Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts

Thursday, December 3, 2015

brothers










The Black Keys tightened up the reins and went howlin' through different shades to get to the bluest of blues.  After nearly a decade together and five albums (The Big Come Up in 2002 on Alive Records,  Thickfreakness in 2003 and  Rubber Factory in 2004 on Fat Possum Records, and  Magic Potion in 2006  and  Attack & Release in 2008 on Nonesuch Records) the duo of childhood friends Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney  parted ways to work on other projects.  There was a period where it seemed like they might have broken up.     The increasing friction between Auerbach and Carney's wife Denise Grollmus had affected their ability to work together.  It wasn't until after they divorced that they went back into the studio.  

Auerbach says:   "I really hated her from the start and didn't want anything to do with her...It's like, Pat is, like, really out of his mind right now. I just remember playing him songs, and the only thing I would get out of him was, like, 'That's tight.' I'm like, OK, fine. We were probably both being uncommunicative. But the circumstances that were surrounding all of that were just making everything worse. I mean, I really don't want to keep talking about his ex and the relationship, but it was just horrific...I got her man. You know what I mean? He sided with me and not her, so she hates me for that."


Carney considers:   "I think our relationship would be best described as a mixture between Patty and Selma Bouvier from The Simpsons and Erik Estrada and that other dude [Larry Wilcox] from CHiPs. We take turns playing each role."





In the meantime, Auerbach worked with Mark Neill to build his own studio Easy Eye Sound System in Akron, Ohio where they would record his debut album Keep It Hid in 2009.  Neill reveals:    "At some point we started talking about my old studio in Georgia, which I'd built out of cinder block like the old Sun Studios. The conversation morphed into this idea of heading to the South to do the rest of the album in a historic old studio. We talked about going to Sun Studio or Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, as well as Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas; we even considered this old VFW hall in my home town of Valdosta. Bottom line, they just wanted to get out of town and go someplace different — and above all, they wanted the tracks to be imbued with a Southern kind of atmosphere.”


They looked into the Muscle Shoals Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, which had effectively become a museum, and were able to rent out the building and bring their own equipment there.   The sessions took place over ten days, during which the band was working all day and going stir crazy with little else to do.   Other tracks were recorded at The Bunker On Apple in Portland, Oregon and at Easy Eye.  Final mixing and fixing was done at Neill's Soil of the South Studios in La Mesa, California.  'Brothers' was mixed by Tchad Blake and  mastered by Brian Lucey with  Dan Auerbach on vocals, guitars, bass guitar, and keyboards;   and  Patrick Carney on drums and percussion.

'Brothers' was a worldwide breakthrough hit, charting at number forty-eight in Switzerland, forty-six in Ireland, forty-four in France, thirty-nine in the Netherlands, thirty-seven in Denmark, twenty-nine in the UK, twenty in Belgium, ten in New Zealand, eight in Australia, and number three in the US, where it was certified platinum and nominated for five Grammys.  winning Best Alternative Music Album,  Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Best Recording Package for Michael Carney who did the album artwork.

Pat says:  "We thought Brothers would do okay. But it exceeded our expectations so much. That said, it's not like we wanted or expected to win Grammys. I remember driving back from a gig in Toledo in 2002, and Dan's dad asked us if we ever thought we'd be nominated for a Grammy. I laughed at him for an hour and a half. It was cool, but it was also a major bummer to walk down the red carpet and realize that not a single person there wanted to talk to any musicians—they wanted to see Kim Kardashian. You experience how much the show isn't about music. I'm still shocked that, like, Arcade Fire was even allowed to play. It doesn't seem real to have a real band like Arcade Fire at a show where Justin Bieber is just lip-synching."








http://www.theblackkeys.com/


lyrics:
http://genius.com/albums/The-black-keys/Brothers





"Next Girl" 




"Tighten Up" was produced by Danger Mouse
It won the award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Best Rock Song.




"Howlin' for You" 

Las Teclas de Noro !!






'Brothers' 
full album:






All songs written and composed by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, except where noted.

No. Title Length
1. "Everlasting Light"   3:24
2. "Next Girl"   3:18
3. "Tighten Up"   3:31
4. "Howlin' for You"   3:12
5. "She's Long Gone"   3:06
6. "Black Mud"   2:10
7. "The Only One"   5:00
8. "Too Afraid to Love You"   3:25
9. "Ten Cent Pistol"   4:29
10. "Sinister Kid"   3:45
11. "The Go Getter"   3:37
12. "I'm Not the One"   3:49
13. "Unknown Brother"   4:00
14. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Jerry Butler) 3:39
15. "These Days"   5:12
Bonus Tracks[edit]
No. Title Length
16. "Ohio" (7" vinyl or free download for members of the band's website) 4:29
17. "Howlin' for You (feat. Prins Thomas Diskomiks)" (Available on iTunes) 7:27













Monday, November 23, 2015

my beautiful dark twisted fantasy








Kanye West took the road to redemption through twisted fictions and sick addictions creating a hostile gospel out of inter century anthems based off inner city tantrums.   After four groundbreaking albums (The College Dropout in 2004,  Late Registration in 2005,  Graduation in 2007,  and  808s & Heartbreak in 2008), the mercurial hip hop artist decided to take a break from music and pursue fashion in the wake of controversy surrounding his stagecrashing during the MTV Video Music Awards.  He withdrew to Hawaii, where he began working on his next album, flying out collaborators and producers in what he called "rap camp".  Keeping engineers on call twenty-four hours a day and sleeping in the studio, he spent millions over several months working out the songs in the studio.  



Most of  'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' was recorded at Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, with additional work done in Burbank at Glenwood Place Studios, as well as Electric Lady Studios and Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City.  West co-produced the sessions with  Jeff Bhasker, Bink, DJ Frank E, Emile,  Lex Luger, Mike Caren, Mike Dean, No I.D., RZA, and S1.  In addition,  Jay-Z, Kyambo Joshua, L.A. Reid, and Gee Roberson were executive producers alongside West.  The sessions included imput from dozens of artists, some of which did not make it to the final album.  



West would reveal:    "'Dark Fantasy' was my long, backhanded apology. You know how people give a backhanded compliment? It was a backhanded apology. It was like, all these raps, all these sonic acrobatics. I was like: “Let me show you guys what I can do, and please accept me back. You want to have me on your shelves...I don’t have some type of romantic relationship with the public. I’m like, the anti-celebrity, and my music comes from a place of being anti. That was the album where I gave people what they wanted...It’s always going to be 80 percent, at least, what I want to give, and 20 percent fulfilling a perception...You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret...I don’t want to come off dissing “Dark Fantasy.” It’s me never being satisfied and then me coming and admitting and saying the truth. As much as I can air things out for other people, to air things out for myself, to say, “I feel like this could’ve been stronger.'  ...  I never feel like I'm not the underdog. I never felt completely comfortable...I know how it feels when the night demons come.  Sometimes when it hurts so bad we have to just lay in the bed. Just lay in bed and don't move...Sometimes I turn the music up and drink and cry  ...  I have imperfections, which are very human, very real, very believable.  The greatest thing an artist can be is believable ... Man, life is really, really awesome, I will not lie to you.  With everything I've been through in the past year, God has prepped me to be a soldier and to fight for my art, and that's what I'm doing."



'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' soared to number nineteen in Germany; eighteen in Ireland; sixteen in the UK;  ten in New Zealand and Switzerland;  six in Australia;  and number one in Canada and on the US Rap, R&B, and pop album charts.   It made its debut at the top of the album chart in the US.  'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.   Despite almost universal critical acclaim, it was not nominated for Best Album.  





http://www.kanyewest.com/




lyrics:
http://genius.com/albums/Kanye-west/My-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy





 Runaway (Full-length Film)






All of the Lights
 was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year; and won Grammys for Best Rap Song, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.  






Power








'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'
full album:







1. "Dark Fantasy"  (Kanye West Robert Diggs Ernest Wilson Jeff Bhasker Mike Dean Malik Jones Jon Anderson Mike Oldfield)  
2. "Gorgeous" (featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon) (West Wilson Dean Jones Che Smith Corey Woods Scott Mescudi Gene Clark Roger McGuinn)
3. "Power"  (West Larry Griffin, Jr. Dean Bhasker Andwele Gardner Ken Lewis Francois Bernheim Jean-Pierre Lang Boris Bergman Robert Fripp Michael Giles Greg Lake Ian McDonald Peter Sinfield)
4. "All of the Lights (Interlude)"  
5. "All of the Lights"   (West Bhasker Jones Warren Trotter)
6. "Monster" (featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver) (West Shawn Carter Patrick Reynolds Dean William Roberts II Onika Maraj Justin Vernon Bhasker)
7. "So Appalled" (featuring Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce and RZA) (West Wilson Dean Carter Terrence Thornton Cydel Young Kaseem Dean Diggs Manfred Mann)
8. "Devil in a New Dress" (featuring Rick Ross) (West Roosevelt Harrell Dean Roberts II Jones Carole King Gerry Goffin)
9. "Runaway" (featuring Pusha T) (West Emile Haynie Thornton Bhasker Dean Jones John Branch)
10. "Hell of a Life"   (West Mike Caren Wilson Dean Sylvester Stewart Tony Joe White Terence Butler Anthony Iommi John Osbourne William Ward)
11. "Blame Game" (featuring John Legend)   (West Justin Franks Khloe Mitchell Dean John Stephens Richard James)
12. "Lost in the World" (featuring Bon Iver) (West Bhasker Manu Dibango Vernon Gil Scott-Heron)
13. "Who Will Survive in America"   (West Bhasker Scott-Heron)















Saturday, October 10, 2015

the age of adz











Sufjan Stevens found healing in the transformative power of extraordinary ordinary things through a primal cacophonous expression of the language of ghosts, eternal living, and impossible soul.   It had been five years since he had his breakthrough with his celebrated concept album 'Illinois'  in 2005, and in the interim Stevens had taken a hiatus from recording.  The success of the album and the scope of the expectations it put on him were like an albatross around his neck.  He put out odds and ends in the form of The Avalanche B-sides collection and the five EP Songs for Christmas box set in 2006.  In 2007, he became involved with The BQE , an audio-visual art project about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that changed him profoundly.  Stevens reveals:   "I think I just got fed up with my own existential quandary, and got really bored with this sort of circular, philosophical pondering and my obsession with naming things and categorizing things. I think I wasn’t so much [disillusioned] with songwriting as I was disillusioned with form, and I was really frustrated with the limitations of the song. And I think a lot of that was suffering the repercussions of The BQE and having spent way too much time investing in that project and trying to render something meaningful out of this ugly modern urban expressway. And I really wanted to challenge the form, the format of the song. And that piece, by making it a film, and making it a soundtrack, and making it a photo-essay and exposition, and everything else except for song…when it was all finished I realized that I felt really sort of creatively spent but unsatisfied, you know?   It made me really question, well what is a song? Why are we so limited by these parameters? And then at some point I just got fed up with the kind of whiny, existential questioning, and I realized that really wasn’t my business to differentiate these categories, that my role was to do the best work possible, and not try to categorize it beforehand. I also got really sick, and you know, and couldn’t write for a while, cause I went through all this crazy physical stuff, and then when I came out of that, I sort of felt kind of this necessary revitalization, and I just felt like I had a second lease on life. I was really excited about writing—didn’t even want to question it anymore ... It signalled a big sea-change for me in terms of my process...[The BQE] kinda sabotaged the mechanical way of approaching my music, which was basically narrative long-form. It really opened things up for me. It also confused things as well. I don’t think I ever really fully recovered from that process...I think I was getting tired with myself. My voice was really starting to get on my nerves...I think it’s really good for me. It was such a relief to just write a song on instinct and allow myself to be impulsive...I think the enforced conceptual boundaries are really healthy and helpful, but they can be restrictive and can hinder exploration...I love denying myself the fundamental tools of the trade. I love giving myself obstacles. It feels like starting over. It never really gets old.”






In 2009 he began recording again, releasing Run Rabbit Run, a reworking with strings of his electronic album from 2001 Enjoy Your Rabbit, which indicated a return to that aesthetic.  The  All Delighted People EP was released online in August of 2010 and 'The Age of Adz' followed in October.  The music was more primal and expressive and was a shock to his new fans who were only familiar with the folky narratives of  'Illinois'.



Stevens admits:   "I was aware that the textures and the sonic environment was a little dirtier, more cacophonous, or whatever. I was aware of that, cause I feel like I was also extremely aware during the making of Illinois of how much effort I put into making it listenable. It’s such a populist record—there’s just so much effort in appealing to the listener, you know there’s such a kind of a pageant of sound, and it’s constantly entertaining and rewarding, and it’s just sort of a patchwork of this sort of harmonic beauty, harmonic what do you call it, I don’t know—It’s very harmonious.   You know, The Age of Adz, these are pop songs, but they’re based on sound experimentation and noise. They’re more aggressive, and even my tone of—the way I’m singing—it’s more in my throat and not always pretty. So I was aware of that, and I just felt like an imperative to experiment with these tones, and generally, I think now more than ever, I’m making music for that elite 5%—you know, the listener who’s been with me from the very beginning and understands my interest in electronic music and noise and in sound sculpting and minimalism and all that stuff. So I think that that record, The Age of Adz, is really for that listener, you know? I don’t think it’s meant to be for the casual listener who likes the song “Chicago,” which is fine. There’s no condescension at all in that remark. I don’t condescend to any of my music or to any listener. But I just am not in a season right now of feeling that kind of populist thrust. I don’t feel motivated to make things so listenable.






During this creative upheaval, Stevens fell prey to an unspecified nervous disorder that manifested in lethargy, painful sensations all over his body, adrenaline surges, and hypersensitivity.  He recalls:    "This was really supernatural.  It was like I was possessed ... For several months, I couldn't really work and was forced to focus on my physicality and restoring myself. It took several months before I could even get back to working again and writing music."


The tormented work of paranoid schizophrenic artist Prophet Royal Robertson seemed to help Stevens work through his pain and coalesce the edgy music he was creating for his next album that had become, as he says,  "really monstrous and hazardous in its ambition ... I was really, really desperate to get better because I had started so much music; I had begun all of these projects and was recording a lot. Then when I went back to it, I found it really overwhelming and I didn't know how to approach it. So, this record, The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self. That's why I think the record's really obsessed with sensation and has a hysterical melodrama to it."


The album drew its title from one of Robertson's pieces, and most of the artwork on the album was taken from pieces done by Robertson.  






Stevens expounds:     "I can't apologize for the direction I'm going because it feels necessary and obvious. I know it's confusing because I'm something of an aesthetic nightmare, and I kind of suffer from multiple personality disorder. But that's part of me and my character. So, I guess I don't care. It's a big shift, and it may not be for some people. They should stay home. [laughs] Don't listen to the record; don't buy it.  I'm very aware that this material is far less popular and accessible than the kind of songwriting on Illinois. I'm also willing to admit that these songs don't measure up to the songs I was writing five years ago; these aren't great songs in terms of the palpable, fundamental nature of a song. But I'm not interested in songwriting anymore. I'm interested in sound and movement. And this material is all about that. Unfortunately, we sold the tickets to the tour before I even had the record done, so a lot of people didn't really have the chance to know what they were investing in. I apologize for that...Life is all about toiling and labor. But obviously I get great joy in confronting challenge and taking risk. I don't ever want to be comfortable...I have a hard time distinguishing what is valuable when it comes to the real world and the fantasy world. Like, should I invest my time in the ordinary world or the imaginary world? Royal made a decision and completely escaped the ordinary world. Maybe that's enlightenment. Maybe that's what it's like to be in heaven. I don't know...For me, the sensory pleasure of sound and music is so transcendent that I begin to distrust it and worry if it's a distraction from ordinary life. Maybe I should be spending my time doing something else, like start a family. Or build an amusement park-- actually, that's still a fantasy world. Engineering? Investment banking? Real estate? There are all kinds of people who make the world go 'round. [laughs]...I wanted to be a graphic designer, a teacher, a writer. We all have our plans, but they're worth nothing. There's a sequence of events that takes over. But I'm not quitting now. I'm fully embracing the life of the musician...I'm less interested in songwriting and more into just making noise."





'The Age of Adz' reached number sixty-one in Australia, thirty in the UK, twenty-three in Ireland, thirteen in Canada, and became his highest charting album at number seven in the US.  Stevens considers:   "I went through a period of questioning motive and function and now I no longer have the privilege of questioning. I just have the privilege of celebrating my music and sharing it.  I don't really want to get caught up in that self-doubt any more. I've always been really insecure about what I do, but those existential conundrums are really circuitous and – what's the word? – unproductive. You know, I don't think my music is important, I don't think it's changing the world, I don't think it's art. I just think it's music. It is what it is."









http://music.sufjan.com/








lyrics:
http://genius.com/albums/Sufjan-stevens/The-age-of-adz







"Too Much"



"Get Real Get Right" 



"All For Myself"







'The Age of Adz' 
full album:

http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-age-of-adz

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZqsyBiYZFQ2aB-JyI-J1-tyxaD-73TSa



All songs written and composed by Sufjan Stevens.

1. "Futile Devices"   2:11
2. "Too Much"   6:44
3. "Age of Adz"   8:00
4. "I Walked"   5:01
5. "Now That I'm Older"   4:56
6. "Get Real Get Right"   5:10
7. "Bad Communication"   2:24
8. "Vesuvius"   5:26
9. "All for Myself"   2:55
10. "I Want to Be Well"   6:27
11. "Impossible Soul"   25:35
Total length:   74:49





Monday, September 28, 2015

halcyon digest












Deerhunter unfolded undertones of retrograde symmetry in a basement scene where sweetness comes suffering.    After four albums   (Turn It Up Faggot  in 2005,   Cryptograms  in 2007,   Microcastle   and  Weird Era Cont.  in 2008)  and two EP's   (Fluorescent Grey  in 2007 and  Rainwater Cassette Exchange in 2009) the Atlanta, Georgia ambient punk group had taken a hiatus while members of the band pursued other projects (Bradford Cox recorded Logos with Atlas Sound, Josh Fauver went back to work at his Army of Bad Luck record label, Moses Archuleta started culinary school, and Lockett Pundt put out The Floodlight Collective as Lotus Plaza).   They got back together in January of 2010 to tour.  



'Halcyon Digest' was recorded at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, Georgia and Notown Sound in Marietta, Georgia with Ben H. Allen and Henry Barbe co-producing the sessions with Deerhunter.   Th album credits  Moses Archuleta on drums;  Bradford J. Cox on lead vocals and guitar;   Joshua Fauver on bass;  and  Lockett Pundt on guitar and lead vocals;   with   Bill Oglesby on saxophone;  and  Paul McPherson on 12 string guitar.    





Cox confesses:    “We recorded Halcyon Digest in two weeks.  For most bands that would be impossible, but for us those two weeks felt like two years! I don’t understand why things need to take so long...I’m a simple person.  I sit at home and play gui­tar, making demos. I do our graphic design and typog­raphy for our releases. I devote my life to all of these little details, so there’s not really any room for me to develop a social life.  I don’t have a private life to speak of, really. Everything is out there in the music ... The album’s title is a reference to a collection of fond memories and even invented ones, like my friendship with Ricky Wilson or the fact that I live in an abandoned Victorian autoharp factory. The way that we write and rewrite and edit our memories to be a digest version of what we want to remember, and how that’s kind of sad...It has a lot to do with the way people romanticize the past, even if it was horrific.”







To promote the album, the band encouraged fans to print out a flyer from their website and post it around their towns and take pictures.  Cox admits to "...always being fascinated with the ephemera of 70's – 80's artrock in record stores like Wuxtry in Athens where I hung out as a kid or Wax 'N Facts in Atlanta. You'd see a photocopied faded B-52's flyer next to a poster for Lou Reed or XTC. It was like an artpunk scrapbook on those walls. It made my head spin. Who are these people? Who are the fucking Residents with these weird-ass eyeball faces?"


'Halcyon Digest' went to number eighty-four in Japan, seventy-nine in the UK, thirty-seven in the US, twenty-three in Norway, thirteen on the US rock album chart, nine on the Belgian heatseeker album chart, eight on the UK independent album chart, seven on the US independent album chart, and number five on the Dutch alternative album chart.  






http://deerhuntermusic.com/


http://halcyondigest.com/





"Helicopter"




"Memory Boy"






'Halcyon Digest' 
full album:


All songs written and composed by Bradford Cox except Desire Lines and Fountain Stairs by Lockett Pundt. 


1. "Earthquake"   5:00
2. "Don't Cry"   2:49
3. "Revival"   2:13
4. "Sailing"   4:59
5. "Memory Boy"   2:09
6. "Desire Lines"   6:44
7. "Basement Scene"   3:41
8. "Helicopter"   4:58
9. "Fountain Stairs"   2:38
10. "Coronado"   3:19
11. "He Would Have Laughed"   7:29

bonus tracks
12. "Rhythm"   2:56
13. "Colorscale"   5:10




live at The Interface


- Desire lines
- Fountain stairs
- Helicopter/He would have laughed
- Memory boy



Sunday, September 13, 2015

are you thinking what i'm thinking? / release me








The Like went from insiders to outsiders and came back from limbo to rediscover themselves.   Elizabeth "Z" Berg, Charlotte Froom, and Tennessee Thomas started the group while still in high school, with a little help from their music industry parents.  Z's dad is producer and A&R executive for Geffen Records Tony Berg;  Charlotte's dad is producer Mitchell Froom;  and Tennessee's dad is Pete Thomas, drummer for Elvis Costello.  Thomas reveals:   "Our dads do know each other, it's true, but we didn't really form the group through them. Charlotte and I were in a school-band together, and friends had told us about this strange songwriter-girl they called 'The Letter'. We thought, 'Ooh! How mysterious! She's just called Z!'   After we'd tracked her down we all hooked up on Instant Messenger, and a few days later me and Charlotte turned up on Z's doorstep all giggly and everything. When Z sat down on her bed with her guitar and played us "Twenty-Seven Days", we were like, 'Wow! That's a real song! Let's set up our instruments!' We were there until midnight, I think. It was incredibly exciting to know that we'd finally found the right person  ...  My mom actually came up with [the band name]. When you’re trying to name a band, there are all these horrible suggestions thrown around like everything becomes a name for a band...blah, blah, blah… and you just start listing all these stupid things and you never get anything serious. My mom is just the worst 'I know, how about the blah, blah, blah…' and we went for such a long time without the name and then finally she’s like 'Why don’t you just call yourselves “The Like” because you say “LIKE” so much.' Everyone’s like, it’s like… The Like! I like it, that sounds good to us. It just stuck, we just had to get it over with, we’re like, 'ugh, that’ll do'."

Froom fumes:    "As a teenager you want to rebel against your parents, and from the moment we got together we had a policy that our dads wouldn't be involved."



The trio independently put out three EP's  (I Like The Like, ... and The Like, and Like It or Not) before signing with Geffen to record their debut album  'Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?'  with producer Wendy Melvoin, from Prince's Revolution. 

Thomas says:   "Wendy was only 18 when she joined Prince's band, so she can relate to how we feel. Her dad, Mike, was a session guy [for The Beach Boys, among others], so she's got that musical family thing going on, too. In the studio she's really energetic and inspiring, and she'd be like, 'Come on chicks! Let's take it up a bit!' 



Berg looks back:  "I wrote most of those songs when I was…15! I had experienced very little. In the years since then I’ve really… well… been through enough to write a lifetime’s worth of records about. And it took us until now I think to really form our sound/identity as a band and know how we wanted to express the things we wanted to say...When we first started the band, I really didn’t want to be in a girl band! I hated them. But that’s terrible. I’m so excited to be in a band with young ladies who write their music and are serious musicians and hopefully this will inspire other young girls to do the same!"





http://www.ilikethelike.com/


https://myspace.com/thelike







"June Gloom" 



"What I Say and What I Mean"



"Under the Paving Stones"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9O9eFNtZn0





 'Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/thelike/music/album/are-you-thinking-what-i-m-thinking-20628591





All tracks written by Z Berg unless otherwise noted.

"June Gloom" – 4:08
"What I Say and What I Mean" – 2:56
"You Bring Me Down" – 3:34
"(So I'll Sit Here) Waiting" – 4:06
"Bridge to Nowhere" – 3:14
"Once Things Look Up" – 3:52
"Under the Paving Stones" – 4:25
"Too Late" – 3:36
"We Are Lost" – 4:05
"The One" – 2:57
"Mrs. Actually" – 3:44
"Falling Away" – 3:32
"Waves That Never Break" – 3:38
(bonus track)
"One Step Ahead" (Neil Finn) – 2:56 


"We Are Lost" EP version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CaCZpIqwNY







 'Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?'  didn't meet the sales expectations of the execs at Geffen and their followup album recorded with Martin "Youth" Glover of the Fireman, was shelved by the consolidated Interscope Geffen A&M mega-label.    

Thomas met producer Mark Ronson in England and they began a short-lived romance.  Ronson recollects:    "I had a crush on Tennessee, and while I didn't feign an interest in the band, it was definitely an incentive to go and hear the stuff. It ended before the record was finished ... But I was genuinely interested in hearing the band. It was also a good excuse to ask her on a date...[The record] sounded like Aimee Mann.  It sounded very L.A. So I asked if I could re-cut it...When you see them together, there's a bad-ass look to them.  They look like a gang. The music should have that energy."



Just days before the new sessions were scheduled to begin, Froom left the band to go to school at  Santa Monica College.  She has since recorded with Taylor Locke & the Roughs.  Berg recruited Alex Greenwald from Phantom Planet to fill in on bass:    "We were not going to waste that opportunity.  By hook or by crook, we were going to make this happen...I wanted to record live.  I wanted one guitar track. Yet every producer that we had ever worked with said that that's not how records are made anymore.

They recorded nine songs in five days with members of the Dap-Kings also taking part.   'Release Me'  credits  Elizabeth "Z" Berg on guitar and vocals;   Tennessee Thomas on drums and background vocals;   Alex Greenwald on bass and additional production;   Victor Axelrod on organ;  Mark Ronson on production;  Homer Steinweiss on additional production;  Thomas Brenneck on mastering;   and  Shawn Everett on engineering and mixing.    Laena Geronimo and Annie Monroe joined the group after the album was finished. 

Thomas touts:   "After Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? came out, we went on tour for a few years, opening for bands like Arctic Monkeys, Phoenix, The Strokes, Muse and Kings of Leon. We spent a lot of time in the U.K. We took our time re-thinking The Like and what we wanted it to be. We grew up! And now we are back, with two new band mates Laena Geronimo (bass) and Annie Monroe (organ) who are incredible musicians. We spent a lot of time practicing our instruments...It was Mark's idea to introduce the organ, which really added so much to the band sound (we were quite limited before as a three piece). And he introduced us to the Dap-Kings Tommy Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss and Victor Axelrod who all helped us make the record. Their combined knowledge of the `60s studio sound really helped us to realize our fantasy of sounding like our favorite music! Mark also captured our powerful live sound, which we'd struggled to do in recording sessions beforehand. We recorded everything live in a room, at the same time, and as a result the music sounds alive, and real, like all those records from the 60s do. We didn't fix any of the mistakes, and those mistakes end up being your favorite bits! Mark definitely has a golden touch... I don't know how he makes everything sound so good! He may sprinkle fairy dust on it."




Berg beams:   "Mark is really wonderful at listening to a song and hearing how it should sound to be the best song it could be. He makes everything and everyone the best possible versions of themselves in the studio. And he, along with the help of Alex Greenwald, and Tommy Brenneck, Homer, Steinweiss and Victor Axelrod (all currently or formerly part of the Dap-Kings), figured out how best to record and serve our songs to make the record we had always dreamed of making...It is extremely exciting to have our record done and coming out! At long last! After we put out the first record we spent a few years touring, and then we basically broke up and reformed with two new members, a whole new vibe, and the same name!...We realized before we made the record that we really just wanted to make a record that sounded like the music we grew up listening to, i.e. The Beatles, The Supremes, The Stones, The Shangri Las, The Kinks, The Animals, Jackie DeShannon, Leslie Gore, The Zombies, The Beach Boys, etc. I think we've always wanted to make a record that sounded like this, but we didn't know how!"








 "Fair Game" directed by Gia Coppola
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSeh7JbSwP8



"Walk of Shame"



"Wishing He Was Dead"  



"He's Not a Boy"  

The Like "He's Not A Boy" from Maximilla Lukacs on Vimeo.





'Release Me' 
full album:
https://myspace.com/thelike/music/album/release-me-20157133





1. "Wishing He Was Dead"   Z Berg, Alex Greenwald, Thomas Brenneck, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 2:53
2. "He's Not a Boy"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 2:35
3. "Release Me"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 3:03
4. "Walk of Shame"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 2:15
5. "Narcissus in a Red Dress"   Z Berg, Alex Greenwald Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 3:43
6. "I Can See it in Your Eyes"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 2:44
7. "Fair Game"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 2:28
8. "Square One"   Z Berg, Alex Greenwald, James Valentine, Jason Boesel, Michael Runion Thomas Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss 2:08
9. "In the End"   Z Berg Thomas Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss 2:58
10. "Trouble in Paradise"   Z Berg, Alex Greenwald, Mark Ronson, Thomas Brenneck Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 3:04
11. "Catch Me If You Can"   Z Berg Mark Ronson, Alex Greenwald 3:11
12. "Don't Make a Sound"   Z Berg, Alex Greenwald Thomas Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss 3:18

hidden track, 
"Why When Love is Gone", a song originally written by Ivory Joe Hunter.



live at Origami Vinyl 8/14/10

"Wishing He Was Dead," "Square One" & "In the End"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMtJzOFugkY


"Catch Me if You Can" & "He's Not a Boy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtCgi7IsNAY





live at Bardot in Hollywood 8/11/10

"Why When Love is Gone"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sgEzDjm-3U


"Release Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MZklB-FhNs







playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk58EhilUzc7Kl2ZAW8lSPSguPNV6Hclm