''You Can't Pray a Lie'' is the debut studio album of American

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

band

Laughing Hyenas Laughing Hyenas was an American post-hardcore band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that existed from 1985 to 1995, fronted by Negative Approach vocalist John Brannon. According to AllMusic, "At first, the band specialized in dirges overlaid with th ...

. It was released in 1989 by

Touch and Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. To ...

. It was reissued in 1992 accompanied with ''Life of Crime''.

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' praised Larissa Strickland's guitar playing. '' MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide'' called the album "a perfect coalescing of the violence of punk and the guitar stomp of the coming grunge sound." Andrew Earles, in ''Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996'', wrote that "many albums throughout rock-and-roll's history could carry the additional signifier 'hard-living set to music,' but few are as convincing as the albums made by Laughing Hyenas."

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''You Can't Pray a Lie'' liner notes. ;Laughing Hyenas * John Brannon –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Jim Kimball –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

*Kevin Strickland –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

*Larissa Strickland –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

;Production and additional personnel *Laughing Hyenas – production *

Butch Vig Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician, record producer, and songwriter who is the drummer and co-producer of the rock band Garbage. Producer of the diamond selling Nirvana album ''Nevermind'' (1991), Vig also pro ...

– production,

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, recording

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:You Can't Pray a Lie 1989 debut albums Laughing Hyenas albums Touch and Go Records albums Albums produced by Butch Vig Albums recorded at Smart Studios