**Special edition containing a bonus 7" record sold ONLY during the pre-sale, that ends this Sunday. Shipping after August 15th** For a decade or more, the rumors of a Peter Laughner retrospective box set have been hotly debated and speculated, with many fans wondering if in fact such a release would ever see the light of day. At long last Smog Veil Records, in conjunction with the estate of Peter Laughner and his many collaborators, is very pleased to announce the impending release of Peter Laughner, a 5 LP/CD box set plus bonus 7” EP. Cleveland musician, writer, poet, catalyst, and proto-punk cult figure Peter Laughner was born in Bay Village, OH on August 22, 1952. He is best known for being a co-founder of Cleveland’s legendary “avant garage” band Pere Ubu and a significant member of both proto-punk trailblazers Rocket From The Tombs  and the Mr. Stress Blues Band,  a  Cleveland  musical  institution  that  existed  for  nearly  five decades.Focusing on the 1972 to 1977 period of Laughner’s career, Peter Laughner will feature previously unreleased performances by Laughner’s bands Rocket From The Tombs, Fins, Cinderella Backstreet, Friction, Cinderella’s Revenge, and The Original Wolverines as well as solo and collaborative efforts. In addition to the material uncovered over the last decade, this box set will also include some significant sonic upgrades of material that was previously released on various out-of-print and bootleg compilations. With 61 tracks in total, the release will be the definitive statement of Peter’s career. Twenty five bandmates and collaborators are represented on this release and many are available for interview.
Peter Laughner will also include a book featuring extensive previously unpublished images and a collection of Laughner’s writings, reviews, and poetry for publications such as Creem, Exit, Zeppelin, and Star spanning 1973 - 1977.Best known for being a co-founder of Cleveland’s legendary “avant garage” band Pere Ubu and a significant member of proto-punk trailblazers Rocket From The Tombs, Laughner had a musical career that stretched back to the mid-1960s and continued through to his untimely death at age 24 in 1977. Laughner did a little bit of everything in his music career: rock, folk, blues, punk, jug band, experimental, and even jazz fusion, drawing on influences as diverse as Chuck Berry, Jimmy Cliff, Brian Eno, Richard Hell, Michael Hurley, Robert Johnson, Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground, and Television. His original and collaborative compositions have been covered by artists as diverse as Guns ‘n’ Roses and Mission of Burma and lyrics from his signature composition “Amphetamine” were used by Jeff Tweedy in Wilco’s “Misunderstood”. Perhaps even more importantly, Laughner was a catalyst for the Cleveland underground music scene, stating his conviction bluntly in a 1974 piece for the Plain Dealer: “I want to do for Cleveland what Brian Wilson did for California and Lou Reed did for New York”. In some ways, 41 years after his death, Laughner has done just that.