Indie-pop darlings THE CORNER LAUGHERS return with their first new album in over five years, CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW, out March 27 on CD and Streaming. The band's sixth full-length release and the keenly-awaited followup to 2020's critically-hailed TEMESCAL TELEGRAPH, the new record balances sunshine and shadow in the band's distinctive style and resonates with wit, whimsy and bewitching melodies. Already previewed by the hit indie singles “Rainbow Cardigan” and last year's “Dark Matter,” CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW is up for pre-order and presave now:

https://orcd.co/cornerlaughers-cowaw

Northern California indie pop/folk outfit THE CORNER LAUGHERS have been weaving a rich tapestry of timeless sounds and lyricism since the early 2000s to ever-increasing acclaim, solidifying their quintessential lineup of Karla Kane (vocals, ukulele), Khoi Huynh (bass, vocals and more), KC Bowman (guitar, vocals and more) and Charlie Crabtree (drums) on their 2015 breakthrough album MATILDA EFFECT. When last we left our heroes, they'd spent five years crafting its followup, the band's Big Stir Records debut TEMESCAL TELEGRAPH, only to have its release date coincide with the onset of the 2020 pandemic. In a musical miracle for troubled times, the album's themes and musical settings resonated with the unease of the year and offered solace for the losses and isolation of that bleak miniature era. The global music press took note: Goldmine Magazine called it “a wonderfully enticing triumph,” The Swindonian labeled it “a magical otherworld, idyllic and innocent and yet poignant in its many charms,” and Shindig! Magazine's five-star review concluded “Every track is absolutely brilliant, brimming with vim and vigor.” In the end, TEMESCAL TELEGRAPH was not just a leap forward for the band, but a lifeline of comfort for fans old and new.

We haven't been treated to the unique wordplay, inventive arrangements and sheer idiosyncratic ebullience that characterize THE CORNER LAUGHERS' original music for over half a decade, and it's arguable that we need them more than ever. The world remains unsettled, and anyone possessed of empathy might find themselves vacillating between profound sadness and the need to reclaim the joy on which hope is founded. With their new album CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW, THE CORNER LAUGHERS audaciously and artfully create consonance from those very contrasts. While the band is often thought of as purveying “sunshine” pop, Kane's lyrics and the band's musical textures have always balanced the dark and the light. On CONCERNS, erasing that dichotomy becomes a mission statement with endlessly fascinating results. Listeners first heard this new blend last Halloween when the single “Dark Matter” appeared, its title belied by its jubilant beat and bright melody as Kane celebrated (not for the first time) ravens and crows, inviting listeners to join the band's “new crone coven” in solidarity with anyone who's ever felt like an outsider.

The blurring of the lines between seeming opposites came into even clearer focus on this January's single “Rainbow Cardigan”: here, vibrant hues stand out against graveyard grey, stark minor key ukulele gives way to expansive major key harmonies, and the chorus hook itself proclaims “We were old, yes we were ancient / We were young, yes, we were barely conceived.” Kane rightly describes the tune (already a hit on indie radio worldwide) as “a microcosm of the album as a whole, with its imagery of colors and shades, and its distinctive blend of melancholy and exuberance, anxiety and wonder.” When listeners hear CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW in full this March, it'll be abundantly clear what she means from the very first track, “Terra Mia”. It begins sweetly, all jangling uke and delightful wordplay, but it grows denser and darker as it unfolds. “It's an epic folk-rock tale of environmental destruction and apocalyptic imagery,” Kane explains. “Is it describing events eons ago or yet to come in the near future? Probably both!”

If that effortless melding of future and past, giddiness and anxiety, and light and darkness evokes twilight for you, listen on. Embedded within the album is what Kane refers to as “the Dusking Trilogy” starting with the second track, “Dusking.” The tune is a wistfully romantic slice-of-life idyll with a fully organic classic pop arrangement that retains the pulse of its '80s synth-pop inspiration. Later comes the elegiac chamber pop of the closing “Larkspur Landing,” with its autumnal imagery and hints of transitioning between worlds (yet even here there's the promise of renewal in the natural world). Between the two and at the album's heart is the moody masterpiece “The Harvestman,” the identity of its seemingly ominous title character shrouded in ambiguity but the lyrics “Let the night air in, I want to feel it under my skin” suggesting acceptance and even a longing for what he brings. The half-light of sunset suffuses other songs as well.

Beyond acknowledging and contemplating the malaise and challenges and of our times, CONCERNS also weaves calls to action into its quilt, subtly and often joyously. The band's long-held environmental activism fuels the bounce of “Crumb Clean,” based on a piano riff created by Kane and Huynh's daughter Octavia, who plays it here. Ecology, specifically that of the band's native California, informs the warm jazz-folk of “Red Yarrow, Yellow Yarrow” and surfaces in “Larkspur Landing” as well. The sweeping “Universe Point,” written by the band's KC Bowman, ponders the cultural tension between those who allow themselves to be swept away by conspiracy, bigotry and ignorance, and those who value kindness, science and education, welcoming imagination but remaining rooted in reality. And there could be no better embodiment of a fact-based flight of fancy than “Victoria Sponge”, co-written by Huynh and Helen Luker (of England's Fun Of The Pier, who also sings on the track), spanning over 150 years of London history and narrated by omniscient Victorian ghosts who never lose sight of the small pleasures in life – the chorus is, of course, a cake recipe – while also pondering environmental destruction and renewal.

It should be clear by now that collaboration is a key ingredient in the way The Corner Laughers bring the album to life: Bowman and Huynh are both consummate players and arrangers able to draw on touchstones from the ancient to the “retro” to the futuristic as appropriate, and Crabtree's empathetic drumming bounces from folk-punk to jazzy swing as each song requires. The record also finds the band welcoming back co-founder Angela Rhoades (née Silletto) after a decade away for cameos on three tracks, while Bradley Skaught of Bay Area indie pop legends Bye Bye Blackbirds sits in on drums for “The Harvestman” and the woodwinds of Jeri Sykes complement the baroque vibes on “Larkspur Landing.”

All of which only scratches the surface of the world (or worlds) conjured by THE CORNER LAUGHERS on the new album. Its rich imagery -- encompassing woven textiles, cartography, botany, circular timelines and so much more – meld with its musical textures and instantly memorable melodies to describe itself in one final, but instinctively coherent, paradox. It is, as always with the band, a place very much worth visiting, and we at Big Stir Records invite you to make these CONCERNS OF OF WASP AND WILLOW your own.

With their highly-anticipated new album CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW announced and on its way this March, Bay Area indie pop heroes THE CORNER LAUGHERS offer up another preview single from the record: “Dusking,” a sweet idyll of a tune reflecting the shades of both vibrant colors and melancholic shades of grey on display throughout the band's new collection. The single is out March 6 and up for pre-order/presave now:

https://orcd.co/cornerlaughers-dusking

“Dusking,” like all the tracks on CONCERNS including the recent indie hit “Rainbow Cardigan,” was crafted by THE CORNER LAUGHERS' long-running and quintessential lineup of Karla Kane (vocals, ukulele), Khoi Huynh (bass, vocals and more), KC Bowman (guitar, vocals and more) and Charlie Crabtree (drums). Across the record, they weave a tapestry with threads of joy and sadness intertwining within each song, and the twilight setting mirrors that ambition so perfectly that “Dusking” is one of a trilogy of tunes embedded in the album set during the in-between hours (the others being the warmly eerie “Harvestman” and the album-closing “Larkspur Landing”). The single highlights both the band's connection to their native Northern California and the ecological concerns that dot the album, but it's primarily about capturing the joy of living in the moment, as Kane explains:

“It's a little slice of life – of an evening scene, walking through San Francisco, awaiting public transportation and taking a Caltrain journey down the Peninsula, watching and pondering the world going by in the fading light outside the windows. More literal and linear (maybe because it follows a path and then a train track!) than usual for me. It was a song started in situ, stream of consciousness – I really just started singing the opening lines as they unfolded in real time.” She adds that a subtle message underlies the whimsy of the lyrics: “We’re big public transportation advocates and it’s not easy sometimes to get around that way. The Bay Area is also an incredibly expensive place to live, which makes things difficult for artists. There’s always a sort of wistful romance in train journeys and songs about trains.”

Musically, the song is a sterling example of the organic chemistry the band has developed over the years, but it also retains an inviting pulse that calls back to its early origins, as Huynh explains. “Karla handed me a vocal-only demo of the song and asked me to add some instrumentation. To emphasize the train theme, I thought it should have a hypnotic rhythm track. I took inspiration from the music of my younger years, specifically the 1986 Pretty In Pink soundtrack. Some elements from my over-the-top '80s synth demo can be heard on the final recording, but Charlie’s precision drumming and KC’s sunset-over-the-Pacific-Ocean surf guitar really took it into another realm.” It's exactly that sweet collision of modern, retro, and even ancient textures, both musically and lyrically, that have led to THE CORNER LAUGHERS so frequently being referred to as “timeless,” and that's never been so vibrantly evident as it is on CONCERNS AND WASP AND WILLOW. “Dusking” sets the scene for the album's release on March 27, when fans old and new will be able to explore the new world the band has created in all its rich, heartfelt detail.

Beloved indie pop combo THE CORNER LAUGHERS return to make good on the promise of a long-awaited new album – their first since 2020 – with the new single “Rainbow Cardigan.” The followup to the delightful surprise of their 2025 single (and contribution to Big Stir Records' Halloween celebration) “Dark Matter,” the new track is a blend of melancholy and exuberance that's a thrilling sign of things to come. “Rainbow Cardigan” is out January 16 and up for pre-order and presave now:

https://orcd.co/cornerlaughers-rc

“Rainbow Cardigan,” like the album it heralds and the band that created it, is an exhilarating study in remarkably consonant contrasts. For longtime fans of THE CORNER LAUGHERS, the sound will be instantly recognizable, kicking off in a minor key with the solo vocals and jangly ukulele of KARLA KANE (both distinctive calling cards of the band), spinning a tale where the title garment is the only splash of color in a graveyard on a grey British morning. When the chorus hits, though, it's positively jubilant, all major chords, driving rhythms and interlocking harmonies. Still, there'a a dichotomy at the core: “We were old, yes we were ancient; we were young, yes, we were barely conceived.” For all that depth and intrigue, it's also flat-out catchy, with intricate acoustic guitar by KHOI HUYNH, spaghetti western bass and electric guitar by KC BOWMAN (both also suppling those harmonies), and propelled over the edge by a folk-punk explosion of drums by CHARLIE CRABTREE and, coming in with a burst of electric guitar distortion for the grand finale, an exciting cameo by original band co-founder Angela Rhoades (nee Silletto), her first reunion on record since leaving the band more than a decade ago.

KARLA offers some insight into the inspiration for the song. “Often when I write a song, it starts with a little scrap of something and only after it’s all stitched together is the pattern unveiled. Here, the concept seems to be of a woven textile piece representing the knitting together of time and space – a kind of cosmic map or web. The song is a bit of a microcosm of the album CONCERNS OF WASP AND WILLOW as a whole, with its imagery of colors and shades, its distinctive blend of sadness and joy, anxiety and wonder.” For all its fanciful imagery, the song is rooted in reality: “There is, in fact, a real rainbow cardigan, which I fell in love with and bought from a little shop with a wonderful owner in the town of Kendal, England. The opening lines talk literally about climbing up to Kendal Castle on a cold and rainy day.”

Kane continues: “Looking around at the ruins, I realized that old as they were, in the grand, universal scheme of things, they – and all of humankind’s civilizations and buildings – they really aren’t old at all. And that leads into how it feels to me, heading into my own 'middle ages,' sometimes unspeakably ancient and sometimes like a little child. Perhaps you’ve felt the same? We then move to one of my favorite places on Earth – Lake Lagunitas, in Fairfax, California, where I grew up – and to the way reliving past mistakes can seem to replay endlessly. I was thinking of earthquake faults and topographic maps, which lead me back to textiles. All the good and bad and colors and textures of life woven and wrapped up together, I suppose.”

With “Rainbow Cardigan,” THE CORNER LAUGHERS present one more panel in the quilt of their forthcoming album, a miniature masterpiece of form mirroring content that's as heartfelt as it is melodically rich. There's much more to be unraveled, and we'll be thrilled to bring it to you very soon.

The month-long BIG STIR RECORDS celebration of all things spooky and spirited comes to an end on Halloween Day itself with the release of the final single from CHILLING, THRILLING HOOKS AND HAUNTED HARMONIES, as we turn the corner toward things to come with the new single “Dark Matter” from Northern California indie pop darlings THE CORNER LAUGHERS. Exuberant and irresistible, it's the first new music from the band in nearly five years and a look ahead at a new album due next year. “Dark Matter” is out October 31 and up for pre-order and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/cornerlaughers-darkmatter

It's certainly been too long since we've heard from THE CORNER LAUGHERS. The band – Karla Kane (vocals, ukulele), Khoi Huynh (bass, vocals), KC Bowman (guitar, vocals) and Charlie Crabtree (drums) – have hardly been inactive: they've been heard from live stages in their native California, the Midwestern US and the UK since the release of their acclaimed fifth album TEMESCAL TELEGRAPH, their Big Stir Records debut, at the very beginning of the pandemic. There has been a handful of delightful appearances (invariably standout tracks) on tribute compilations, but we haven't been treated to the unique wordplay, inventive arrangements and sheer idiosyncratic joy that characterize THE CORNER LAUGHERS' original music for nearly half a decade.

Given the band's propensity for ghost stories, witchy tales, and odes to black cats, ravens and crows, Halloween is an ideal time for their return. So their surprise reappearance with “Dark Matter” on the Big Stir Records Halloween LP CHILLING, THRILLING HOOKS AND HAUNTED HARMONIES makes perfect sense... and once again, it's a highlight. Easily the most celebratory track on the collection, it's The Corner Laughers in peak form, and for all the references to “new crone covens” and the casting of spells, there's nothing sinister about the song at all. All bright hooks, loping basslines, sweet harmonies and rhapsodic rhymes, its connection to All Hallow's Eve goes beyond the imagery, nodding toward the holiday's characteristic permission for self-expression.

“'Dark Matter' is an incantation and invitation for anyone who feels out of sync with the 'normal' world, whether it be due to aging in a botox and TikTok society, a complete disinclination to join the capitalist rat race, or some other sense of feeling on the fringes. And of course, as always, for the corvids!” say the band. It's not the first time these cleverest but most misunderstood of birds – crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws, every last one of them namedropped in the song – have taken center stage in Karla Kane's lyrics, and here they take flight as a proud symbol of nonconformity. Perhaps more than any other track on the Halloween collection, “Dark Matter” is thus a song for all seasons, and its release as a standalone single is a harbinger of things to come as we round the bend into Winter and then on to a new year... because 2026 will mark the year THE CORNER LAUGHERS return with a new full-length album at last. They've got that corvid chatter well organized, and Big Stir Records will be proud to bring it to you.