Organ Thing of The Day, yeah, I know, there should be one every damn day, sometimes you just need to step back for a few days and well back in the saddle again cherry-picking through the in-box and the millions of things people insist on sending our way, that and the things we find ourselves and “whatever happened to Organ, I really miss it” said someone at last weekend’s Art Car Boot Fair, it really has only been a couple of days! Although he insisted he hadn’t seen anything from Organ this century.
Here’s a new Liars video for an old song, do we still call these things videos? Here’s a new flim, a new whatever that has caused me to dig out that first album again to see if it is “electric” enough to be painted? Back there when yer man was still reading Organ rathe tha nmissing it Liar were palying some of the most vital of gigs, their early moves were thrilliant, their later ones haven’t been too shabby as Apple Drop illustrated last year.
The reason, the press release, the twist, the ice cream….
“LIARS prepare to give their catalogue the reissue treatment with a series of limited edition recycled vinyl releases. First up is the band’s debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, available from 22 July 2022 on recycled vinyl
Angus Andrew, explaining the recycled vinyl series said, “We all feel the weight of the waste we’re creating so any occasion to lessen that load is welcome, but I also relish the opportunity to utilise the off cuts from other people’s vinyl, having that melted down and reappropriated just makes so much sense to me and the process of creation. It feels like the sweat and tears from every other artists work is blended into ours – imbuing the recycled vinyl with supernatural integrity and power.”
They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top – originally released in the US only by Gern Blandsten in 2001, before they signed to Blast First / Mute who released the album in 2002 – set the scene for one of the most exciting artists to come out of the US in the past two decades.
This iteration of Liars (Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill, Pat Noecker and Ron Albertson) were originally at the vanguard of an early noughties Brooklyn scene, but they soon manifested a very different and altogether more exciting world – one that was theirs alone. Liars’ arrival in Europe was accompanied by acclaim from all quarters, Uncut described the album as “One of the most adrenalising albums you’ll hear this year” while Rolling Stone called it “…one of the most bone-rattlingly ferocious records you’ll hear all year”, and their live reputation grew with a series of dates that included an incendiary sold out show at the Garage, prompting the Guardian to say, “Liars make the current breed of three-minute punksters look like the Monkees.”
‘Mr Your On Fire Mr’ – later covered by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and reworked into a 19-minute version for Saint Laurent’s Paris Menswear show in 2013 – gets a new visual, created by Jonny Campolo from P.E.
In 2021, Liars released The Apple Drop. Where recent releases from Liars have been distinctly solo affairs, on this, their 10th studio album – released 20 years after They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top – Angus Andrew (now the sole member of the band) chose to expand and embrace collaboration. “My goal was to create beyond my abilities––something bigger than myself.” The Apple Drop saw Angus working with avant-garde jazz drummer Laurence Pike, multi-instrumentalist Cameron Deyell and lyricist Mary Pearson Andrew to create one of the albums of the year at The Quietus, Record Collector and AllMusic, described by and by NME as their “most refined and accessible” while The Guardian declared, “After 20 years, Angus Andrew can still get the sweat itching down your back.”
Liars are about to embark on a three-date tour of Australia that includes a performance at the Sydney Opera House on 31 May, part of the Vivid Festival. To mark a return to the live arena, Liars have shared a brand new remix of ‘My Pulse To Ponder’ from The Apple Drop, reworked by P.E. who describe the track as “a Frankensteined banger built from two different directions”.Listen to P.E.’s I Gotcha! Remix of ‘My Pulse To Ponder’
The recycled reissues campaign continues in autumn 2022 with the follow up, They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, the album that cemented the band’s reputation and proved their unwillingness to settle into any scene”.
Wel lthat’s what the press release said, Liars still sound vital to these ears, still ahead of the game and way too taken for granted and if you never did get around to exploring those first album then here you go, they had their finger on the pulse…
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