State Laughter

Super excited to get a (very limited) quantity of these original unplayed deadstock copies of Discount Chiefs sole 45 from 1981 on Round Ear Records. A little bit of ringwear from 30+ years of storage, but otherwise perfect. The b-side was comped on Messthetics #104...which contained all bands from South Wales. The song that was comped compelled me to track the 45 down....lo and behold the guy i ordered it from was John Roundear who originally released the 45 on his namesake. The song sounds like 3 different songs put together....as if each member got to pick one part and they put em all together. The beginning arpeggio reminded me of the twisted pop of the Homosexuals...then an odd bass part comes in, which is weird because there already was another bass....I thought maybe it was a guitar emulating a bass. John brought it to my attention that the band hand 2 bass players. This brought a unique aesthetic for sure, especially in a time where people were banging on cardboard boxes since they couldn't afford real drum sets. The song ends in a 1-2 punk jangle that is much more typical of a lot of the songs comped on the Messthetics series. It's a great 45 and I'm super stoked that John got me some copies. I'm looking to interview John about his time running the label and he has put me in touch with the band and I'll be interviewing them as well hopefully for the next State Laughter (which is shaping up to be great, bunch of awesome interviews happening). Will post the b-side here shortly.