LAUGHABLE RECORDINGS
Wow, here we are in the web. Screened off to the world. Consider this celestial image. How might we represent ourselves now? Look at that sun rise into those clouds! The sun rises above the clouds. The pink fortune lifts and dissipates. The fog hesitates at the mouth of the river rolling out to meet the sea - it turns gold and returns to heaven. Tina runs with all she has - diving into and swimming against the current. I stand here laughing because I love to laugh.
On this website there is some information - thank you for coming to this website.
for information about PERFORMANCES
for information about RELEASES
for information about FOR HIRE
for information about CONTACT
for information about ABOUT
CONTACT
Colby Nathanlaughablerecordings@gmail.com
shoot me an email if ya wanna join the Laughable email list
about regional shows and releases
or you can call me if you know the number
Good Morning
photo by Alex Nelson
featuring performances at: the Apohadion Theater, Portland, ME / Outwardbound mix tape session at RBC, Dallas, TX / Dream Away Lodge, Beckett, MA / Lyric Hall Theater, New Haven, CT / Columbus Theater, Providence, RI / Quinn’s, Beacon, NY / Fleetwoods, Asheville, NC / Dorchester Art Project, Boston, MA / Amy E. Tarrant Gallery, Burlington, VT / and beaches Willard and Parsons
My name is Colby Nathan. I grew up here in Southern Maine, and I live here still. I’ve bounced around, but I love it here. I perform in many outfits. I feel that collaboration exercises development, diversity emboldens growth, and experience is understanding. Music has been my easiest access point to pursue these values/practices. It’s also a lot of fun - to play. I’ve given in to it. It never gets boring. It’s the only thing that I truly live for beside my pup, cold ocean dips, and icecream. And love for family and friends. I play different roles in all these bands, but I can also be spotted rolling solo (me and Tina, that is). I certainly admire uncompromising lifers, and aspire to be one.
Laughable Recordings celebrated ten years last summer with a final barn show where it rained inside. Perhaps essentially a vanity label, though I’ve done small releases for folks I admire over the years. Less and less as finances have been demanded by other arenas of life, but they still happen now and then. All of the releases are collaborative and personal. Not sure what kinda label this is supposed to be - I originally thought it could be some sorta dumping grounds. Is what it is.
New recordings are coming soon from many of the following bands. Shows are being played... where?
Here are my main collaborations (click the names for links):
Dimples
comatose pop duo with Greg Hartunian operating in flux out of Southern Maine and Southern California.
Greg owns and operates an impressively vibey recording studio in Glendale, CA called Tropico Beauty
Clay Camero and the County Line Bandits
psychedelic country stylings from frontwoman Clay Camero (formerly Caethua, Ancestral Diet, Sports, etc.)
featuring a fine cast of collaborative friends.
(New England) Patriots
freaky post post punk trio featuring two friends that I’ve been playing music with since I was fourteen. DK and Fool Diddly have been playing together since they were toddlers.
Tom K. & C. Nathan duo
Tom Kovacevic and I elaborate on each other’s songs. Link is to Tom’s music that I had nothing to do with recording, but admire greatly.
hack and pray construction.
Greg Jamie band
moody space folk that I recorded for my buddy Greg.
you can often find me sharing bills and guesting with some of my heros like:
Big Blood + Video Nasties
and from afar, the excellent Ralph White
Many thanks to Feeding Tube Records, Nicey Music, Dontrustheruin, 100% Breakfast for helping release my friends and my music.
Thank you to the Maine Arts Commission for awarding me the Resilience Artist Grant in the spring of 2021 to help continue to make improvements to the Laughable Recordings in-house studio despite the financial challenges as a musician/engineer due to 2020 pandemic.
out now!
“No shortage of dune buggy up the canyon honey slide action here. The first tinges of sonic solvent action provide a loosened effect, but just as the tongue gets lazy, the swagger is spat gently from the tip as clarity bursts into the room with the urgency a hungry baby.Delicate without feeling soft. Brash without feeling harsh and at times Dimples’ swing fucking hard, like JJ and Leon without forcing it one bit.But if you don’t like “new music” this might not be your cuppa. ‘Soul Chateau,’ isn’t an updated prettied up throwback, it’s all here and now, in the present time’s glory, gore, majestic beauty, and glimmering perpetual urgency.
Co-written, equally played, produced, and recorded by Greg Hartunian and Colby Nathan, Dimples is a truly collaborative project.
After much of the album was tracked, Greg was involved in a near fatal car accident, rear ended in the right lane on California’s treacherous Highway 5. This left Greg, normally an extremely active worker, in a back brace, and in chronic pain. A majority of the song sculpting was done while Greg was recovering. References to mortality, albeit not heavy handed, join the album’s themes. Trialed seeds of brotherly music making; communion, collaboration and dedication. Forms of renewal through sonic therapy.Extracting the nuggets from their extended duo jams, Dimples’ shape these improvisations into luminous, hooky psychedelic electro camp fire sing alongs, with the occasional guest spot from New England familiar shredders like Big Blood, Tom Kovacevic, and Keith Waters.
“There’s no waste, only composition. There’s no time, only transition.”Melding the dry Mediterranean subtropical climate of Glendale, California with the humid and sometimes frigid Continental climate of Maine, Greg and Colby work the magic, wether its in the Tropico Beauty studio of the San Fernando Valley, or South Portland’s Laughable Recordings home studio.Topping off the listening experience is the incredible album artwork featuring a series of oil paintings by Salvador Charlí, Hartunian’s alter ego with a paintbrush. The paintings depict the colorful and surreal inner workings of the world where the “Soul Chateau” stands tall on the hill.Through the spontaneity of improv and the deliberate and dedicated practice of song writing, what results is a diverse bouquet of carefully gathered fragrant blooms.”
– Dan Beckman-Moon
CO-RELEASED by Laughable Recordings and Feeding Tube Records
ORDER YOUR COPY HERE
