talk openly about my feelings and mistakes I’ve made.” Moaning’s 2018’s self-titled Sub Pop debut featured songs mostly written in practice or brought in already complete by individual band members. It garnered acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum and Los Angeles Times, who observed, “Moaning craft anxious music for an increasingly nervous local scene.” But ‘Uneasy Laughter’ is a collaborative breakthrough which significantly brightens Moaning’s once claustrophobic sound, again abetted by producer/engineer Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Bloc Party, Melvins). Solomon admits ‘Uneasy Laughter’ could have gone in quite another direction had he not gotten sober and educated himself on such core subjects as gender and mental health. “I did a lot of reading in the tour van - authors like bell hooks, Mark Fisher and Alain de Botton, all really inspired me. I don’t want to be the person who influences young people to go get high and become cliché tragic artists,” he says. “What I’d rather convey to people is that they’re not alone in what they think and how they feel. ‘Ego’ specifically and the album overall is about those themes - letting go of your bullshit so you can help other people and be present.” “We want to be part of a community,” he adds. “I wrote online about being sober for a year, and I had kids from all over writing and asking for advice. One of them said, ‘For the first time I can remember, I didn’t drink last night.’ I thought, for once, maybe we did something besides sell a record. That’s a win. That’s incredibly exciting.”