Maybe you’re in a musical rut; maybe you’re just looking for something to keep the New Year’s party going. Either way, Free Week presents a fine solution: Over 70 local acts play gigs with no cover charge Jan. 3 and 4, which means you can discover new music and save a few bucks at the same time – or put that money toward your bartender, who needs it the most during this sleepy holiday season. In the spirit of sonic exploration, I caught up with haha Laughing and Marry Cherry – two bands I’ve never seen before – ahead of their sets at the mini-fest.
haha Laughing’s Friday, Jan. 3, Free Week set is happening almost two years to the day that the duo first played live – at the same venue, no less.
“I remember the date because it was Friday the 13th. It was Jan. 13, 2023, at Chess Club,” vocalist/producer Jay Dilick recalls. “So it’s kind of a full circle thing.”
A longtime punk drummer, Dilick recorded the experimental rap songs comprising that year’s POST_MANIC_MIGRAINE_MUSIC at home and in his car throughout the pandemic. He initially enlisted his partner, Aby Oviedo, to join him onstage as his hypeman.
“I just needed someone I knew could just be crazy and match the energy because I was feeling a little shy about being alone,” he explains. “I was like, okay, I don’t want to go up there by myself and just yell because I feel shy.”
Aggressively maximalist yet comically referential, the seven-track release underscores haha Laughing’s approach to emotional catharsis. A “hodgepodge” of samples and interpolations from music, movies, and television shows (“BLOOD STAINS ON MY WHITE T-SHIRT,” a clangingly chaotic riff on Tim McGraw’s wholesome 1999 single “Something Like That,” is my personal favorite) exorcise the duo’s demons with a smirk.
Oviedo begins to describe the band’s ethos – “How can we get out all of this rage and sadness –” before Dilick interjects, “Insecurity.”
“Whatever the nasty feeling is,” Oviedo continues. “How can we get this out in a fun way? … We’re both silly guys and [are] definitely the type of people that try to laugh through shit.”
“That’s almost the whole reason the band’s called the name it is,” Dilick adds. “I wanted the name to be [evoking] this type of silliness or laughing [by] dealing with stuff with humor. Also because the music, I guess, could be considered a little intense, so I didn’t want it to just be so dark and brooding and self-serious.”
“[Free Week is] so important and so special and such a beautiful thing to be a part of.” – haha Laughing’s Aby Oviedo
Now working more collaboratively, the bandmates ditched the car and laundry room to record latest single “Pulled Apart by Horses” in a proper studio for the first time. “It’s been really fun to be in the space like that and create together, and then have these nice, quality vocal samples to go and mess with and distort and make sound kind of weird,” Dilick says. “[It’s] the start of this next chapter of the band.”
haha Laughing plays with Pussy Gillette, Subpar Snatch, and Froggy Style when they return to Chess Club this weekend. “I hope you’re ready to dance. And be silly,” Oviedo says.
Not just another regular show at their “home away from home,” the multi-instrumentalist says the no-cost mini-festival draws diverse crowds to local performances.
“A lot of people that aren’t always in the scene or at shows or on Red River come out and see the bands,” they explain. “I love seeing my friends in the crowd, but I love to play to a new face and see what [their reaction to our music is].”
“We always get people that are like, ‘Oh, are y’all from here?’ Which is so funny, because we play a lot,” Dilick adds. “I just love that it’s still a new thing to people, and then that’s their first exposure [to us].”
Even better, the festival provides essential life support to the venues in the Red River Cultural District, which typically book fewer shows during the winter as most touring artists head home for the holidays. “I will always ride for Red River,” Oviedo says. “Literally everyone I know and love – my family, my community – I met all these people [there]. It’s just so important and so special and such a beautiful thing to be a part of.”
This article appears in January 3 • 2025.
