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LOW STOCK LEVEL
1-2 Weeks
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ARTIST
TITLE
Laughing Matter
FORMAT
2LP
LABEL
CATALOG #
DC 744LP
DC 744LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
3/3/2023
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2023 repress. 2019 release. "Almost two years on from 2017's Plum, Californian scrap polymorphs Wand is prepared to launch their fifth, and newest long-playing record, Laughing Matter. By now, Wand is the shifting but unmistakable collaboration between Sofia Arreguin (keys, vocals), Cory Hanson (guitar, vocals), Robert Cody (guitar), Lee Landey (bass) and Evan Burrows (drums). Laughing Matter is marked by the confidence and exuberance of a band that has lived, feuded, thrived and grown together through years of dedicated jamming, touring and recording, across western and eastern states, continents and mind-sets. In this world that insists we must increasingly rely upon ourselves, Wand listens to each other, and this is the sound. Largely recorded on the infamous southern border of broken, decadent America, Laughing Matter belongs to the after-life. After the dull flood. As rock n roll lurched sideways and fell away, drunkenly lost in a funhouse mirror of . . . recycled Funhouses. With no major label funding, no management or lawyers, no corporate distribution, near zero social media presence and no commercial dealings whatsoever (with only poor, pitiful Drag City to help them carry the flag!), Wand have toured the world a bajillion times in five years and made four varied and compelling records while accumulating a devoted following . . . Swerving between out-of-focus parable, travel diary, pep talk, polemic, love song, and lullaby, Laughing Matter is a tough and tender album, its eyes on a lot of prizes. Where Plum held the tension of its five band members getting on their feet, the songs on Laughing Matter are concentrated and relaxed, even as they search for the right accusations to hurl at cynics and megalomaniacs. The music is distilled and sculpted from an ash heap of collected improvisations, riven with audio-verité; the methods and instrumentation are traditional handmade rock n' roll . . . This music is not revivalism or throwback; Wand is a precision instrument, a band that probes and teases style, genre, trope and anachronism into material, according to a law of motion that is aimed directly toward an uncertain future. Laughing Matter is a record about love in a time of terror, and how to make the best use of the surveillance technology available today . . . The 15 songs on this record face their energy outward, to take with you through a common world that can't suffer its human abusers much longer..."
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