The Liars - Drum's Not Dead (2006)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

totally excited for this. on the first track. definitely plan on picking it up when it hits the stores for the videos.

Liars forthcoming album DRUM'S NOT DEAD was partly inspired by the band's relocation from NYC to Berlin. It finds Liars taking another seismic step forward, switching continents and seizing new musical territory. It's also their finest and fullest album to date, shredding all past reference points. No more Post Rock, Punk-Funk and No Wave clichés. The Atlantic Ocean certainly puts clear blue water between Liars and narrow, outdated NYC scene labels. DRUM'S NOT DEAD marks a major shift for Liars to rank alongside Brian Wilson's wilder sonic journeys, or Radiohead's embrace of experimental abstraction. Tracks like "Drum And The Uncomfortable Can" build to a symphonic crescendo of brooding, brutal intensity. And yet the album ends with "The Other Side of Mt.Heart Attack", the most perversely conventional and unashamedly beautiful Liars track ever written. The calm after the storm, quietly moving and totally unexpected. DRUM'S NOT DEAD comes loaded with its own cinematic sister project: 36 short films, three for each track,all included on the standard album CD.From backstage travelogues to surreal animation and mini sci-fi epics, Liars document the process of recording, touring, then visually reinventing each track. It's an ambitious and groundbreaking expansion of the CD format, throwing down the gauntlet for other creatively ambitious bands to follow suit - the sound of a band redrawing their own creative horizons.

― jaxon (jaxon), Saturday, 17 December 2005 06:01 (twenty years ago)

malarkey or effective-way?

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Saturday, 17 December 2005 06:09 (twenty years ago)

Tracks like "Drum And The Uncomfortable Can" build to a symphonic crescendo of brooding, brutal intensity. And yet the album ends with "The Other Side of Mt.Heart Attack", the most perversely conventional and unashamedly beautiful Liars track ever written

This sounds like... Xiu Xiu?

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Saturday, 17 December 2005 06:10 (twenty years ago)

funnier cover

― frickin' username (fandango), Saturday, 17 December 2005 06:12 (twenty years ago)

shit, this kinda sucks so far. and i loved the last one.

― pinder (pinder), Saturday, 17 December 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

actually, the last one sucked, this is brilliant

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 17 December 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

It's pretty good!

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Saturday, 17 December 2005 11:06 (twenty years ago)

the last one was brilliant. haven't heard this one yet, but i can't wait. but is that the press release? it blows.

― the people are such untight s wads (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 17 December 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

spacemen 3

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 17 December 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

ok i've changed my mind, the last half picks up nicely. "Drum and the Uncomfortable Can" is a great doom and gloom track.

― pinder (pinder), Saturday, 17 December 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

its pretty good.

― Stephen C (ihope), Saturday, 17 December 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

i'm not sure if i want to download this.
the last album was my favorite album of 2004, and the new single is fuckin' awesome. plus i want the video's. when's the release date?

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Saturday, 17 December 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

OMG want to hear this.

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 17 December 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

i think it's supposed to come out in february

― jaxon (jaxon), Saturday, 17 December 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

but is that the press release? it blows.

yeah, totally. radiohead? brian wilson? wtf?

― jaxon (jaxon), Saturday, 17 December 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

Is this album more "ordinary" than the last? I like the direction they took with that after a pretty boring debut.

― Lee is Free (Lee is Free), Saturday, 17 December 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

nah, it's even more dronier than the last one. last one at least had remnants of "threw us in a trench" with tracks like "room on the broom" or "they don't want your corn". this album is more like the broken witch or flow my spider tracks

― pinder (pinder), Saturday, 17 December 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

this one is more melodic than anything they've ever done

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 17 December 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

Great. I love melodies.

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 17 December 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

maybe ill actually like the liars

― howell huser (chaki), Saturday, 17 December 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

I love a lot of the Liars work, but to claim that they will "rank alongside Brian Wilson's wilder sonic journeys" is just absurd. Look forward to listening to it regardless.

― Dan Floss (Dan Floss), Sunday, 18 December 2005 04:39 (twenty years ago)

tell me more abt the spacemen 3 connection, cutty.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Sunday, 18 December 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

The name of this band is Liars. No 'the'. Not a tough concept.

― Reggie, Sunday, 18 December 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

are you reggie q of hanson/ameritapes list fame?

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Sunday, 18 December 2005 05:19 (twenty years ago)

There are two kinds of people in the world: People who hate Wolf Eyes and liars

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 18 December 2005 08:24 (twenty years ago)

There are two kinds of people in the world: People who think there are two kinds of people and everyone else.

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Sunday, 18 December 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

Ouch, I think Liars are great. But for some time I've been ranting that the Beach Boys and Radiohead are among the most overrated bands ever.

Hope there aren't any harmonies

― bendy (bendy), Sunday, 18 December 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Stupid person in "saying stupid things about the Beach Boys and Radiohead" shockah.

― The Wanderers' Wandering Daughter (noodle vague), Sunday, 18 December 2005 14:01 (twenty years ago)

Stupid people, sorry.

Anyway, Liars seem to have been saddled with a press office that keeps banging on about how they're not part of a scene ever since they started. It doesn't stop their music being consistently wonderful. I'm hyped for this one.

― The Wanderers' Wandering Daughter (noodle vague), Sunday, 18 December 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

this is very Animal Collectivy

― Rizz (Rizz), Sunday, 18 December 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

really, it's not

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 18 December 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

oh it is

― Rizz (Rizz), Sunday, 18 December 2005 15:49 (twenty years ago)

i hear it a little more after your comment. but there isn't hardly any guitar on this album, and so much of animal collective's sound is that heavily effects laden guitar shit.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 18 December 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

yeah that's true but its more the tribal percussion vibe that reminds me of them

― Rizz (Rizz), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

implying your previous work was "cliched" doesn't do a lot for your credibility, really.

― u saved me (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

well, when you "shred" all past "reference points" nothing else matters, really.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

i'm so sick of animal collective and i haven't even listened to them that extensively.

― the people are such untight s wads (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

Does that mean you also don't believe in Peter Pan?!?! Merry Holidays indeed!

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Monday, 19 December 2005 11:34 (twenty years ago)

inspired by the band's relocation from NYC to Berlin.

maybe this is the first installment in a TRILOGY OF CLASSIC COCAINE PARANOIA ALBUMS!!

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 19 December 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

Peter Pan loves The Coke--Fairy Dust?!?!

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Monday, 19 December 2005 11:47 (twenty years ago)

http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~csakuda/tinkerbell.jpg

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Monday, 19 December 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

i wish that was the cover.

― bob abernethy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 19 December 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

http://prodtn.cafepress.com/nocache/2/20260022_F_tn.jpg

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Monday, 19 December 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

on first listen, this is pretty cool. it strikes me as being a little like the raincoats' odyshape, if the last record was like a slates/flowers of romance combo. i mean, whatever. i guess i dont NEED to find it an antecedent. i sort of wish it were a little more *bracing*, like the last one. but im totally into mumbly.

― petesmith (plsmith), Monday, 19 December 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

i'm so excited for this! i dearly hope it's good. they were wrong...is one of my favs of recent years.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 19 December 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

"perversely conventional"!

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Monday, 19 December 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

If you did not like No Flashlight, it might sound better after you listen to this.
worst 2006 leak so far.

― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

though No Flashlight sounds bad no matter what.

― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

"The Other Side of Mt.Heart Attack" really does sound like Radiohead.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

no, spacemen 3

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 181 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

The CD won't even be recognized in my drive. When I get info on my D Drive, it says 0 mbs free and 0 mbs used. Very frustrating.

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

maybe your cd is damaged?

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

just buy it on vinyl geniuses

― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

The only way to tell is to try it on another drive or another CD player. It's the scientific method. Observation: disc is unrecognized. Hypothesis: the disc is fucked. Prediction: the disc will fail on any CD player. Experiment: Try disc on another CD player. If disc works, disc is not fucked. New observation: computer disc player is inconsistent at best.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 19:28 (nineteen years ago)

"My room has been plunged into darkness. Is my light bulb dead?? What should I do????"

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

Well I tried it other cd players, and it works fine. Just won't play on my computer anymore (haven't had a chance to try it on other computers)

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Are we really through with this album already? Really? I'd say Radiohead have some competition when they return.

― honorary joy division roadie (Bimble...), Sunday, 23 April 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

aren't they touring now or very soon?

― nervous.gif (eman), Sunday, 23 April 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

Well, they're playing Seattle June 10.

― honorary joy division roadie (Bimble...), Sunday, 30 April 2006 04:15 (nineteen years ago)

i love this album.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Sunday, 30 April 2006 04:22 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think they're going to trouble Radiohead much in the songwriting department...

But sonically, I hear what you're saying.

I'm v.much hoping Radiohead have some surprises left in them, but also fearing they won't :(

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

Of all the comments on this thread, Dog Latins original take is spot on.

― mei (mei), Sunday, 30 April 2006 08:28 (nineteen years ago)

swinging through australia this week. they're playing new stuff in their set which is of a more sraightahead rock direction, according to street press interview I read.

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Sunday, 30 April 2006 08:36 (nineteen years ago)

I would just like to say that I still don't think this album can compete with Tago Mago or Can in general, and for that reason I appreciated Melissa's post above (along with an awful lot of February posts above - I really missed out!). But it's still pretty damn cool. Whoever first said it was related to Flowers of Romance, I can see that too, without Lydon's stamp of individuality, that is.

― honorary joy division roadie (Bimble...), Sunday, 30 April 2006 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

from radiohead's blog thingy...

happy easter

liars >drums not dead
berlin must be a good place to work

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Monday, 1 May 2006 02:15 (nineteen years ago)

Are we really through with this album already?

not at all. my album of the year by some way, so far. mind, i don't feel i'm doing a good job keeping up with new stuff at all right now.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

parts of this album seem to have a coil-scatology influence.

― kephm (kephm), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 01:02 (nineteen years ago)

Thom often has suspect taste in music. Kinda want to shake him for seeing anything in this album. But ah well.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 02:52 (nineteen years ago)

why? this album's great!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 02:59 (nineteen years ago)

One of my favorites this year. Still listening to it almost weekly. That Thom's got a good ear, Mel! Even the EPs are decent. (Great artwork, too:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000E5L8BQ.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_V57053822_.jpg

RAHHHHH!!!)

― Ryan Pitchfork (Ryan Pitchfork), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 04:33 (nineteen years ago)

I think it's a really great album, with Booka shade it's one of only two new albums I've listened to extensively this year.

That EP cover seriously rocks.

― jimnaseum wastes the taxpayer's money, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:15 (nineteen years ago)

yes awesome cover

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

it seems someone has been listenig to Byzantum per mayhaps?

― Mr. Vas Djifrens (byzantum), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

I had this playing quietly while driving at about one in the morning and the others in the car thought it sounded like music to sleep to. It's kind of true, though.

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

still love this album.
i found a pretty sweet video of them doing a nirvana cover, but can't seem to find it now.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

argh, thanks for reminding me that I still haven't gotten my copy back from the friend I lent it to

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

i still can't get into this album but they were absolutely great live a month or so ago

― david allen grier (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 23:20 (nineteen years ago)

I like this a lot, and hated all their previous stuff.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

Still really glad I heard this but that whole weak concept-instead-of-songs thing got underwhelming real fast. Pretty easy to delete.

― fandango (fandango), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

"It Fit When I Was A Kid" excepted...

― fandango (fandango), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

I really did not enjoy their live show at all. it was basically identical to the record, except with a really smelly dude somewhere in close proximity to me

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 00:14 (nineteen years ago)

live show I saw was just so-so until the encore, then "Broken Witch" blew my head open ... made the whole thing worth it

― dmr (Renard), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

def. one of the best records of the year. all NY hipster post-punk bands need to move to Berlin and record in old communist radio studios and become infatuated w/ the idea of "the drum".

― La Monte (La Monte), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 01:17 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

The DVD with it, which I initially assumed to contain videos for three different songs, actually contains three different videos for the entire album!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, February 21, 2006 5:26 PM

i thought the same and had totally forgotten that disc was there until the other day when i skimmed through it. very ambitious, so used to getting lame bonus shit with cds (lol interactive cd-roms?) and this really pisses on all that

― am0n, Thursday, 3 September 2009 16:45 (sixteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

(face with heart-eyes emoji)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAz_9GX-hsI

― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 5 May 2021 15:31 (four years ago)

think emojis work here, don't they? let's give it a go.

😍

― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 5 May 2021 15:34 (four years ago)

four years pass...

20 years old today, happy birthday!

― nxd, Friday, 20 February 2026 08:51 (five days ago)

oh my god, no

― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 20 February 2026 12:40 (five days ago)

what a record tho. Saw their Sydney show in a tiny club a few weeks later, top three of my life.

― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 20 February 2026 12:41 (five days ago)

Happy Birthday Mt. Heart Attack

― jmm, Friday, 20 February 2026 14:13 (five days ago)

when i had this ill-conceived notion that i wanted to make music, i'd written down to make music like Loveless but in Drum's Not Dead vein.

― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Friday, 20 February 2026 15:07 (five days ago)

I haven't revisited this often. The tension requires a certain mood. But it meant a lot to me at the time.

― jmm, Friday, 20 February 2026 15:13 (five days ago)

I didn't listen to them much at all but I know I saw them once...all I remember is long hair and a floor tom.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 20 February 2026 15:27 (five days ago)

i saw them play at Smith College somewhere between TWWSWD and this album. absolute glorious chaos. angus opened the windows and was walking out on the second floor building ledge screaming the vocals.

― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Friday, 20 February 2026 16:32 (five days ago)

Grinnell College in Iowa had (and I think still has?) this student-organized concert series that had a decent budget for a small liberal arts school and if you knew the schedule, you could just... show up. The shows were in a lounge in the basement of one of the dorms. I want to say I saw Liars there twice, but maybe it was just once?

The two things I remember about the show(s): Angus had hurt his back and was performing from a chair for much of it, and he still had this chaotic energy. There was a wall-mounted crt television near the stage that had a vcr, and the band had the movie Blue Crush playing throughout their set, because sure why not

― mh, Friday, 20 February 2026 16:45 (five days ago)

lol, I like the idea of seeing them in a dorm lounge. I saw them in Lawrence, KS, which might have been the show before that one. I remember a friend being kind of freaked out because he was convinced Angus was glaring at him specifically while singing

― circles, Saturday, 21 February 2026 03:19 (four days ago)

20 years old today, happy birthday!

― nxd

Wait how

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 22 February 2026 02:23 (three days ago)

classic shit happy birthday

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 22 February 2026 02:59 (three days ago)

20 years oh god

― Jonk Raven (dog latin), Sunday, 22 February 2026 04:06 (three days ago)

Not sure i ever loved this album, mind you. It promised a lot but the experience of hearing it never really lived up to what it could have been

― Jonk Raven (dog latin), Sunday, 22 February 2026 04:07 (three days ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.