Laneous & The Family Yah
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | INDIE
Music
Press
"Basically, if you can’t find something to like on this record, then you have no fucking soul and will burn in Hell with no friends to keep you company. This is “the shit”, to put it as eloquently as possible, and if we’re lucky we’ll all go to Heaven and find that it has choirs who sing as gorgeously as the good folk in this band. And any group that succeeds in making female rapping, of all things, seem actually pretty awesome must be doin’ somethin’ right. Long Live Laneous!!" - MusicVice.com
"The insanity involved here conjures up thoughts of Mike Patton remaking ‘The White Album’. Yes, it’s that good."
- Scene Magazine (Brisbane)
"What could very easily become a creaking mess welded together with fuzzy guitars is held together masterfully by Laneous. He can go from a Prince-like smoldering vocal line into the filthiest rap verse you could imagine, before finishing it off with a searing vocal line. Image if Jimi Hendrix took Nina Simone out for a nice dinner before taking her home and never calling her again. Laneous is the product of that. He's like human centipede sewn out of all the greatest musicians from the past 80 years." - Beat Magazine (Melbourne)
Indie Album Of The Week: Laneous & The Family Yah
Found Things
Bird Fire Records
****1/2
This is easily the most insane album I’ve heard all year, and the best part of it is the insanity – on their sophomore record, Laneous and his large posse fly through genres, and completely spoil your ears.
Take Regurgitator at their prime, mixed with the fuzz-jams of Bumblebeez and the funk-jams of bluejuice topped with a Mr Bungle chaser, and you’re still not even close to the Molotov cocktail that is Found Things. Serious string sections, math-rock breakdowns, criminally smooth soul and hipster-rap interludes… Laneous and his family try everything – and even when they fail, it’s glorious. My favourites have to be the expertly arranged soul numbers; ‘Deserve’, ‘Bad Son’ and ‘Haunting’ may seem like mere excursions from the madder moments here, but damn they’re beautiful.
Laneous (or whatever his name actually is), the expert rhymer and classic crooner, may be Brisbane’s answer to Plan B. How he manages to keep a lid on not only his innate sense of spontaneity but also that of his band for long enough to write any one song, is beyond me. This group is a musical chameleon of epic proportions, but strangely I don’t have any desire to pin them down. With so many sounds, so many ideas and so much promise, not everyone will ‘get’ these guys – but those who do will fall head over heels in love.
Boldness has a fresh new face, and now, a fresh new family. Top stuff.
Jonno Seidler - The Brag (Sydney)
Mr Laneous & The Family Yah have an early slot on the Boiler Room stage at Australia’s Big Day Out festival and have drawn a nice crowd who are soon jumping and getting down. Superstar frontman, Laneous has united a band comprised of some of the funkiest that River City has to offer… The band gives off a raw energy together with very tight grooves and infectious beats. Besides a set of golden vocal chords, Laneous posseses rad rhymes and keen style. He happens to be quite handsome also, which doesn’t hurt anyone. - Leopard Lady, Virgin Music
At 9pm, Mr Laneous & The Family Yah, start their set. Fits of giggles permeate the room as they come onstage. The boys in the band are frocked up in flowery, poofy, very girly numbers, complete with make-up and pearls, and the girls of the Bird Fire Choir are dressed in caps and very dapper waistcoats and pants. Throw a Japanese schoolgirl bassist with hairy legs in there for good measure and you’re on to a good thing. But, despite the wacked out costumes, Mr Laneous is already on to a good thing. His music is ingenious and its complexities are not lost on the audience. The band, the choir, and frontman work together really well to create a strong performance. The crowd of adoring fans sing along to old tunes such as Loveable Tramp, Crew Cut, and Searing Life. The new tunes are equally as catchy as the old- the crowd easily picking up the chorus - only to be interrupted by some instrumental mastery and freestyling. Laneous keeps us on our feet, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. - Faster Louder
Discography
DISCOGRAPHY:
Paper EP (Creative Vibes, COMING SOON)
Scissors EP (Creative Vibes, 2011)
Found Things LP (Creative Vibes, 2010)
Almost Regal EP (Bird Fire Records, 2010)
Mash Up (Bird Fire Records, 2010)
Shit At Life, Good At Music EP (Bird Fire Records, 2009)
St. Ill Regal LP (Bird Fire Records, 2009)
Ill Regal EP (Bird Fire Records, 2008)
Soul Sampler EP (Rudekat Records, 2007)
RADIO PLAY:
Scissors EP (2011):
KCRW Rotation
3RRR (Soundscape) Feature Record
PBS Album of the Week
4ZZZ - #1 Album for 6 Weeks
Syn & 2ser - High Rotation
Found Things LP (2010):
Triple J Full Rotation (It Only Takes)
3RRR (Soundscape) Feature Album Rotation
PBS Feature Album of the Week
2SER Recommends Feature Album
4ZZZ - #1 two weeks running + Presents + (Single and Album in top 20 for 9 weeks in total)
FBI - A Rotation (I am dog & Dream)
St Ill Regal LP (2009):
Triple J Full Rotation (Searing Life)
Various Community Rotation
Other Triple J Play:
I Am Dog, Haunting (Me), Crew Cut, Got Dream, Activism, Bubblegum, Slow Down, Pick Up Truck, Oh She
Photos
Bio
“He's like human centipede sewn out of all the greatest musicians from the past 80 years.”
Liam Pieper, Beat Magazine
“They blend styles at will, effortlessly moving from silky soul to beat-heavy hip-hop, never sounding contrived or overreaching.”
Dom Alessio, Triple J
“The insanity involved here conjures up thoughts of Mike Patton remaking ‘The White Album’. Yes, it’s that good.”
Ben Johnson, Scene Magazine
“Found Things will become an essential summer soundtrack, accompanying many road-trips, drug-trips, skinny dips and lazy kips.”
Chris Bright, Beat Magazine
“If there was ever a time to jump on a bandwagon, now would be it with Laneous & The Family Yah.”
Jason Strange, Musicfeed.com
“Sometimes it's obvious when a band is reaching the critical mass that will take their music to a much bigger audience… Laneous and the Family Yah, that critical mass point is now.”
Noel Mengel, The Courier-Mail “Best Albums Of 2010”
Laneous & The Family Yah make Mutant Soul and Croon Punk for your earholes. Alternatively cheerful, smooth and demented, Laneous navigates his band through fiercely syncopated, occasionally bombast and otherwise wobbly grooves with his trademark falsetto croon and charming hip hop murmurs.
Bubbling up out of the Artisan hotbed that is Brisbane’s West End, they’ve finely tuned their high energy and dynamic live show the old fashioned way – through grueling trips up and down the East Coast, crashing on floors and fighting over DJ duties in the tour bus. L&TFY love touring. Although it’s difficult to say whether they are more addicted to touring or recording. The past year or two has seen them grace the stages of Big Day Out, Parklife, Sunset Sounds, Peats Ridge Festival, Woodford Folk Festival and many other festivals amongst their non stop slew of club shows.
L&TFY breathe, eat, shit, and vomit music. With a staggering 8 releases including 2 acclaimed Albums and another 2 currently in the works to complete the Found Things Collection, it is fair to say that they are amongst the most prolific artists in Australia.
2011 sees them release their Found Things Collection. Consisting of 3 x EP's to be released across the year, The ‘Scissors’ (1st), ‘Paper’ (2nd), ‘Rock’ (3rd) series will see L&TFY dismantle and explore the many musical ideas on ‘Found Things’, one EP at a time. Loosely, ‘Scissors’ will lean towards soul and melody, ‘Paper’ - a quirkier indie pop, art rock vibe and ‘Rock’ - Afro Punk and Hip Hop. Leading with a complete re-imagining of a track from ‘Found Things’, each EP will then also contain 4 or 5 new tracks in a similar musical vein.
Having inked a deal with iconic Australian label Creative Vibes (through whom they released ‘Found Things’ in October and are releasing the accompanying ‘Found Things Collection’ throughout 2011) Laneous & The Family Yah continue to landslide through Australia gathering with them a happy trail of smiling freaks and bewildered bystanders. 2011 sees them broaden their horizons with extended residencies planned in both Berlin & New York and a few other stops as they open invitations to extended Family Yah around the world.
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