Here’s a bucket of snarly garage punk from Houston, Texas, with all the right sounds and attitude. Ragged and insistent, Born Liars rages against whatever slips into view in the gunsight and takes it down with a sonic hollow-point.
Born Liars have been around since 2006 and this is album number three. The formula hasn’t deviated. Mainman Jimmy Sanchez wails over twin guitars (his own and new guy Thomas Triplett’s on this record) while anchored by a pulsing engine room that cycles at a tempo ranging from mid to breakneck. It’s like Thunders slipping into what might have passed for lock-step with the “Some Girls” era Stones after he and Keef tapped Ronnie Wood’s coke stash.
“I Ain’t You” sets it up from the get-go with descending razor-riff guitars swirling around Sanchez’s adamant vocal. It and the first few songs race past like dive bar regulars in a line for free drinks. The stop-start accents in “Eyes To Despise” don’t restrain the surging momentum while “Low On a Highwire” recalls some of Dead Boys’ best moments.
“Third Time Down” appropriates a Chuck Berry riff and pumps it full of steroids. “Ridin’ Through The Reich” bounces up and down on a guitar phrase like a street fighter stomping someone’s head while “Tenement of Love”
Bassist Bill Greeg and Sanchez are the consistent members, with Triplett and drummer Josh Vaughan new additions since the “Ragged Island” LP of 2008. Sanchez probably qualifes for garage-punk veteran status, mining this vein since his membership of the similarly sharp Gun Crazy a decade or more ago.
Fans of all those Killed By Death compilation bands that kept the ‘80s interesting while hardcore dug its own rut will lap up Born Liars.
You’ll wear out the carpet turning this one over (my copy is an LP with either side clocking in at a Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom duration of less than 15 minutes apiece) but odds are you’ll probably not become bored with the contents.
1/4
