The Corner Laughers

Redwood City, California
Intelligent pop, dreamy folk and literate rock
"The Corner Laughers are a Californian band who come across like a West Coast Belle and Sebastian. Their indie pop is sassy and smart, intelligent and intricate, twee with bite." -- Paul Lester, The Guardian UK
It's the beginning of the third decade of the 21st Century, and California indie-pop band THE CORNER LAUGHERS have been with us for a while now – since their 2006 debut, throughout three more albums and in other manifestations such as Karla Kane and KC Bowman’s recent solo records, the enigmatic Agony Aunts, and a number of other collaborations with kindred spirits.
After 2015’s critically acclaimed Matilda Effect, the future of The Corner Laughers was unclear. Circumstances of geography, health and other life complications conspired to push the tight-knit quartet temporarily apart. Temescal Telegraph, the new album out soon via Big Stir Records, stands as a joyful testament to the band being back in full bloom.
While past projects have drawn from a variety of guest contributions from around the globe, for their 2020 return, Kane (vocals, ukulele and most songwriting), Charlie Crabtree (drums) Bowman and Khoi Huynh (sharing guitar, bass and piano duties) recorded their new LP quickly and entirely in the intimate setting of Bowman’s Timber Trout studio in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, fostering an organic, cohesive and present sound.
But now, as at the start, they are not of this era. They are timeless, but far from “retro”: Yes, you will detect strains of English folk-psych (peak period Kinks by way of Fairport Convention, perhaps), vintage California sunshine pop and hints of alt-country twang. You may be reminded of the literate lyrics and soaring melodies of '80s titans like XTC, Kirsty MacColl and Robyn Hitchcock, or the '90s indie chamber pop of the likes of Belle & Sebastian. Kane's lilt and uke might even lead one to expect a postmodern YouTube sensation (make no mistake, she was there first).
With the exception of that last one, none of those touchstones are, strictly speaking, off base. But they're not why a Corner Laughers record will leave you feeling temporally displaced in an eerily giddy manner. That's down to the songs, built upon what Icon Magazine calls a “nigh-on-perfect fusion of bubblegum-sweet tunefulness and clever, subtly barbed lyrics.”
Temescal Telegraph plays with micro and macro lenses, connecting deeply personal experiences to the cosmic scale. Consider "The Accepted Time", which explores how an everyday walk in one’s hometown can also be an entire universe, or “Lord Richard,” one of several songs that somehow contain the life-death cycle, ecological doom and a hope of redemption in a catchy package. Expect to encounter bees in harmony, witches, ghosts, fallen leaves and omniscient vultures. Moods meander between wistful melancholy and exhilaration. To quote another song, “It’s alright to care.”
These are works full of wit and whimsy which might easily be unfolding “anywhen”, or in several epochs at once. They're all strikingly immediate, but thoroughly unanchored to any conventional notion of “now.” And that's the thematic thread tying together Temescal Telegraph -- a notion of the present alongside, or perhaps even versus, the eternal.