Love As Laughter


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Lync: These Are Not Fall Colors, 6/10
Greks Bring Gifts, 5/10
#1 USA, 6/10
Destination 2000, 6/10
Sea To Shining Sea , 6.5/10
Laughter's Fifth (2005), 5/10
Holy (2008), 5/10
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Sam Jayne era il cantante dei Lync, una formazione di Seattle che registro` These Are Not Fall Colors (K, 1994), uno dei primi album di "emo", e un nugolo di singoli, in seguito raccolti su Remembering The Fireballs (K, 1997), fra cui motivetti romantici suonati in maniera cacofonica (MHZ, Friend, Pigeons) e scorribande ubriache (Pathetic). Il loro sound era un rock'n'roll aspro, ne' punk-rock ne' garage-rock ma un po' di entrambi, messo al servizio di liriche intimiste che urlavano al mondo la condizione esistenziale della loro generazione. Il bassista James Bertram e il batterista Dave Schneider passarono poi ai Built To Spill (Bertram formera` poi i Red Stars Theory).

Sciolto il gruppo, Jayne varo` il progetto Love As Laughter, che inizialmente era un progetto solista di musica rock sperimentale, documentato dalle cassette Love As Laughter e Blue Dye Clear Skies e dall'album Greks Bring Gifts (K< 1996). Jayne cantava canzoni rock and roll (spesso con riff da hard-rock come Old Gold) ma le arrangiava con ogni sorta di bizzarria armonica, come un Beck ancor piu` psicotico.

Jayne allesti` un vero complesso rock per #1 USA (K, 1998) racimolando Schneider e la chitarrista Jessica Espeleta. Old Gold e Vacation mettono in mostra le stesse doti dei Lync, ma i blues di Slow Blues Fever e Puget Sound Sanitation e soprattutto i riff inconfondibili di I'm A Bee e #1 USA (copiati da Rolling Stones) li fanno accostare a Pussy Galore e Royal Trux. Al CD venne appeso (senza documentarlo in copertina) anche l'intero singolo Fever. La psiche di Jayne domina queste canzoni al punto che il disco sembra un concept album, dalla tragica Tonight alla leggiadra Phobias.

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Destination 2000 (Subpop, 1999) continues the trio's maturation, so much so that they may even surpass their own idols in a few songs. Destination 2000 relies on a riff by the Rolling Stones (Brown Sugar) but enveloping it in a clangor a` la MC5. Freedom Cop is a demented shuffle like those of Dylan's Highway 61 Revisted. On The Run revives the epic riff and choir of Hey Joe and weds it to a gospel organ and a passionate shouting. Margaritas, possibly the catchiest track, concocts a weird hybrid of Lou Reed and Sonic Youth. Demon Contacts (distorted vocals over steady beat and buzzing guitar) and Stakes Avenue (industrial syncopation and looping synth-pop melody) are short instrumental nightmares which return to Jayne's solo experiments.
All in all, their rock and roll tracks, such as Stay Out Of Jail, are even more rude and violent, overflowing with "teen angst" end threatening riffs. The angular timbres of the guitar, the agonizing screams fo the singer and the chaotic beat of the drums belong to the school of Jesus Lizard's and Fugazi's progressive punk-rock. The desperate agony of ballads such as Aftermath and Body Double is the same of those villain gurus of urban neurosis. In concluding, another album of visceral and psychologic music, in the tradition of the bluesiest Rolling Stones and the gloomiest David Bowie, which emphasizes the dramatic skills of players and singer.

Sea To Shining Sea (Subpop, 2001) is Sam Jayne's hard-rock album. Coast To Coast contaminates Velvet Underground's hypnotic boogies with the angular riffing of post-rock. My Case is a tortured, noisy, explosive boogie progression. Temptation Island injects a glam-rock refrain into a punk-rock adrenaline overflow. Not content with upping the ante on the volume part of the equation, Jayne also stretches the song's to the limit. A six-minute supercharged French Heroin relies on power riffs. The seven-minute Miss Direction is a solemn Neil Young-ian ballad with country-music overtones. The eight-minute Put It Together is articulated via angry and tense jamming prone to sudden explosions. And, finally, the ten-minute E.H. is a desolate rant that borrows from English folk, Jefferson Airplane's acid-rock "trips" and Jim Morrison's histrionics. Most original of all may actually be the frantic (and brief) confession of Sam Jayne Dead. Ambitious and experimental, the sound nonetheless sticks to old-fashioned rock and roll: raw, burning, distorted, erupting rock and roll. Jayne has Cobain's knack for screaming catchy lines without making it sound pop, and his band is coining an interesting style of jamming below his emotional outpour.

Laughter's Fifth (Sub Pop, 2005) was a collection of rock'n'roll numbers that harked back to the 1950s, like a personal "American Graffiti".

Holy (2008) was just classy routine.

Sam Jayne died at the end of 2020 at the age of 46.

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