They Threw Us All In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
As evidenced on their last national tour, New York’s Liars are big fans of sonic dissonance and feedback. The first release for Mute Records from this four-piece finds it melding elements of the East Coast’s new-wave scene with noise backdrops similar to Sonic Youth and Hovercraft. From the raucous, cut-time opener, “Grown Men Don’t Fall in the River, Just Like That,” to the droning set (and album) closer, “This Dust Makes That Mud,” pegging these young lads is about as difficult as understanding their lengthy song titles. However, amid a full-fledged assault of chaos, Liars do create deep, memorable melodies that linger for days on end. This band, a big part of New York’s warehouse scene, manages to bring the sweat and aura of that city’s vagabond nightclubs onto the CD and into every city it plays, or destroys. Remember when Gibby Haynes was cool? Liars do.
(SN&R)