Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Australian-born Angus Andrew (vocals/guitar), Aaron Hemphill (percussion, guitar, synth), and Julian Gross (drums). Although initially lumped into the New York dance-punk scene of the early 21st century, they have come to be categorized by their dramatic stylistic shifts between albums, while retaining a consistent interest in rhythm and sound texture. Liars are one of the many contemporary bands to draw from the late 1970’s British post-punk movement. Their first album, 2002’s They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top, bore some resemblance to the work of Delta 5 and Gang of Four, accenting their angular, acerbic punk with modern synths and drum machines. Liar’s second album, 2004’s They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, eschewed their debut’s trendy post-punk aesthetic in favor of dissonant atmospherics and electronic soundscapes more akin to the sound of This Heat. That album stratified fans and critics alike, especially chafing with those who took to They Threw Us All for the clear dance/punk leanings of a number of that album’s tracks (e.g. “We Live Northeast of Compton”). 2006 saw the release of Drum’s Not Dead., which continued the direction they had taken with They Were Wrong but was met with a much more favorable critical reaction. 2007’s self-tited LP, Liars, found the band once again shifting styles, this time towards 60’s style garage rock and 70’s proto-punk, all through the dark, effects-driven prism that Liars began channeling on They Were Wrong.
