ROB LAUFER

Welcome to EXCRUCIATING BLISS, the new album by ROB LAUFER.

The disc takes a side turn from the Americana-roots-meets-Brit-Pop mold that defined the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s previous work and instead opts for a heady, expansive mix of stream-of-consciousness psychedelia, compulsive pop and intimate, melodic musings.

EXCRUCIATING BLISS is pop songcraft at its most dazzling, scaling memorable melodic peaks in the seductive “Mary Entertaining” and artfully reeling in the listener with the questioning “What Does It Takes To Be King.” There are traces of Donovan at his jazziest ("Come on Sunshine"), a rocked-up Mose Allison ("Bad Math") and Bowie at his most gloriously anthemic ("New Life"), while the epic, unabashed emotionalism of "Lonesome Love" might be a "Mac Arthur Park" for the new millennium. As Peter Holsapple--the revered indie pop singer-songwriter-guitarist and one-time member of the influential dB’s--said, “I don't think there are many people who can surpass Rob Laufer at graceful and tuneful songwriting.”

Now try pigeon-holing this guy: Laufer has played keyboards and guitar for Pixies frontman Frank Black (check the trippy organ solo on "San Antonio, TX" from Devil's Workshop and the Spanish guitar on the song "[Do What You Want] Gyaneshwar” from Black’s Christmass album), and played guitar on Fiona Apple's Grammy-winning single "Criminal."

Laufer has had success with placing his music in television and film as well. His song "In the Frame," from album The Iron Age (2006), was featured in award-winning HP "Frames" ads and Johnny Cash, Shawn Colvin and B.B. King recorded his songs for a series of Sears ads in 1997. Rob also sang the two key songs in the Japanese cult fave film Survive Style Five +.

Most recently, Rob completed a two-week run in the fall of 2009 in Las Vegas singing The Beatles' “Within You Without You” and “Across the Universe” as part of Cheap Trick's "Sgt. Pepper Live" extravaganza. And when Beatles’ producer George Martin headlined a star-studded night conducting the orchestra at Hollywood Bowl in June 1999, he tapped Laufer to sing "Day in the Life.” 

The son of the man who created Tiger Beat Magazine, Rob was raised in Tarzana, California, where he spent his teen years making music with his closest friends, Eric Drew Feldman and Moris Tepper, who both went on to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. Rob worked as art director at his dad's magazine company until he won the part of George Harrison in the original production of “Beatlemania.” Tiring of wigs and taped moustaches, he left to front a series of bands on the LA club scene. A showcase at SXSW won him his first publishing deal. Soon after, his song "Reactionary Girl" was recorded by Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander to lead off his Interscope solo album. From there, Rob set up his studio and began recording his solo debut, Swimming Lesson.

The critical praise for 1993’s self released Swimming Lesson brought about a deal with Warner Brothers, which yielded the elegant 1996 follow-up Wonderwood. With the release, MOJO magazine hailed Laufer as the "great lost artist" of the Power Pop Era. When Warner turned down his next effort, Laufer walked away from the singer-songwriter world. Still, he continued to write songs, eventually gathering his favorites together on his 2006 CD The Iron Age.  From there he decided that his next release would be of a piece and of a time.  

Which brings us back to EXCRUCIATING BLISS. Sung, played, recorded and mixed by Laufer (except for the violin work by Mia Korf), it’s an album that reasserts him as a singular artist whose songs are luminous gems that sneak up on you and then resonate deeply.