True, but if he had been able to control his manic running from pillar to post ways, his drug fueled unreliability, if he had kept Cinderella Backstreet together for a while, maybe he would have gotten a bit further. We've all seen bands when they start out, nobody in the audience but a few fellow musicians and curious music geeks, but they build and stick to it. The big disappointment with Laughner is that he never had enough control over his worst impulses to actually get that far. Yet the music is indelible, memorable and heartbreaking because of the circumstances, but also because it's so damned great in every way. How can you listen to "Sylvia Plath" , "Down At The Bar",or any of the originals on the set, and not mourn the fact that the guy died at 24? I'm enjoying reading his reviews and writings for local papers. Love the Jobriath review where he basically challenges gay musicians to come up with the goods and write songs that truly reflect the gay experience, and where he suggests, in a review of "Miles Of Aisles", that Joni Mitchell would do well to use John Cale as her producer. The review of "Coney Island Baby" is a singular piece of rock criticism. Personal, full of lies, full of crap, angry as hell, but at heart a fans mourning over what he perceives as the true end of the creativity of someone he idolized.
Oh no doubt he sabotaged himself multiple times. Still I find it amazing that so much incredible, legendary music was performed in front of a few drunks, or nobody at all. Luckily he did those radio performances so a few more folks at the time could hear him.
I would be fine with all the tapes being made available for download, as long as they offer lossless and we can get them all or choose what we want... There are just way too many treasures left off and I would like to have them and possibly find even more!
It's very possible that a Vol. 2 would be vinyl/MP3 download only. I only bought the CD box so I could rip the tracks to FLAC. I haven't even opened my vinyl box yet.
The vinyl set came with a 320kbps DL, which sounds fine to me and I would buy Vol 2. in a second if they did that again.
Today I've listened to Disk 5 of this set - Nocturnal Digressions from Laughner's last night on this planet. His voice may crack up in places but he never holds back with his singing or acoustic guitar playing and although there is some fragility there, he sounds in good spirits. This is just a great collection of songs mixing Tom Verlaine with Lou Reed, Robert Johnson, Jesse Winchester, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones and some of his own compositions. Reggae sits side by side with blues, folk and country rock. It's all there. And it is absolutely wonderful even if we forget the circumstances of this recording, it is still a fantastic collection of songs, all beautifully performed. I didn't think this set could get any better but it just did. Bring on Volume 2.
From Smog Veil: "Tonight 8/27 on WFMU from 9:00pm EST until Midnight, Nate The K's "Burn It Down" will be doing a special program on the Peter Laughner box set! Tune in here: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/NK "
I recently ordered the vinyl box set direct from Smog Veil and was pleasantly surprised to find the bonus 45 inside the box.
From the latest Smog Veil newsletter: “The Peter Laughner box set has received a tremendous amount of press and radio attention thanks to you--the fans and friends of the label. Note that this release will be just 1 pressing, there will be no repress. We have less than 50 CD box sets left and less than 10% of the LP box sets left. Act now.”
That's great news but I'm wondering why Smog Veil haven't told us just how many of each were pressed.
Two-hour radio show from WGXC-FM in upstate NY featuring lengthy interviews with Anastasia Pantsios, Albert Dennis, and Cynthia Black: Snackpoint Charlie on WGXC
This is probably my favorite archival release of 2019 (so far.) I can honestly say I'd never heard of Peter Laughner before I happened across the review of the box set in Mojo. I spotted the thumbnail picture of "The Spaghetti Incident?" as I was leafing through the issue. It noted that Laughner had written "Ain't It Fun." I had heard of Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu but was unfamiliar with their music. When I saw the Smog Veil box set was full of cover versions and loose, live recordings, I sampled some of the tracks. I ordered the box set not long after. It's fantastic.
Congrats on taking a deep dive into an unknown artist. It can be a lot of fun. When you're done with that you really need to get The Day The Earth Met The Rocket from The Tombs comp and the Ubu singles comp Terminal Tower which has the two singles form Laughner's tenure in the band. Both releases are essential in my opinion.
From today's newsletter: " The Peter Laughner box set has received a tremendous amount of press and radio attention thanks to you--the fans and friends of the label. Note that this release will be just 1 pressing, there will be no repress. We have about 10 CD box sets left and about 15% of the LP box sets left. Act now, there will be NO REPRESS. "Why, because during the month of November, the LP box set is 10% off. No discount needed, the 10% discount will automatically be applied at checkout. Prior sales excluded, while supplies last. "
If you go over to the ubuprojex site, David Thomas posted a piece on the main page called Manhattan Death Trip, about his experiences with Laughner. As usual with all things Thomas, take it with a grain of salt. The Home of Ubu Projex
Never heard of Mr. Laughner until I read a couple of reviews of the set and they peaked my interest. Was browsing Target’s buy 2 get 1 free sale CDs and noticed this set was included. Wanted Abbey Road and another close in price so took a chance. Looking forward to hearing it.
From Smog Veil: " #OTD in 1971, #PeterLaughner played solo along with several other acts at a Cleveland Free Clinic benefit. The concert took place in the Kulas Auditorium on the campus of John Carroll University located in University Hts in Cleveland. Note that by this time, Peter had been a member of the Mr. Stress Blues Band for roughly one month. Note that Peter's last name has been misspelled as "Loughner". #OTD in 1971, #PeterLaughner played solo along with several other acts at a Cleveland Free Clinic benefit. The concert took place in the Kulas Auditorium on the campus of John Carroll University located in University Hts in Cleveland. The show was heavily previewed in such publications as the Carroll News, the CWRU Observer, the Great Swamp Erie da da Boom, and the Plain Dealer. Peter's set would have most likely resembled disc one (Fat City Jive) of the Smog Veil Records Peter Laughner box set: Lots of old blues and folks covers along with some contemporary artists that Peter admired such as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, and his good friend Terry Hartman. Note that by this time, Peter had been a member of the Mr. Stress Blues Band for roughly one month, and that Peter's last name has been misspelled as "Loughner". Of the other acts on the bill, while Gary Hall Ohio Music is a well established Cleveland singer-songwriter who played several shows with Peter, next to nothing is known about the rest. Please feel free to add any memories you may have in the comments!Of the other acts on the bill, other than Gary Hall Ohio Music, who is a well established Cleveland singer-songwriter who played several shows with Peter, next to nothing is known about them. Please feel free to add any memories you may have in the comments! Hopefully the benefit was well attended and much money was made for the Free Clinic."
Unfortunately, the amount of cleanup we would have to do on all of the tapes would be not be cost effective. Also, the final decision on this would be up to the Laughner estate. Peter's parents were heavy smokers, and the reason I stated on the track by track explanation Jim Kauffman kindly posted (though I squirm at the spelling error each time - sorry!) as to why the master tape of the Friction show from 11/2/76 was unusable was because it was heavily smoke damaged. Parts of the master were usable, and we used a combination of of that, a 1st gen copy we received from Doug Morgan, and 2nd gen copy we received from either Jim Ellis or the late Jim Jones (I cannot recall which as I received the tape in 1995), and a tape of unknown generation (presumably/roughly 3rd or 4th) that came from Myke Weisskopf, who I think got it from Chris Stigliano.
To clarify: This was not a response to the box set bio (which was very lean so as to maximize the amount of Peter's stuff we could include) but to a piece written by someone we were not connected with nor who consulted with us or the Laughner estate. This piece came out online just before the box set came out, and does indeed take David's words unfairly out of context. As much as David and his manager don't see eye to eye with me (and that is just me - this has nothing to do with Smog Veil or Frank), he had every right to be upset about this.
