:: Track Listing

1. Be Quiet Mt. Heart Attack
2. Let’s Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack
3. A Visit From Drum
4. Drums Gets a Glimpse
5. It Fit When I Was a Kid
6. The Wrong Coat for You Mt. Heart Attack
7. Hold You, Drum
8. It’s All Blooming Now Mt. Heart Attack
9. Drum and the Uncomfortable Can
10. You, Drum
11. To Hold You, Drum
12. The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack

:: Record Review

Liars

Drum's Not Dead
(Mute; 2006)

Rating: 81%
Combined Rating: 74%


For a while there, the Liars were synonymous with Pabst Blue Ribbon, truckers hats and Williamsburg hipsters in general. And like any Williamsburg hipster, the Liars seemed to rub people the wrong way. After an abrasive debut loaded with militant Gang of Four-esque throbbing post-punk that happened to jump-start the ill-fated dance-punk disaster (and in the process turn them into one of the many “It” bands in New York circa 2001), the Liars abruptly changed course and ran to the woods and made an odd album about witches that left many one-time fans rolling their eyes. Certainly no gem (mainly due to muddy production values – who said recording in the woods was easy?), the album inspired a level of vitriol usually reserved for the likes of George W. Bush or Britney Spears in indie circles.

While They Were Wrong So We Drownedwas indeed esoteric to say the least, it contained many moments of brilliance, fusing the band’s dance-punk sensibility with hallucinatory lyrics and a growing interest in tape loops and experimental post-rock gods Faust and This Heat. Indeed, the latter is only intensified here on their third long-player, Drum’s Not Dead. But for many, the focus of They Were Wrong will always be the witch theme and lyrics. Frontman Angus Andrew delved into tales of witchdom with a half tongue-in-cheek, half-serious attitude that was either a humorous compliment to the music or a deal-breaker. Drum is similarly loaded with thematic overtures, but seems far less likely to turn off the average listener. The album is based around two fictional characters (not witches): Drum, who represents both the aggressive approach the band is known for and the presence of double drum kits on many songs, and Mt Heart Attack, who represents the band’s own sense of self doubt and the decidedly ethereal edge many of the songs carry here.

What at first seems like another gimmick reveals itself as a perfect metaphor for the territory the band is exploring, and on a larger scale the creative process of any artist. The songs describe a battle with Mt. Heart Attack (the band’s self-doubt), interrupted by a visit from Drum (the band’s intuitive creative process), which leads to a blooming of the creative process and a defiance of their doubt and an eventual victory -- a journey to “The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack.” It’s possible to get a feel for the Cliff Notes version of this idea just by looking at the song titles, which seem to outline the story nicely.

But listening to the album, the journey is fleshed out, the edge of each character is explored and bleeds into the other, and the end result is not quite as clear-cut. Indeed, it becomes apparent that the process here wasn’t just about defeating their self-doubt and embracing their aggressive/intuitive side. There’s an acceptance of their vulnerability and shortcomings in the ghostly beauty that rings in the album’s acoustic strings and Andrew’s oddly beautiful falsetto contrasting the thudding polyrhythms and lending an entirely new meaning to the end of the journey signaled in the title of the closer. Perhaps “The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack” doesn’t imply an obstacle surmounted, but learning to see a perceived weakness as a strength.

Seemingly begun in a crisis of confidence (the band relocated to Berlin for over a year, rumors ran rampant they’d broken up and they scrapped at least one entire album before settling on Drum’s Not Dead), the final product sounds remarkably assured, flowing effortlessly from the well-known strength of Julian Gross’s stellar drumming (though Hemphill and Andrew take their turns on the skins throughout the album) to newer discoveries like Andrew’s vocal range and a seamless integration of Hemphill’s experimental guitar leanings. Most of the songs are built around the interaction of two drum kits, as on the bone-chilling “A Visit From Drum,” though there are some songs where a mournful melody is allowed to breath, like on the somber, beautiful “Drum Gets a Glimpse.”

For the most part, the album does not have instantly recognizable highlights (save one which we’ll get to in a minute), but instead works as a pretty remarkable whole. Opening with the building, warbling guitar and alternating double drums of “Be Quiet Mt Heart Attack,” the album moves with a yelp and intensified tribal drumming into the restrained cacophony of “Let’s Not Wrestle Mt Heart Attack.” The thudding “A Visit From Drum” melts into the gorgeous, lapping guitar loops of “Drum Gets a Glimpse.”

The album is a continual ebb and flow; moments of self-doubt crystallize into beautiful elegies and are beaten away with clanging drum salvos in the next moment, only to resurface in the very next song. “Drum and the Uncomfortable Can” is the most aggressive salvo, featuring brutal reverb-laden drums, knifing guitar and the band reveling in a nasty groove. “To Hold You, Drum” is an eerie cresting song laced with a cutting echo-y guitar riff that recalls This Heat. Closer “The Other Side of Mt Heart Attack” is a shocking end to the album, featuring the Liars in a rare moment of sentimentality. Angus Andrew earnestly crooning Motown lyrics to sweet, subdued instrumentation is something I never thought I’d hear, let alone enjoy, but it’s there and it’s probably the band’s most affecting song.

It’s clear that the making of this album was something of a journey for the Liars. The final product is lovingly packaged with three dvd tracks for every song, a 5.1 dolby mix of the album on the DVD that only heightens the eerie echoes and reverb, and an obsessively detailed booklet that describes how songs were recorded alongside drawings of the set-up. It’s almost as if the Liars are self-consciously responding to all those critics who questioned whether they cared about their fans upon the release of They Were Wrong. The answer is clear: the Liars care. Perhaps it took a grueling creative journey and a battle with self-doubt to get there, but the end result is a band that has retained its brash experimental flare while discovering its heart. Sean Ford :: 16 March 2006 |