The Ann Arbor, MI-based Laughing Hyenas were heavy rockers who toured with/inspired acts like Fugazi, Mudhoney, and Nirvana, yet never received the attention those bands did. A few years ago, Third Man Records re-released their discography on vinyl, and now they add to that collection with the group’s first-ever live album, That Girl – Live Recordings 1986-1994.
Presented chronologically, the collection captures the band at house parties, club dates, and radio shows as they unleash fury and savage dynamics upon the audience. Laughing Hyenas were John Brannon (Negative Approach) and Larissa Strickland (L-Seven), with bassist Kevin Strickland and drummer Jim Kimball (and later, former Necros bassist Ron Sakowski and drummer Todd Swalla).
The quality of the recordings varies, but for a band that lived in the middle of the maelstrom, these live offerings certainly put the listener in the moment. The album opens with the title track from an Ann Arbor house party in August 1986 as the distorted vocals rage over a Velvet Underground-inspired sound. “Sister” heightens the angst amid excellent drumming, while “Lullaby and Goodnight” is a slow, swirling, dark psychedelic nightmare with super-abrasive vocals pummeling throughout.
Brannon’s vocal style is not for everyone; he shifts into maximum aggression for 99% of the record, as throat-ripping rage substitutes for lyrical nuance. That pummeling is part of the band’s appeal (or detriment), as these various recordings show; he never loses steam on the mic.
The group’s 1988 version of “Loves My Only Crime” expertly deploys a revved-up low end, with drilling guitars, and while the lights in the Ritz that night, opening for Sonic Youth, may have been upsetting to Strickland, the musical results were great. Other standouts are the clanging/banging of the ripping “Black Cloud” from 1992, the Iggy Pop-inspired “Just Can’t Win”, and the drawn-out, slow explosion of the killer album closer “I Want You Right Now”.
Three tracks captured at CBGB’s in 1990 are in extremely rough shape, as metallic screeching guitars color “Everything I Want” and “Dedications To The One I Love,” delivering artsy/punk energy. The group’s stop at WNYU the next day is also sonically frazzled, yet the songs (including a cover of Alice Cooper’s “Public Animal #9”) are all howling with an oddball groove underneath. These lo-fi recordings are a step above bootlegs but can still deliver the messy punk as the band slams and bashes forward.
The clear inspiration for Laughing Hyenas is The Stooges, as the band took their proto-punk sound, amped the aggression, lit the vocals on fire, and blasted it out for a new generation of Detroit rockers to dig. That Girl – Live Recordings 1986-1994 captures the band’s rawness and will appease old fans, while those new to the Laughing Hyenas would be better served starting with the studio albums before diving in here.
