Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

Liars

It Fit When I Was a Kid (2006)
Mute

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on August 11th 2006

If one was to personify Liars, they would be that weird little kid, whose mother would always tell them during childhood “no no, you’re not strange honey, you’re...unique!”

Those kids usually got their milk money stolen, but luckily, Liars is in no such danger. Their battles aren’t played out by the see-saw, but instead, on some shiny silver discs that hold music. And on those discs, you’ll find some very ‘unique’ music to say the least. If you’re somebody who’s yet to be formally introduced to Liars, there’s a few things you should know:

A) Conventional song structures are out the window.
B) There are no song structures.

If you can grasp those, you’ll do fine with both Liars’ previous material, and their newest EP, It Fit When I Was a Kid. Continuing with the no wave style they’ve become so well known for, the trio find themselves hopelessly lost on these three new songs, and that’s just the way they like it. Now, there’s technically four songs, but one of those is just a techno remix of the first and title track. That said, what can you expect from this newest venture? Lots of droning vocals, and lots and lots of percussion.

That’s what it amounts to. The title track is little more than four minutes of spoken style vocals over some rhythmic, tribal drumming. Singer Angus Andrew’s voice has a definite echo effect that just ripples over the pitter-patter of the bass and snare drums. “The Frozen Glacier of Mastadon Blood” adds a bit more instrumentation into the fold, but again, not in a cohesive manner, more a loose collection of riffs and vocal effects that have quite a jarring effect on your head if you listen too long. Lastly, the techno remix at the end is entirely forgettable, and if you ask me, entirely unnecessary. The “oontz oontz” and fuzzy distortion of this song is enough to sink the EP as it is.

As with everything this band has released, after listening, I’m not quite sure where exactly I stand. Part of me can appreciate the minimalism, and part of me feels like the EP accomplished nothing at all. Well, I’ll tell you one thing, their milk money ain't safe for long.

Login to rate this album

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Anonymous (August 15, 2006)

I used to frequent this site in high school and just thought I'd come back and read some punk reviews. After reading this review and the thread of comments I remembered why I stopped coming here; you all are a bunch of jr. high kids with barely any sort of knowledge of music.

Liars aren't difficult, just different than the homogenous, sophmoric shit you kids listen to. Not only that, they are more punk rock than most bands covered here.

testiclese (August 14, 2006)

this band is so boring

Marlon (August 13, 2006)

"liars is one of those groups who all the indie kids claim to love for fear of "not getting it." god forbid you don't understand the complex vision and musical textures of this forward thinking outfit! i mean, after that fact is revealed, your mousey, bookish indie rock girlfriend might up and leave you (stealing all your james joyce books in the process) for the dude with the fixed gear bike who does understand liars."

As this site's token "indie kid" I feel the need to quickly assert that I tell people all the time I don't like Liars or Animal Collective and have no idea how people get so into it to the point that they "love" it. "Difficult" music is ok sometimes... but sometimes I'm not willing to put forth the effort. And my girlfriend doesn't seem to mind...

Seriously, you people have all this "indie rock" hate in your bones. Since when did three power chords make you the fucking music elite? Some people make trippy/crazy music that's different than easy to rock out to pop punk--and there's nothing wrong with wanting to fucking rock out to The Lawrence Arms or Against Me! or None More Black--but you should accept that maybe some people DO actually get this. Your need to lash out at stuff is really the whole "closed minded" part of you, not the not liking Liars...

Jesse (August 13, 2006)

Liars is sweet. None of y'all believed me when I reviewed "They Were Wrong So We Drowned." Now y'all be like, "Ooh, Jesse, you were right ALLLL along."

Damn strizzaight bee-yatches.

It's not about "getting it."

It's just tunes. You either like it or you don't.

Anonymous (August 12, 2006)

Wate? Liars are No-wave now? What?

Speaking of No-Wave, does anybody in the ypsi/Annarbor area know the name of that sweet No-Wave/Freejazz band that plays with Wolf Eyes a bunch? I think the dude that runs the Elbowroom is their singer.

SlowStupidHungry (August 11, 2006)

"Here's all that needs said: They are continuing what bands "such as PiL" did. You consider that a good thing? Public Image Limited? You'll dance to anything."

Public Image Limited? Have you ever heard their first two albums? Those are among the elite of post-punk... Liars has nothing to do with them. PiL used catchy dub bass lines and intricate, yet off-beat, yet coherent guitar lines. Liars (from what I've heard) are okayish NY style post punk (def not no wave, more like new wave).

somegirl (August 11, 2006)

Oh, so this was the gay porn cover they were talking about. I thought it was a joke.

Whatever, I really liked Drum's Not Dead, and I liked the first album for what it was-- hell, even the second album wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. I still might check this out.