|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
When The Corner Laughers last released an album, the world looked very different — locked down, in fact, because the group’s fifth album came out in June 2020. Thankfully, this time around, the Bay Area band can look forward to performing and touring sans Zoom to support their sixth full-length album, “Concerns of Wasp and Willow.”
The album came out in late March on Big Stir Records, the group’s second release on the label.
The Corner Laughers are an indie-pop and folk foursome that features Karla Kane, vocals, ukulele; Khoi Huynh, bass, vocals and other instruments; KC Bowman, guitar, vocals and other instruments; and Charlie Crabtree, drums. (Kane is also Embarcadero Media’s Assistant Lifestyles Editor).
Kane and Huynh, who are married, live in Redwood City. They will perform songs from the album as a duo on May 15 at Little Green a Plant Bar.
For all its challenges, the pandemic didn’t dent the positive critical reception for the band’s previous album, “Temescal Telegraph,” which was praised in the independent and overseas press.
As the followup, “Concerns of Wasp and Willow” strikes a balancing act with 10 tracks that are grounded with a clear-eyed exploration of nature and ecological themes, and buoyed by uplifting, hopeful melodies that are also catchy.
In their first single off the album released last fall, “Dark Matter,” crows, ravens and their corvid cousins become a metaphor for standing apart from the crowd. The second single, “Rainbow Cardigan,” released in January, is named for an actual garment Kane found on the band’s travels. In notes for the album, she likens it to a microcosm of the album itself, “with its distinctive blend of melancholy and exuberance, anxiety and wonder.”
The album recently hit the #1 stationwide spot at Stanford University’s KZSU.
“Concerns of Wasp and WIllow” includes some collaborations and cameos, including with Corner Laughers co-founder and former member Angela Rhoades (née Silletto), British musician Helen Luker and a contribution from Kane and Huynh’s daughter, Octavia.
We spoke with the band ahead of a spring tour of Michigan. They will head out on a limited tour of England this summer and also play various Peninsula dates throughout the summer, including July 3 in Woodside.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
The Almanac: What inspired the title “Concerns of Wasp and WIlow?”
Kane: We had the album mostly done, but we hadn’t decided on the right title. We tried some and nothing felt right.
We happened to have adopted a new cat, who we named Willow, at the end of last summer. And also we were thinking about going up to Marin County, where I grew up. It’s where we got married, in a state park.
So we usually go for our anniversary that time of year, and I had been reading that there was a huge wasp infestation at the time. So Khoi asked if I had discussed with Octavia, our daughter, about if we wanted to go up there for the weekend. And I said, ‘Yes, she shares my concerns of wasp and willow.’
For some reason I phrased it just like that. As soon as I said it out loud in that kind of strangely formal way, I was like, ‘That could be the album title.’
Bowman: It implies being engaged as well as feeling dread, which is a fine line.
Kane: Later, I realized, too, a lot of the songs have sort of an ambiguity between darkness and light, and good and bad.
“Wasp and Willow” represents that balance, too, because wasps are thought of as scary and painful sometimes and willows and willow bark can be pain-relieving, but both are important to the planet.
The Almanac: The environment and nature are strong themes in your songs. What draws you to those subjects?
Kane: No pun intended, but it’s just natural. How does anyone not think about that? To me, it’s such an important part of life. I do tend to start writing songs a lot of the time when I’m walking outside or hanging out in our backyard under the oak tree. So I think it’s on my mind often, and obviously, you know, environmental issues are important to us consciously, but I also think unconsciously. It’s always in my thoughts.
The Almanac: You name check some Bay Area locations in your songs. How would you say that the Bay Area influences your music?
Kane: I think our environment, both the natural world and sort of the cultural world of where we are always influences our songs.
Some of them are very direct and literal, like “Dusking.” The first verse, it’s set in San Francisco on a Saturday night. I just started singing that while we’re walking through San Francisco on a Saturday night, going to the Caltrain station, like that one very much unfolds, kind of in real time as it’s happening. I think a lot of the plants and animals reference our local species.
Bowman: And then also there’s your travels to, in this case, England.
Kane: We always take a lot of inspiration from those trips just because they mean a lot to us. And they’re always, you know, very memorable when we get to go tour over there.
The Almanac: Are there particular venues or events you return to on your English tours?
Kane: We’re doing four shows, but the biggest one is the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain, which we also played at in 2024. It’s just so cool. It’s the most amazing venue. The nicest people go to ukulele festivals, I find. So we’re really excited to go to that again. We’re also playing in London and near Canterbury and Kendal, which is a town up in the northwest. The song “Rainbow Cardigan” has a lot about Kendal in it, because we fell in love with Kendal last time we were there.
The Almanac: The album includes the song “Victoria Sponge” co-written by Khoi and British musician Helen Luker. How did that song come about?
Huynh: We met (British musicians) Helen and Mark Luker at a music festival in Liverpool many years ago and they just happened to mention to us, ‘Hey, if you want to come back to England, we’ll loan you instruments and back you up.’
We kind of became an acoustic band for a while with Helen and her husband, Mark, who plays the bass. So they learned all of our stuff. We learned all their stuff. And one of the times we were over there, we stayed in this place in South London, Herne Hill, and that’s where the song takes place. It’s about the Crystal Palace, which was this Victorian glass building that was just enormous, and sadly, it burned down in the 1930s. It was kind of one of the wonders of the world, but now it’s a cool park and it’s all grown back to nature.
The Almanac: Your daughter, Octavia, also contributed to the album. She’s got a writing credit on “Crumb Clean.” How did that come about?
Kane: The song “Terra Mia,” which is the first track, is kind of an environmental story that is very dark and kind of apocalyptic and disastrous. So I wrote that kind of out of nowhere one day, and then the next day, I was thinking, ‘Wow, it’s kind of funny, but it’s also pretty dark.’
Usually I don’t plan out what the songs are going to be. They just happen. But in that one in particular, I really felt like I want there to be — if this is going to be on an album — something to kind of counterbalance it that’s way more hopeful about the environment, about people that are working to do good.
Octavia was playing on the piano at home, and she just played this little riff that was very catchy. So she’s playing it at the beginning of the song and at the end. It’s a certain little riff. So then I snatched that and wrote the song based around that riff. The words are dedicated to her and her generation and (offers) a positive side to things. So I think of those two songs as going together in that way.
Karla Kane and Khoi Huynh perform May 15 at Little Green a Plant Bar, 1101 Main St., Redwood City; admission is free. For more information, visit cornerlaughers.bandcamp.com or bigstirrecords.com/the-corner-laughers.
