Third Man Records to Reissue Laughing Hyenas' Entire Catalog on Vinyl
By: Caryn Robbins Dec. 18, 2017
For the past year, Third Man Records has been working closely with Touch and Go Records and the surviving members of Laughing Hyenas to craft deluxe vinyl reissues of the entire Laughing Hyenas' catalog. The seminal Michigan group's releases have been lovingly re-mastered for vinyl and cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering. Watch a teaser video for the reissue series HERE.
"These were the mid to late 1980s and in the USA it was a time when so much more of the USA underground post-punk-hardcore-new wave-no wave etc scene (Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur Jr. Green River, Big Black, Mission of Burma et al) just slayed, continually. Each group different and strange and fun and blowing open a hole for the future. Laughing Hyenas were one of the defining jewels in this era and have since come to where fate has brought us all in a dynamic variance of good, better, bad, worse and everything in between." -Thurston Moore
Meet John Brannon and Larissa (Stolarchuk) Strickland, front people of Negative Approach and L-Seven respectively. John and Larissa were the surrogate "Den Parents" of the Detroit punk rock and hardcore family in the early 80's. They hosted many legendary shows at their place, known across the country as "The Clubhouse" located on the same block as TMR Cass Corridor. Both bands also shared the stage with virtually every touring punk and hardcore band that would dare to set foot in Detroit at The Freezer, The Clubhouse, Bookie's, Clutch Cargos and The Graystone and anywhere else that would put on a show. One such show, L-Seven opened for Australian by way of England newcomers The Birthday Party featuring a young Nick Cave. It has been said that this show is the show that planted the (Bad) seed in John and Larissa's heads, a (Bad) seed that would go on and grow into the criminally underrated but highly influential LAUGHING HYENAS.
The original line up of John (on vocals) and Larissa (switching to guitar), with the addition of the pocket-locked rhythm section of Kevin (Monroe) Strickland (bass) and Jim Kimball (drums) recorded Merry-Go-Round, You Can't Pray A Lie and Life of Crime. These seminal 12"s and the live shows that this line up played around these releases are among the scariest music the world has ever heard or seen. Seriously, life changing stuff. Laughing Hyenas WERE the underground. Brannon had (STILL has) a howling shriek and stage presence unlike any other frontman in history, with the stare of a perverted street evangelist and voice full of pain like gargling shards of glass. Larissa was a guitar strangler in a very true sense. Highly original and influential, she wrangled possessed sounds out of that instrument that redefined what we think of as a "blues riff". She made it scary and real. The rhythm section was downright frightening. Lock tight hillbilly refugees from the hardcore scene.
The HYENAS stormed across the country and the world and made instant musically sympathetic pals with other fledgling bands / boundary pushers like Sonic Youth, Scream, Mudhoney, Minutemen, Husker Du, Pussy Galore, Die Kreuzen and Fugazi. A peer group that suited them quite well.
After the departure of Kevin and Jim to form Mule, John and Larissa added Kevin Reis on Bass and Founding Necros Drummer Todd Swalla for the every bit as fierce Crawl ep. Their final LP, Hard Times, saw one more line up change. Kevin Reis left and one time Gerbil and Necros Ron Sakowski stepped in.
All the Laughing Hyenas' records were originally released (and continue to be available digitally) on Chicago-via-Detroit label Touch and Go Records (Third Man's partner on these vinyl re-issues). Touch and Go's catalog also includes the early '80s Negative Approach and L-Seven records.
Each record will include unseen photos and images of "Damn, that would have been a sick show!" flyers as well as testimonials/thoughts/stories/liners by Thurston Moore, Butch Vig, Brian Turner, Ben Swank, Aaron Dilloway, Allyson Baker to name just a few.
Merry-Go-Round - 2xLP edition will include all 6 cuts from the 1987 vinyl debut, as well as the 5 bonus tracks that were included on the 1995 CD release.
You Can't Pray A Lie - A straight reissue of the 1989 release. The Hyenas didn't record throwaways
Life Of Crime - Bonus track "Save Me Tomorrow" has been unheard by anyone -- seriously, anyone -- since it was recorded during the LOC studio sessions. Band and Butch had all but forgotten about this one.
Crawl - Bonus: 4 tracks from the covers "bootleg" EP
Hard Times - bonus track "Shine" from the Jabberjaw comp.
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