Fear is a very powerful emotion.
The last band to so expertly execute the cocktail of menace and artful, brilliant chaos that Liars achieve for their second album, "They Were Wrong, So We Drowned", were fellow New Yorkers Sonic Youth, when they cut their epochal Bad Moon Rising album. It's a record from a band in transition, severing their ties with the scene they kinda inaugurated and have now, decidedly, outgrown. A band defining themselves only in terms of what they wish to achieve, the limits of their imagination. A band withdrawing to a basement deep in the wilds somewhere and letting their every little wrinkle of rampant creativity and twisted genius seep deep into the shadows of this most poignant and chilling ghost story.
This story begins where the first chapter of Liars history ended, with the release of their debut album, "They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top", a literate and deranged acceleration of post-punk groove, avant noise, bizarre pop sensibilities and an enduring love for the minimal funk of ESG. Operating from the kooky artsy enclave of hip that was Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Liars then numbering singer Angus Andrew (born in the Philippines, raised in Australia, resident in NYC for some time), guitarist Aaron Hemphill (a West Coast native), bassist Pat Nature and drummer Ron Albertson (both hailing from Lincoln, Nebraska) slayed locals with chaotic and brilliant live shows that sowed seeds for the subsequent punk-funk revival that's so wantonly hip nowadays.
By the time that scene had transformed Williamsburg into a hipster tourist spot not unlike our own Camden, Liars - as any true pioneers would - had vacated the premises. Early in 2003, Angus left Williamsburg with his girlfriend, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and moved into a house deep in the forests of New Jersey. As Yeah Yeah Yeahs went off on tour late Spring/early Summer, Angus invited Aaron and an old mutual friend, Julian Gross, down to the house. Liars had negotiated with their label, Mute, that rather than record their second album in a conventional studio, with every spare minute costing them, that they invest in some modest studio gear and record the album in Angus's basement, with good friend Dave Sitek assisting.
(Official Biography by Mute)
