― phil turnbull (philT), Thursday, 26 February 2004 01:26 (twenty years ago) link
― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 26 February 2004 01:36 (twenty years ago) link
― jack cole (jackcole), Thursday, 26 February 2004 02:11 (twenty years ago) link
― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Thursday, 26 February 2004 02:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:25 (twenty years ago) link
― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:42 (twenty years ago) link
― umop apisdn (umop apisdn), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Thursday, 26 February 2004 06:09 (twenty years ago) link
A strident lack of normal movement in the anima(l) of "They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" could well prove for too agglutinous a confit, or in other words it might be excessively, nigh on wantonly, steeped in its own allegorical fattiness for greater hipster consumption. In particular as this seems now a rather pious realm, and one whose gourmandizing has, by all accounts, tended towards the lean and not-so-mean. All in the name of collegial and succour-prone peristalsis perhaps. But it is ironic then that the singer would outline a desire to be a horse on the first track, and not say an insect or something more in line with cosmopolitan solecism, when we consider as well that the one thing they possess as a band undisputedly is a certain hipster (dark) horse sense.
Of course, the first album from the Liars was a more athletic (work) horse, which, for all intents and purposes, also reached out to the aggregate and honest trendlet-bound needs of that moment. But what could be remarkable about this album is a palpable, if improbable, potential on its part to perform the same. Might be real savvy in other words, or else just about completely mystifying (to some) in its (aforementioned) seeming lack of any responsible organizational standard, even to fit with the (relatively) viable 'tortured bon vivant' meme that it represents. Not a watermark level of organization as can be often ascertained in work by their referenced fiery forbears (more or less Neubaten, Youth, Heat) -- not to mention, more recently, in such febrile avatars of transportive texture as Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sightings, to name just two.
Do (the?) Liars, here and now, demonstrate any grace in what they are doing? Perhaps sensing that the only truly publicly acceptable guess will be "yes, probably" is kind of a bold move. Surely this will oft be the case, and rampant forfeiture to the bluff will arrive too, as any anonymous negative response to the album will come across to proximate peers as simply the MORE obsequious option in/on the face of it; i.e. merely naively inimical susurration expected from those somehow perceiving themselves as not having had relented to a woefully pragmatic deadening of otherwise inherent critical faculties. Resembling a type of inversely journalistic devil's advocacy, a syndrome that has permeated the edgewise majority (I feel) will probably pick up in the record's wake, and, likewise, generally purport to be in the name of a wider, value judgment-wary cause. One that seeks, in any case, to prevent the fomenting of no-fun, zero-sum, baby-bathwater gripe meltdown scenarios, just as may be known to occur at your local record store (certainly not just this one), music magazine, weblog, et al… or at least to keep them in (small-ish) proportion.
In this they might have achieved something. Almost analogous to the films of Harmony Korine (or maybe not), it's really one for the people to decide. If you're interested, you obviously ought to listen for yourself. [DHo]
― Sexy Dancer, Thursday, 26 February 2004 22:15 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Thursday, 26 February 2004 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Thursday, 26 February 2004 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
― donny dorko, Thursday, 26 February 2004 23:05 (twenty years ago) link
― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 26 February 2004 23:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Thursday, 26 February 2004 23:51 (twenty years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 26 February 2004 23:52 (twenty years ago) link
what a concept.
― tk, Friday, 27 February 2004 00:21 (twenty years ago) link
― Jo Jo Dancer, Friday, 27 February 2004 00:30 (twenty years ago) link
― russ, Friday, 27 February 2004 00:33 (twenty years ago) link
― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:55 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 27 February 2004 04:19 (twenty years ago) link
― duke jupiter, Friday, 27 February 2004 07:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:07 (twenty years ago) link
― twelve, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:25 (twenty years ago) link
― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:31 (twenty years ago) link
― T. Weiss (Timmy), Sunday, 29 February 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link
New Liars concept album based on "humans trying to survive in LA" due next year.
Sisterworld to be released on Mute in 2010
― Doran, Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:24 (fourteen years ago) link
excited! though the producer they are working with officially Worries Me.
― my gangsta ain't NEVER been on trial (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:36 (fourteen years ago) link
What's wrong with Tom Biller? (Never heard of him, BTW; I'm just curious).
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno...just looking at his credits...he's done stuff with Jon Brion, Beck, Kanye West, Rhett Miller, Evan Dando, Elliot Smith, Silversun Pickups, Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack
basically just strikes me as some pro nu-indie boring type slick producer i guess....
― my gangsta ain't NEVER been on trial (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I can see where you might be coming from Matt, but the one thing I've learned being a Liars stan - don't go into any new album with preconceptions AT ALL.
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:55 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah they are def an awesome band and have not let me down but that dudes credentials is like super boring NPR type rock to me....
i basically just hate the way "professional" rock records sound now, so i'm worried about it on just a basic engineering, mix, compression angle
― my gangsta ain't NEVER been on trial (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, I just feel like these guys are pretty involved in how their records sound. It seems like they have been up to this point anyway. I can't see them just sitting back like all, whatever. Then again, fuck, maybe that's part of the "concept" - a super-smooth record to fit the L.A. thing. Hard to tell with these guys.
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 17:59 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i mean it's no dealbreaker, i always think they are interesting and this sounds even more interesting with the whole half-baked concept album steez....i am officially going to buy this sound unseen.
― my gangsta ain't NEVER been on trial (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 18:01 (fourteen years ago) link
it better be a soundtrack for this
http://www.imfdb.org/images/c/c8/EscapeLA.jpg
― Samuel (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 18:03 (fourteen years ago) link
That would be amazing.
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 18:03 (fourteen years ago) link
sounds v. william gibson in conception
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 4 November 2009 18:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Thom Yorke, Bradford Cox, Suicide and Melvins on Liars Sisterworld disc two
― Doran, Thursday, 7 January 2010 16:57 (fourteen years ago) link
appears to have leaked, it's on sordo
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 7 January 2010 20:24 (fourteen years ago) link
urgh file seems fucked, nevermind
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:05 (fourteen years ago) link
basically just strikes me as some pro nu-indie boring type slick producer i guess
what did you think of the last record? that was more of a slick modern alt-rock record than this one imo
― dmr, Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:14 (fourteen years ago) link
"humans trying to survive in LA" makes it sound way more sci-fi than it is
coping strategy = hanging out at The Smell, not hoarding gas and going all Mad Max
― dmr, Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:16 (fourteen years ago) link
― dmr, Thursday, January 7, 2010 9:14 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
wasn't super down with that record really..was "okay" but i guess i'm more of a they were wrong so we drowned type liars person....actually all the first three are good in their own ways
― jealous ones sb (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link
i guess i'm more of a they were wrong so we drowned type liars person
yeah me too. new one's not as good as that but I like it better than the S/T one. (that had some good songs though, "Clear Island" is badass. some of it sounded like Beck though .... nothing like that on the new one really)
― dmr, Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:51 (fourteen years ago) link
The Scarecrow "Why d'you pass the bum on the street?" track is one of the best things they've ever done.
I played it on New Year's Eve. Everyone was gobsmacked. (Admittedly some of them started booing but everyone else was going bananas.)
― Doran, Thursday, 7 January 2010 22:30 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah totally! that one came on when I was on the subway on the way home from work tonight and I was rockin out, kind of has that Drowned vibe (even the title ... "Scarecrows on a Killer Slant") but with bigger guitars
― dmr, Friday, 8 January 2010 03:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i loved the s/t and i think "they were wrong" is probably my last favorite thing they've done (though it still has some jams on it). finally listening to sisterworld.
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 8 January 2010 22:33 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm going to need to revisit sisterworld which i never really liked the first time around. but wixiw is really awesome, almost everything i want from liars.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 4 October 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
fact magazine have a preview of a Vessel remix of one of the wixiw tracks, pretty bleak
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, 4 October 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
Ha, I bought Sisterworld today too!
Seeing them on the 19th, can't wait.
― nate woolls, Thursday, 4 October 2012 22:59 (eleven years ago) link
http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/liars-wixiw-round-39-nicks-choice/
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf1fbu7zLII
cool.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 17 January 2014 02:44 (ten years ago) link
fantastic
― call all destroyer, Friday, 17 January 2014 02:52 (ten years ago) link
album is gonna be hot.
― jamiesummerz, Friday, 17 January 2014 14:26 (ten years ago) link
yes, more pls
― johnny crunch, Friday, 17 January 2014 15:15 (ten years ago) link
That's fucking awesome.
― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 17 January 2014 15:37 (ten years ago) link
second album trailer (featuring a different song, i think)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnb4A-Cumsc
― Daniel, Esq 2, Thursday, 23 January 2014 12:49 (ten years ago) link
crappy techno
― hang son doong (am0n), Thursday, 23 January 2014 15:28 (ten years ago) link
oh man i love this even more than the other new song. that slicing processed-horn or synth sound is killer.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Thursday, 23 January 2014 15:31 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ArnXsZMHk
can't wait for this thing to be released.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 15 February 2014 20:02 (ten years ago) link
full album streaming now!
― Daniel, Esq 2, Monday, 17 March 2014 22:33 (ten years ago) link
this is really good.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 02:58 (ten years ago) link
daaaamn i want to listen to this but no time for like the next three days
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 02:58 (ten years ago) link
i'm interviewing aaron tomorrow. looking forward to it.
― mary-kate and ashley's roachclip (get bent), Tuesday, 18 March 2014 05:17 (ten years ago) link
i try not to listen to streams but couldn't resist. this is really good, and a nice progression from WIXIW (which I ended up loving).
― dronestreet, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 14:45 (ten years ago) link
this might be their weirdest album in years, which is good
― have a nice blood (mh), Tuesday, 18 March 2014 14:59 (ten years ago) link
i don't know if i'd throw "weirdest album" around, but this is really good -- evolution of the sounds & atmospheres first mined on WIXIW, but with a much heavier club influence. i feel like this is their true electro album...and can't wait to see what their next left-turn is, stylistically.
worked at the record store this weekend, and sold the first one to a kid who said, "this sounds like marilyn manson."
...i have not let that that ruin the record for me.
― dronestreet, Monday, 24 March 2014 13:51 (ten years ago) link
weirder than the self-titled and Wixiw, maybe? That's all I meant.
― have a nice blood (mh), Monday, 24 March 2014 13:53 (ten years ago) link
weird is one of my highest words of praise
― have a nice blood (mh), Monday, 24 March 2014 13:54 (ten years ago) link
i'll go for that :)must've skipped over the "recent"definitely a big tonal shift towards ambient/soundscape/drone stuff over the last third of the record
― dronestreet, Monday, 24 March 2014 13:56 (ten years ago) link
i like 'boyzone' as a song title
― nathey, Monday, 24 March 2014 14:05 (ten years ago) link
This isn't very good. It's probably the least memorable of all their albums. Still it gets a free pass from all the places you'd expect (Quietus, Fact, etc).
― Position Position, Wednesday, 26 March 2014 12:01 (ten years ago) link
I'm not much of a depeche mode fan or of the other such programmed beat oriented groups they are imitating or mocking here, so I wonder if I should even bother (I have liked some of what they did earlier in their time together)
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 March 2014 17:37 (ten years ago) link
I've only listened to it a couple of times so far but I think this is great. I LOVE Mess On A Mission; most exciting single / song / track / whatever I've heard so far this year. They seem to have followed the course they set with Brats on WIXIW, which I'm delighted with because I loved that track.
― i reject your shiny expensive consumerist stereo system (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 27 March 2014 11:34 (ten years ago) link
having trouble parsing curmudgeon's post but that Mute Audio Documents comp is kind of fun and seeing Liars on Mute in that scope is kind of fun
― have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Thursday, 27 March 2014 14:36 (ten years ago) link
I was referencing this from the NPR writeup:
the new album embraces the type of electro-pop that underpins the catalog of the band's parent label, Mute. Throughout the early 1980s, Mute Records built its brand on the likes of Depeche Mode, Erasure and Yaz. On songs like "Vox Turned D.E.D." and "Can't Hear Well," Andrew uses his baritone to mimic the icy intonations of these hallmark acts, the gothic synth chord changes of Hemphill and Gross following suit. "I'm No Gold" even finds Liars doing Adult.-esque electro.Some of the Europop moves on Mess are so spot-on that one gets the feeling that Liars are taking the piss.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 27 March 2014 18:14 (ten years ago) link
yeah, depeche mode of that era != depeche mode of any era since
― have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Thursday, 27 March 2014 18:15 (ten years ago) link
Two albums of quite a similar aesthetic in a row is a long pisstake.
― i reject your shiny expensive consumerist stereo system (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 27 March 2014 18:16 (ten years ago) link
But not beyond them.
Yeah, I would say this is a palette of sounds they like, not any sort of pisstake.
I mean, unless They Were Wrong, So We Drowned was supposed to be one, too
― have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Thursday, 27 March 2014 18:18 (ten years ago) link
Belatedly listening to this. It actually reminds me a bit of Shy Child, which is not something I ever thought I would say of a Liars album.
― Tim F, Thursday, 19 February 2015 21:07 (nine years ago) link
I'm sure it's from a similar synth patch, but I heard "Mask Maker" in Chipotle today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgtISVfW2TE
and over the din it was very reminiscent of Hysterix "Talk to Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNSrrXjJ71Y
― Spencer Chow, Sunday, 27 September 2015 21:47 (eight years ago) link
i completely forgot about these guys. i loved They Were Dead... and Drums Not Dead but they lost me with the s/t. listening to both of those records now for the first time in years and they're still so beautiful...
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 22:22 (six years ago) link
https://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/liars-tfcf.jpg?quality=80&w=806
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 1 July 2017 15:59 (six years ago) link
So this band is now a solo project, Angus is the only member. Does anyone else find this odd? From the second LP on they were a solid trio. This news has kind of been buried in the press release/new album hype as well.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Saturday, 1 July 2017 19:12 (six years ago) link
Someone I know was very, very bummed about the news the other day. It was the first I'd heard of it.
― flappy bird, Sunday, 2 July 2017 03:37 (six years ago) link
also what the fuck is this album called? I can't read that shit
It's TFCF which I believe stands for Theme From Crying Fountain. Pretty disappointed to see Aaron and Julian go, too - they were such a weird magical unit, especially around the DND period.
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Sunday, 2 July 2017 03:41 (six years ago) link
definitely one of the weirdest career/sonic arcs in indiedom
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 2 July 2017 05:25 (six years ago) link
is that dickbutt on the cake or what
― officer sonny bonds, lytton pd (mayor jingleberries), Tuesday, 4 July 2017 00:58 (six years ago) link
shit, I saw that there was new material coming but missed the fact the band's mostly disbanded :(
― mh, Wednesday, 5 July 2017 16:05 (six years ago) link
bummer
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 5 July 2017 16:07 (six years ago) link
Wow. New record is out today and it's really, really good. Moody and groovy. It probably only compares to Liars (can't think of what it reminds me of, maybe Microphones' Mt. Eerie at times?) but this is pretty compelling.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 25 August 2017 16:20 (six years ago) link
It's growing on me. My first thought was "Yeah, this is what Liars sounds like when it's pared down to just one guy"
― mh, Monday, 11 September 2017 15:42 (six years ago) link
I'm really getting a lot out of this album still. And I love the shrieking cockatoos on the tracks, it's a sound we take for granted here but man is it frightening.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:24 (five years ago) link