Liars Liars Liars

We here at the Hall of Owls love Liars. Drum's Not Dead appeared on many of 2006's best of lists, yet the band was already recording their next record. There was much speculation about their musical direction after something as cohesive as Drum, but when a recent article on Pitchfork used phrases like "guitar solos" and "Neil Young," many fans were left scratching their heads.

After hearing a few of the songs from their upcoming eponymous release, it appears that they did indeed write a rock record, but it still sounds like Liars. It just has more, you know, riffs.

Liars -- "Sailing to Byzantium" from Liars
Liars -- "Clear Island" from Liars

Liars BBC Session

Liars are a scary band. Their lyrics are always vaguely menacing, sometimes overtly so. The band is always threatening the listener or issuing such bold declaratives as being "the army you see through the red haze of blood." However, it's the production that cuts through their (sometimes silly) lyrics and really instills a sense of terror and unease. Drums are regularly run through effects processors, and the guitars do their best to emulate the creaky doors and humming pipes of a haunted house. Last year's Drum's Not Dead was a nightmarescape, a soundtrack of majestic and Byronic proportions.

Today's post focuses on their BBC appearance on December 5, 2004, where they played three songs from that year's They Were Wrong, So We Drowned and an unreleased track. That record earned them a single-star rating in Rolling Stone, who said "making a record about fear is one thing; making a record you fear listening to is quite another." I think they got it exactly right, but not in the desultory way in which it was intended.

Liars -- There's Always Room on the Broom (BBC)
Liars -- If You're A Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses (BBC)
Liars -- We Fence Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own (BBC)
Liars -- Bugman Needs a Hugman (BBC)