Liars
When The Strokes conquered the mainstream music industry in
2000, Liars managed something likewise in the field of underground music one
year later. Their debut album had the same energy as Ikara ColtÕs debut Chat
and Business, but also
covered the hipness of danceable electro music. The jumpy basslines and drums
are striking on their first record. Often compared with The Rapture, LCD
Soundsystem, !!!, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc., but to me this appeared to be
a wrong relation. Liars was by far the most exciting and roughest one, if there
was any need for comparison. Liars made noise, the others made easygoing dance
tunes.
After the debut the band line-up changed heavily. The
complete rhythm section was replaced by only a new drummer. No bass anymore,
though Pat Noecker as well as drummer Ron Albertson were right after Liars in a
short lived band called nO Things. Bass player Pat Noecker would a few years
later reappear with his band These Are Powers. Angus and Aaron together
with the new drummer Julian Gross, recorded their second album, which had a
huge different sound. On their third album the path they took became more
paved. The third one was very exciting and totally new in approach compared
with every other music I had heard so far. Excited about this band I approached
them to build an instrument for them as a way of mutual promotion. The band
would receive attention for being so unique even special new instruments were
developed for them and it would broaden their sound possibilities. And my work
would become more known, because a famous underground band used it. It was a
win-win situation. They were enthousiastic when I proposed to build something.
For Aaron I made the first official Hypercustom release, the Moodswinger. It took me about 6 months to
build two exact replicaÕs.
The instrument is used on Leather Prowler, track four on their fourth album Liars. ItÕs not a piano, but my instrument
you hear on it. IÕve read several reviews, where it was described as a dark
piano. I was surprised too, when I first heard AaronÕs recording. Funny. I
later found out there is a clear explanation for this resemblance in sound. It
is caused by similar systems used in piano construction called Aliquot
Stringing and Duplex Scaling. Both systems were invented around 1890 by the
piano manufacturars Bluthner and Steinway. Bluthner was located in what later
would become East Germany, so itÕs name dissappeared during the Cold War.
Steinway is more known since they were located in West Germany and had no
problems with exports.
Allmusic Biography
Liars were conceived in November 2000 after two friends and
ex-Los Angeles art students, Aaron Hemphill and Angus Andrew, reunited in New
York City. They responded to a "musicians wanted" ad posted in a local
record store by two Nebraskans, Pat Noecker and Ron Albertson. The lurching
Aussie Andrew took on the vocal/frontman duties while Hemphill became their
guitarist and drum-machine programmer. Bassist Noecker and drummer Albertson
make up the Liars rhythm section. Combined, they write music -- surprisingly
formulated after the beats are laid down on the drum machine -- exhibiting
fundamental elements of punk rock. Synthetic keypads, vocal modulation, and
interspersed prearranged compositions, mixed with their guitar-bass-drums
equation, create angular yet melodic songs. Liars are reminiscent of U.K.
groups that embraced dance music during the late '70s/early '80s (A Certain
Ratio, Gang of Four, the Slits) -- bands that are all known for insidiously
adding danceable rhythms to punk. Only months after forming, the group played
its first show. Liars' debut album, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck
a Monument on Top,
was released on independent Gern Blandsten Records in October 2001 and was
later reissued by Blast First/Mute. The album was recorded in just two days by
producer/engineer Steve Revitte, who's best known for this work with the
Beastie Boys and Lee "Scratch" Perry. Late the following year,
Noecker and Albertson left the band and percussionist Julian Gross was
recruited as a replacement. The trio began recording the second Liars album at
Andrew's house in the forests of New Jersey with friend and co-producer Dave
Sitek. The results, They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, which was inspired by experimental
electronic music and German legends about witchcraft, arrived in early 2004.
After moving to Berlin, Liars got even more ambitious on Drum's Not Dead, a concept album revolving around
creativity and doubt accompanied by short films by the band and other filmmakers.
The band took a much more stripped-down approach for 2007's self-titled album Liars, which featured more structured
songwriting and a harder-edged sound.
Discography
They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, 2001, Gern Blandsten Records
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, 2004, Blast First/Mute
Drum's Not Dead, 2006, Blast First/Mute
Liars,
2007, Blast First/Mute
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