Laughing Hyenas - That Girl: Live Recordings 1986-1994

Before “noise rock” became a tag, Laughing Hyenas were already dragging blues, punk, and pure hostility into the same room and seeing what survived.

That Girl: Live Recordings 1986–1994 documents the band in their natural habitat: loud, volatile, and completely unpolished. Born out of Detroit’s Cass Corridor scene, the Hyenas took the hardcore DNA of John Brannon (Negative Approach) and twisted it into something swampier and more unhinged. Larissa Strickland’s guitar work slices rather than strums, jagged and instinctive, while the rhythm section locks into hypnotic, almost tribal swing.

The influence of The Birthday Party and Funhouse-era Stooges runs deep, but this is not imitation. The basslines feel sinister and repetitive, the drums push forward with heavy momentum, and Brannon’s voice lands somewhere between sermon and exorcism. It is confrontational without theatrics, raw without sloppiness.

These live recordings capture the band across nearly a decade, preserving the grit and volatility that defined them. There is no studio polish here, only tension, volume, and atmosphere. That Girl works as both archive and warning: this was a band that thrived in chaos, and these performances make that impossible to ignore.