LIARS THEY THREW US ALL IN A TRENCH AND STUCK A MONUMENT ON TOP ALBUM BLAST FIRST!, PLAYGROUND RELEASE: AUGUST 19, 2002 REVIEW: AUGUST 15, 2002

Liars are part of a new breed of bands, that includes, among others, the British Mclusky and some of the bands on the Sonic Mook compilation “Future Rock & Roll”. Bands that all seem to worship Steve Albini, and have a will to blow the trad rock that thrives on both sides of the Atlantic into little pieces.
On their debut album “They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top”, the New York based Liars walk on in the muddy, nihilistic footprints left behind by Big Black’s hatecore and The Jesus Lizard’s bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall-‘til-it-cracks punk rock. Liars throw in some cheap electronics as well, and occasionally their racket ends up close to a condensed version of the more grinding bits on Ministry’s “The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste”. They also have a healthy disregard for conventional song structures; often choruses and verses lie splattered about like body parts after a terrorist bombing. Altogether rather more exciting stuff than the new Oasis album, in other words.
The 30 minute long closing track “This Dust Makes That Mud” and their arty song titles could have been a problem, but in a worryingly devolved world that seems to celebrate its own de-intellectualisation they’re actually quite liberating. Just like Liars.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN