California indie-pop outfit The Corner Laughers have been crafting inventive, timeless music since their 2006 debut. With a career spanning more than a decade of albums, side projects, and collaborations, they enter a new chapter via Big Stir Records with their fifth full-length and first for the label.
A Triumphant Return
After 2015’s critically acclaimed Matilda Effect, the future of The Corner Laughers was put on hold—geography, health and life circumstances intervened. But their new album Temescal Telegraph, released June 5 on Big Stir, stands as a joyful testament to the band’s resurgence.
Recorded quickly and entirely in the intimate setting of KC Bowman’s Timber Trout Studio in Oakland’s Temescal neighbourhood, the LP finds Karla Kane (vocals/ukulele/songwriting), Charlie Crabtree (drums), KC Bowman (guitar) and Khoi Huynh (guitar/bass/piano) working with renewed focus and cohesion.
Sound, Influences & Themes
While firmly rooted in the indie‐pop tradition, The Corner Laughers are far from pastiche. Their palette touches on English folk-psych (think The Kinks, Fairport Convention), vintage California sunshine pop, alt-country twinges and literate indie rock akin to the likes of XTC, Kirsty MacColl or Belle & Sebastian.
Temescal Telegraph explores themes both intimate and expansive: childhood, nature, climate change, the passage of time. Songs such as “The Accepted Time”, “Lilac Line” and “Lord Richard” invite listeners into small, personal moments which double as cosmic metaphors.
Why It Matters
The Corner Laughers’ music operates on two levels: the immediate and the timeless. Their melodies are catchy, their harmonies warm—but always there’s a deeper layer: lyrics exploring identity, belonging, purpose. Icon Magazine called their work a “nigh-on-perfect fusion of bubblegum-sweet tunefulness and clever, subtly barbed lyrics.”
In a world full of disposable tracks, The Corner Laughers deliver songs that are crafted for longevity—records you’ll return to again and again, each time finding something new.
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