About Me
LaschBros' are three brothers, Mark, Eric and Paul Laschinski, who originate from Palatine, IL, USA (Palatine is a northwest suburb of Chicago).The Bros' have two older, twin sisters, Cheri and Jeri, who were avid album collectors and were also a big influence on the LaschBros'. Cheri and Jeri collected stacks of 45's and many albums, which were played for decades, as each of the Bros' discovered what was laying around. (Jeri introduced Eric to King Crimson). Mark Laschinski, being the eldest brother, and a product of the 1950s, contributes a distinct influence to the LaschBros' sound, based upon his personal connection with Rock, Rockabilly, (some Country) Psychedelic, Garage, Surf, to name the basic influences, which he, in turn, passed on to both Eric and Paul, along with the general passion for music. Mark was given a bass guitar as a Christmas gift in 1968 and his connection to the instrument began. He has had formal lessons from friends/musicians, such as Todd Menke, (currently with the Wild Ones) over the years. Along with generating a passion for music, Mark's unique style sense had an identifiable fasion (anti-fashion) influence on the other two brothers. Paisleys, weird patterned clothing, (not to mention it was Mark's idea to start the [in]famous LaschBros', "clowns night out," routines; Mark & Eric with their beer-can-hats, clown make-up, honking horns, riding bikes and dancin' like fools, drunk, of course).Paul Laschinski, the youngest of the LaschBros', was introduced to Hard-Core Punk Rock through his high school friends and made recordings with his friend/musician, Mike Gorgo, during that time. These classics include songs like, "Mr. Whitebread," and, "Snake in the Grass," which clearly establish Paul's vocal delivery. While at Eastern Illinois University, during the 1980s, Paul was the front man, song writer and singer of a college band, Talisman's Possessed. Alcohol fueled insanity, with Paul falling offstage and inadvertently popping himself in a the face with the mic, yet still remembering the lyrics, were all part of the show. I (Eric) recall a memorable version of the Box Tops "The Letter," with Paul's raspy, but forceful vocals heaving through the verses. In addition to his experience with live performance vocals, having had guitar lessons from Bob Abrahms, who played for the 1960s band, The Buckinghams, he has a more formalized connection to playing guitar, in effect, he is probably most familiar with what a typical band would assemble out of the brothers.Eric Laschinski was more of a visual artist until his 30s, but was very into music as a teenager and initiated an influence on his two brothers in the 1970's by taking a liking to Brian Eno's work and to New Wave. Within the same time period (1979-) his brothers, Mark and Paul, began buying more Punk and New Wave albums and singles from bands like Bauhaus and Joy Division, which Eric immediately loved. Eric has always been more of a "noise-maker" and liked bands like King Crimson prior to that time. His best friend, who he met in high school, Kris Piepenburg, introduced him to the German groups, Can and Kraftwerk, and is also a founding member of the former noise band, Non-Sequitur. Non-Sequitur was peopled in many forms, (Kurt and Kris Piepenburg, Mark Repplinger, David Sommerfeld, and the rest [sorry]) and carried a much more Industrial influence for the most part, beginning around 1979, until its demise in the mid-1990s. Eric helped move equipment and projected silde shows, with self-drawn/painted slides, shown on the clothing of the performers of Non-Sequitur during performances in the late 1980s. After having played in a live performance with Non-Sequitur at the radio station at Northeastern Illinois University, WZRD, in 1992, Eric began to see the potential to piece together his own recording method through inexpensive items. Having no formal musical training, Eric began to experiment with cassette tapes by speeding them up, slowing them down, tape looping and layering sounds when recording. He bought two karaoke machines and patched the mini-plugs into the RCA plugs on his stereo cassette recorder for a final mix-down track. By using a Walkman, he split the sound source from mini out to split quarter inch patches into the karaoke machines for a mono track. Since the karaoke machines were also double cassette players, plus could have live microphones available in final mix-down, stereo tracks were also introduced, making for a wobbly multi-track recording experience, since the machines never ran at the same rate twice. Still, through this technique, unexpected results emerged, leading to more experimentation and refinement during the early to mid 1990s. During this time, Eric and Mark made several recordings using this recording method, (while drunk). By 1997, Eric had begun to purchase more sophisticated recording equipment, (a four-track cassette recording deck, for instance, and a drum machine soon afterwards) in effect, no more karaoke rigged recordings. Both he and his brother, Paul, lived in Chicago at this time and several years of (drunken) collaboration took place between 1997- 2000 in particular. After losing contact with his brothers shortly thereafter, as Mark and Paul moved away from the Chicago area, he continued to experiment and produce music on his own and with occasional samples and recordings taken from his brothers when visiting them. Unfortunately, this has been how things have had to continue to proceed for the most part, either because of separation due to distance or due to occupation. That is not to say that LaschBros' music isn't alive and well, because it IS!Eric has been involved with performances besides his ongoing work with the LaschBros' in recent years with his affiliation with the multi-arts performance group, Phoenix Worm. He has composed pieces for Phoenix Worm performances in 2003 and 2007 and performed along with friends: inventor/musician, Doug Jones (Jones MFG) and long time friend, former band-mate and percussionist, Kris Piepenburg, along with co-workers from Columbia College Chicago, including: choreographer, Debra Levasseur-Lottman, poet/bass player, Luis H. Valadez, poet/performance artist, Steven Teref, Poet, Nicholas Ravnikar, Poet, David Arenas, among others.May the sounds of all sorts seek the senses of those among the masses who hear imagination. -Eric S. Laschinski 2007
