The PETER LAUGHNER box set (Smog Veil Records) was recently featured in The New York Times.

Excavating the Lost Work of Peter Laughner, a Rock ’n’ Roll Tragedy
The Ohio musician, who died in 1977 at 24, was a member of the influential bands Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu. A new boxed set collects his recordings. 

By Mike Rubin

In the four decades since his death, Peter Laughner has become something of a punk rock Rorschach blot. Is he an underground icon, historical footnote, tragic figure, cautionary tale of unrealized potential, rock ’n’ roll cliché, or some combination of the above?

Laughner (pronounced LOCK-ner), a guitarist and singer-songwriter, was a member of the Cleveland proto-punk band Rocket From the Tombs, whose influence and importance far exceeded its brief nine-month existence in 1974 and 1975. It then splintered into two more well-documented groups: the Dead Boys, who went on to join the CBGB scene in New York, and Pere Ubu, where Laughner played on landmark songs in the evolution of American underground rock before he was kicked out in 1976.

His best-known track is likely “Ain’t It Fun,” recorded by the Dead Boys in 1978 and Guns N’ Roses in 1993, and Laughner spent the final two years of his life working overtime to turn its refrain — “Ain’t it fun when you know you’re gonna die young” — into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He succumbed to acute pancreatitis at 24 in June 1977, and according to friends, had been warned repeatedly by doctors that further drinking would be fatal.

“Peter Laughner had his private pains and compulsions, but at least in part he died because he wanted to be Lou Reed,” wrote the critic Lester Bangs in an angry obituary essay. “The ‘new wave’ can boast its first casualty.”

Laughner’s demise has tended to overshadow his achievements, and the few recordings of his music officially available are long out of print, leaving his work prey to bootleggers. But last week, the most comprehensive collection of his catalog was finally issued: a five-LP boxed set titled “Peter Laughner” from Smog Veil Records, a Miami-based label co-founded by Frank Mauceri that specializes in new and archival material from northeast Ohio bands.

READ THE FULL STORY IN PRINT OR ONLINE HERE.

ABOUT SMOG VEIL RECORDS
Smog Veil Records was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1991 and focuses on underground, challenging and bombastic music. Platters du Cuyahoga, Series 1 contains the following three records — X__X : Albert Ayler’s Ghosts Live at the Yellow Ghetto (2014-2015); Mr. Stress Blues Band: Live At the Brick Cottage 1972 – 1973; Robert Bensick Band: French Pictures In London (1975). PDC2 contains The Schwartz Fox Blues Crusade: Sunday Morning Revival (1967), Allen Ravenstine: Terminal Drive (1975), and Hy Maya: The Mysticism of Sound & Cosmic Language (1972-1973). The Smog Veil roster includes Rocket From The Tombs, Batusis (Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain of New York Dolls), Pere Ubu, Complaints Choir, This Moment In Black History, OBNOX, Tin Huey, Easter Monkeys, Pistol Whip, Unknown Instructors (Mike Watt, George Hurley, Joe Baiza, Dan McGuire, Raymond Pettibon, David Thomas), Teacher’s Pet, New Christs (featuring Rob Younger of Radio Birdman), The Guns, Rubber City Rebels, among others. The label and various bands on the roster have been featured in esteemed publications including Rolling Stone, Wire, SPIN, The New York Times, Artforum Magazine, Audubon Magazine, The Economist, and CBS Sunday Morning.

The release will be exclusively distributed by Amped/AEC. Robb Haagsman at Shine On will be responsible for radio promotion.

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