Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Liars’ groundbreaking debut, They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top, a defining record from New York’s early rock scene. A quarter of a century later, Liars continue to exist. For around ten years, Liars has operated essentially as a solo project for frontman Angus Andrew. Thus, there is only one Liars. If he asserts plural Liars, he’s kidding. The most recent Liars album was The Apple Drop, released roughly five years prior, and now Andrew returns with a new collection bearing the vivid title A Ban On Plastic Bag Bans.
According to a press release, Angus Andrew relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan, with his wife and daughter a few years back, and he joined a local campaign holding a packaging plant accountable for the pollutants it released into the air. That narrative fed into the making of A Ban On Plastic Bag Bans, a title drawn from a genuine Michigan statute. In his statement, Andrew explains the record leans more toward how we perceive things than toward current pollution—how steady aspects of daily life can become habitual and unseen.
Today, Andrew has returned to his homeland in Australia, and he tracked the record between two continents. He was joined by his frequent collaborators and touring Liars, drummer Laurence Pike and multi-instrumentalist Cameron Deyell, and the material came together through in-studio improvisation. The lead track, “Ice Pick, Kalamazoo,” presents a harsh, buzzing groove steeped in agitation, incorporating field recordings from Kalamazoo. Andrew directed the video himself, which is built entirely from photographs he captured during a local No Kings protest. Watch it below, alongside the album’s track list and the dates for Liars’ first UK and European trek in more than a decade.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Happy Or Not”
02 “Ice Pick, Kalamazoo”
03 “Laced Plume”
04 “Urgent As Always”
05 “Deep Deeper”
06 “Disaster Tropes”
07 “Beat Creep Some Eyes”
08 “Real Time Trespasser”
09 “SHAME!”
10 “Retention Arc”
11 “Out Of Order”
TOUR DATES:
10/02 – Bucharest, Romania @ Control Club / Opening Party
10/03 – Nantes, France @ Le Lieu Unique
10/05 – Milan, Italy @ Arci Bellezza
10/09 – Kraków, Poland @ Unsound (one-off performance of Drums Not Dead)
10/10 – Belgrade, Serbia @ Changeover Festival
10/12 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Punctum
10/13 – Berlin, Germany @ Neue Zukunft
10/15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
10/17 – Kortrijk, Netherlands @ Atelier Nooitgedacht
10/18 – Liege, Belgium @ Kultura
10/20 – London, UK @ Moth Club
10/22 – Paris, France @ Boule Noire
10/24 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Ideal Bar
A Ban On Plastic Bag Bans is out 3/5 on Mute. Pre-order it here.
