Laser Background

Laser Background, the dreamy psych project of Andy Molholt, are coming off a run of shows in support of their latest EP Kelly Wisdom. They recently stopped into Break Thru Radio’s studio for a BTR Live Studio session to perform a new, unreleased song. “Tropic of Cancer” is a floating cut of shoegaze psych guided by Molholt’s washed-about vocals; check it out below. Laser Background is playing Lava Space on August 22nd, you can get tickets to that show here. - WXPN's The Key

With his nasal wail spinning ring-around-the-rosies about candy, frogs, and Mom, Andy Molholt wears his childhood theme on his snot-crusted sleeve. But time uncomfortably warps his playground doo-wop and finger-paint psych pop: these songs are less about the scary and fantastic experiences of being a kid than the behavioral patterns and ingrained perspectives that develop in their wake. The bubblegum smile bares its teeth, gnawing on your unanswered questions and insecurities: “A far off flashback flickering / The plot of my weakening”.

The songs are school-virus catchy, with riffs galore, layered swells and drops, funky four-on-the-floors, the ever-present processed boy’s chorus, and wordplay like “Lizard lips / All crackled and dry from smoking your / Pack a day cigarettes … A false confidence / Constructing a web in order to / Lie without consequence”. The songs are well constructed too, with interesting chromatic flashes, abrupt dynamic and rhythmic turns, and saturated arrangements. The kinetic carousel interludes, with unintelligible mumblings, dissonant stabs of guitar, and fever dream 8-bit arpeggios, update the mania of Mr. Kite.

Super Future Montage (Societe Expeditionnaire / Carl’s Jr Tapes) is all in on its frantic free association. This is a party record that’ll make your friends suddenly tear up from subconscious probing. Andy is still a kid in that he’s comfortable confronting you with unfettered honesty.

- See more at: http://www.bostonhassle.com/2013/10/02/laser-background-super-future-montage/#sthash.UAGeTBZl.dpuf - Boston Hassle

Laser Background mastermind Andy Molholt recently returned home after touring down to SXSW and back with his other project Norwegian Arms. Tonight he’ll be going underground, well, to Underground Arts - that is, when Laser Background opens for Secretly Canadian’s Here We Go Magic. I’m sure that Moholt will be plenty hyped up to play his own tunes and share some of his new material from his upcoming full-length album. So be prepared to match his intensity! - Deli Magazine

The bouncer at Kung Fu Necktie deliberately checks IDs at the front door for everyone who steps in from the Friday evening rain. But it’s a mystery that Andy Molholt got in so easily. The founder of paisley-pop project Laser Background wears an oversized white tunic that hangs nearly long enough to cover his shorts. Despite his beard, he resembles a child playing dress-up in his parents’ bedroom.

That’s fitting given the ethos he’s crafted for Laser Background and its upcoming full-length, Super Future Montage. He calls the album his life’s work, including songs whose roots date back to five years ago, when he was working with idiosyncratic psych-rock group, The Armchairs.

“The whole point of where I was trying to go conceptually with Laser Background is about childhood and about how weird it is to be a kid,” Molholt says. “I just remember being super confused and having a crazy imaginary world that I was like, ‘This is way more fun anyway.’”

Molholt calls the album, which drops today with a release show at Johnny Brenda’s, a “psychedelic action/adventure album,” incorporating a dreamlike atmosphere that makes heavy reference to falling sleep, waking up, candy, birth and death.

But childhood serves as the backbone for Molholt’s creative outlets, as evidenced by his flowing tunic and the yellow frog backpack he hangs from his mic stand pre-set. This show is the second of back-to-back nights for Molholt, who also performs with long-time friend Brendan Mulvihill in Norwegian Arms.

“Technically, I’m in like four bands right now,” Molholt says, detailing his turns with Ape School and Neighborhood Choir, in addition to fronting Laser Background and working with Norwegian Arms.

Molholt has something of an exchange program going, bringing Ape School’s Michael Johnson to mix and produce Super Future Montage. He also trades bass duties with Neighborhood Choir’s Bennett Daniels, who plays in Laser Background’s live line-up.

Of his collaborators, Mulvihill is the most familiar. Molholt describes their first band, Shampoo Ridiculous, as two friends from performing arts camp being weird in their Hatfield, Pa. yards. Unfortunately, the fruits of Molholt’s youth violin lessons couldn’t carry the band through more than two songs before they folded and formed a real band years later.

“We both understand our roles very well and how we should work together,” Mulvihill says. “It’s nice to have a person who understands your full spectrum of emotions.”

Super Future Montage, though, represents Molholt’s first full-length individual effort. While his live band is well-staffed by friends, the album was written and recorded mostly on his own, with some help from Johnson’s mixing experience.

“It’s really smooth working with Andy,” says Johnson, who also teaches at The University of the Arts. “I don’t go out of my way to change anything. I go out of my way to accentuate what he does.”

Music aside, Molholt does a lot. Beyond splitting music duties in four bands and working double duty at Pizza Brain and Johnny Brenda’s, he’s attempting to promote Super Future Montage via a fleet of homemade LEGO-structured QR codes routed to videos for each the album’s 14 tracks.

This project isn’t new to Molholt, as he successfully crafted his DIY promo toy for display outside Johnny Brenda’s last year. But the scale of this year’s project hopes to add New York, Brooklyn and Baltimore to the mix.

With that much work on his plate, Molholt says it’s been a struggle for him to make time for fun. He uses familiar childhood imagery to illustrate the contrast.

“I use the Ninja Turtles analogy: When I’m not Leonardo, I’m totally Michaelangelo,” he says. “When I’m not trying to do shit, I’m ready to party.” - JUMP Philly

Listening to the new, full-length release, “Super Future Montage” (La Societe Expeditionnaire) by Laser Background — the paisley-pop creation of Philadelphia musician Andy Molholt — is like sticking your ear into a fully stocked tackle box. Filled with hooks, Molholt has created a condensed, 21st-century version of Frank Black’s sprawling, double-album masterpiece, “Teenager of the Year” using the pop blueprints of Electric Light Orchestra, Beck, Ween, and Belle and Sebastian as the basis for his own unique (and thoroughly catchy) compositions. And like all great pop music, it just takes one listen to be hooked. Laser Background plays Sunday, Oct. 13, at Strange Matter with Richmond rockers Night Idea, Heavy Midgets and Tung. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is $7. strangematterrva.com. - Style Weekly

Philadelphia based LASER BACKGROUND is a new project from Andy Molholt, recently signed to Stroll On Records.

A selp-titled EP is scheduled for July 15th and the gooey bubblegum psych-pop of Ghostman On Second is the first cut from that forthcoming tape. Listen below. - Sexbeat London

On July 16th, Philadelphian multi-instrumentalist Andrew Molholt, AKA Laser Background, will release his EP “Pinwheels” on Stroll On Records.

The first single, sharing the EP’s title, is an infectious song with a breezy groove that compliments any “summer jams” mix tape. Mild, moody guitars, a reggae influenced bassline and hypnotizing drum loops coalesce perfectly with Molholt’s lone vocal.

“Pinwheels” deviates from other tracks on this EP, as it rhythmically bobs with minimal accompaniment — most others on the release incorporate time changes, harmonies, and a strong pop tendency.

Catch Laser Background on an East Coast mini-tour starting July 19th in Philadelphia. - Our Vinyl

Following last week’s charming ‘Ghostman On Second’, Philadelphia’s Laser Background is back with another delightful little oddity. ‘Pinwheels’ is masquerading as a strung-out ballad in the Electric Soft Parade mould – but beneath the whistles there is a gently warped, pitch-bent core that hints at genuinely exciting things.

‘Pinwheels’ is taken from the Laser Background EP, out on cassette on 15 July courtesy of Stroll On. - The Line of Best Fit