Centered around the thoughtful and mutating songwriting of singer/guitarist Sam Jayne, Love as Laughter evolved over a more than 20-year run, shifting from angular indie rock to more understated forms. The band made records with foundational indie labels Sub Pop and K before signing on with Modest Mouse singer Issac Brock's major-label offshoot for the release of 2008's Holy. Following the 1994 dissolution of indie pop cult faves Lync, singer/guitarist Sam Jayne formed the lo-fi solo project Love as Laughter, self-releasing a pair of cassettes (an eponymous effort and Clear Sky = Blue Dye) before issuing The Greks Bring Gifts on K Records in 1996. #1 U.S.A. followed in 1998, heralding the additions of guitarist Jessica Espeleta and ex-Lync drummer Dave Schneider; Destination 2000, Love as Laughter's Sub Pop debut, appeared a year later. After following it with a series of singles for K and another album for Sub Pop in 2005, Laughter's Fifth, and by this time their excitable indie rock was beginning to mellow and take on a moodier, more subdued character. For 2008's Holy, the band signed on with Glacial Pace, a sub-label of Epic curated by Modest Mouse's Issac Brock. Holy continued to move in a folkier direction, leaning heavily on Neil Young influences. It would be Love as Laughter's final album, and the band was only sporadically productive after that, though a 2010 recording session led to the release of a single, "Timers" b/w "The One Around for Years," on Tracks of Quality in 2012. The same label issued the cassette-only Greks II: Slight Return in 2013, and another 7", "Lazy Soldier" b/w "Oasis," was brought out by ToQ in 2015. On December 12, 2020, Sam Jayne was reported missing by his friends and family after not being seen since December 6. On December 15, 2020, their worst fears were confirmed when Jayne was found dead in his car by the New York Police Department; he was 46 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny & Mark Deming