Killer debut 12" from this Texas garage rock band. As I said about their earlier 7", these guys have all of the grit and songwriting chops of the Carbonas at their punk... I love bands like this who can actually write a decent pop song yet they are determined to remain punk as fuck. If you like the most rugged and straightforward of the Douchemaster-type bands you'll be way into this. Cutthroat Records.

RAGGED ISLAND - Born Liars (Cutthroat Records)
Go-for-the-throat guitar steams off this flat black platter like chilli off an extra-hot Tex Mex gourmet pizza, which is less than coincidental given that Born Liars are from Houston.

 ..

BORN LIARS:
Ragged Island; Go Back One Day: LP and 7" EP
Funny how just a slight change of direction can make all the difference. Instead of following the tried and true path of a zillion Rip Off/Mummies/Supercharger clones off the cliff into faceless oblivion, these kids make an end run around all them other punters and turn in something more memorable simply by approaching the same material with a nod to ‘80s bands like the Lyres. The result loses none of the rawness or intensity, but the delivery is so much more assured, diverse and, I dunno, real than most peddling similar wares these days. Impressed is I. “Don’t Tell Me, I Know” makes good use of the same chords as the Standells’ “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White,” too. The 7” is more of the same, with two tunes from the LP and one that ain’t. –Jimmy Alvarado (Cutthroat)

In these dour times, there is no comfort to be found in entertainment for the masses - repetitive, corporate piffle. Let us turn instead to something old and genuine and carefree: punk-rock.
"We get on stage and we laugh," Bill Fool, bassist in Born Liars, says. "We're an honest band, no posing, we're really enjoying the music that we play."
The Liars' latest LP, Ragged Island, is full of dirty, raw rock 'n' roll with kicky vocals. Crank it up. It sounds like a drunken, teenage summer; those years before things became so serious.
Not that the band - which also includes singer/guitarist Jimmy Sanchez, guitarist Beau Beasley and drummer Josh Wolf - doesn't understand what it's like out there in the world. It's miserable.
"I think radio is worse now than it has ever been," Fool says. "It is bands singing about the most depressing (expletive) and they don't even have depressing lives. They're spoiled little brats who want to be Kurt Cobain. It's real bad."
So bad, in fact, that Fool admits to longing for the days of Poison.
"I like hair metal more now than I did back then. It's good-time music."
Like every other entity in the U.S. rethinking its business these days, the Born Liars has given up on traditional paths to success:
1. The band is not going to release CDs anymore - only vinyl and digital downloads. "It's a drag to come home six months after putting out a CD and still have this box of CDs. Having a stack of 7-inch records is great; the novelty doesn't wear off," Sanchez says.
"You like putting the needle on it," Fool adds. "And if you scratch it, it's your scratch. No one else has that record."
2. The band is adamant about not playing anything like the House of Blues "Battle of the Bar Bands" contest to try to reach new listeners, despite being perfect for the title ("Isn't a bar band a drunk band? We'd win that every time," Wolf says).
"It's no fun playing on a big stage; I prefer small places," Sanchez says.
3. The band has no plans to tour the U.S. because, as Fool says, what's the point? "I'm getting a little bit older, and it's a lot more fun passing out in a bathroom stall in Houston than one away from home. We want to tour, but not the whole country. There's no money in it, and people aren't into rock 'n' roll in America. Right now the style of punk rock we're playing is huge in Italy. So that's what our dreams are."
There's certainly some lethargy in the Born Liars' attitude - they fully admit to being in the band for fun and as an excuse to drink - but there's also an air of sincerity about honoring its punk heroes (New York Dolls, the Replacements, Faces) and repping the Houston music scene.
"Its not a hip town where it's easy - like Austin or Portland," Wolf says. "Houston bands are unique: the early Hates stuff, Really Red, Party Owls. . . . Houston's a weird city full of psychos and weirdos. Weird is good."
The band has also drawn the attention of garage rock champion Little Steven Van Zandt, who has played its songs on his Underground Garage radio show.
"Someone told me that they heard us on Little Steven's Underground Garage. Two days later Little Steven's assistant contacted us and said Steven wanted all of our stuff, so we've been sending him everything as it comes out," Fool says. "We were just gushing over that."
-- Sara Cress | March 2009

I don't really know why I waffled on these guys as long as I did -- I'd been hearing great, great stuff about the Born Liars for a couple of years, but I'd always kind of shrugged and blew 'em off. I'd liked frontman/guitarist/singer Jimmy Sanchez (who apparently also writes all the songs) in his old band, Gun Crazy, but never felt like they were really everything they could've been; I guess I transferred that so-so feeling over to the Liars.
And that's a shame, because these guys are pretty much the personification of the H-town garage-rock/punk scene in all its ragged, boozy, shredded-throat glory. What did it for me was the band's "Don't Tell Me, I Know" 7-inch on Rosa "Scene Godmother" Guerrero's Ditchwater records -- that one track, packed full of sneering, bitter vitriol, plenty of cheap liquor, and awesomely warm, analog-distorted guitar that crackles like a bonfire more than some layered electronic fuzz, opened my eyes to how truly great these guys are (the slit-your-wrists drunken despondence of the B-side, a cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Don't Know Why" helped, too).
After that, I found myself wandering back to the band's first full-length, Exit Smiling, and digging past the too-clean production that'd put me off in the past to find the album's nitro-burning soul beneath. The truth is that these guys write great, addictively catchy songs that owe as much to Jerry Lee Lewis's on-the-edge boogie as they do Heartbreakers/Stooges/MC5 rawk, and they play it like they've lived every second of it, all the heartbreak and betrayal and fights and bars, the way nobody really has in this town since Sugar Shack called it quits. Heck, their live shows have a reputation for turning into mean near-fights among the band members themselves.
In terms of local rock bands, the Liars have thankfully been remarkably prolific, cranking out first Exit Smiling, an inaugura 7" I've never seen, then the Ditchwater vinyl, and in early-early 2009, the latest LP, Ragged Island, which grabs hold of the promise of Smiling, peels back any semblance of pretty sheen, and fashions the band's sound into something damn near to classic. They've also got a third 7" on the way, on Chris Ryan's Heavy Leather Records, with even more to come -- there's a 7" comp with No Talk & some other folks, plus either an EP or another whole damn full-length nearly completed. These guys don't fuck around

Go here to read it:
http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-02-19/music/the-born-liars-set-sail/
Or just read the following:
The Born Liars aren't even four years old, but they already deserve a good-size chapter in the Big Book of Houston Rock and Roll Urban Legends. (Which, by the way, someone needs to write.) Some of the stories circulating about the glammy garage-rockers make even noted wild men like the Who's Keith Moon or anyone in Mötley Crüe almost seem like amateurs.
Curious how the Liars are regarded amongst their peers, last week Noise posted this simple prompt on the redoubtable Hands Up Houston message board: "Fill in the blank: Born Liars are the most ________ band in Houston."
he results, some of which suspiciously appeared to come from assorted Liars themselves — Hands Up allows users to post under any name they see fit, such as "jerk" and "asshole" — were more than he could have hoped for. According to their friends, fans and the odd hater or two, Born Liars are...
"Lester Bangs."
"Likely to overdose."
"Stuck-up, played-out, coked-up — j/k [just kidding] I love Born Liars."
"Fuckable." (From one of the band.)
"Boring."
"Drunk."
"Band-member-changing."
"Likely to get you kicked out of an art opening for causing a commotion, destroying property and hogging cheese."
And the last one, for which horribly conclusive photographic evidence exists and was even thoughtfully posted on Hands Up shortly thereafter in one of the many responses:
"Likely to piss on a member of ­Metallica."
The Metallica man in question, if you're curious, was drummer Lars Ulrich, in town for Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit. The shower was thankfully aborted at the last minute, which does nothing at all to lessen the legend.
Noise thought about meeting up with the Liars, but since an interview would almost surely involve several rounds of drinks, he didn't want to run the risk of conducting all or part of it in jail. Missing a deadline waiting on bail money is a tough one to explain to your editors. Furthermore, given the information volunteered by their Hands Up friends — which none of the Liars, some of whom have wives and children, bothered to dispute — perhaps it's best that, for the purposes of this column, their specific identities remain anonymous.
Besides, everything one could hope to learn about the Liars is laid out plain as day on the band's new vinyl-only LP Ragged Island: amplifier-abusing guitars, a rhythm section that shakes the central nervous system like a rag doll and lyrics about seedy Fannin Street, needing a ride home and, in general, "How It Gets at Night." That would be, per the boozy, Stones-ish rocker, "Out of your head, out of your mind."
Perhaps no one knows the Liars better than Rosa ­Guerrero, who runs Ditchwater Records, Ragged Island's label. Guerrero can usually be found snapping pictures of the band while dodging various limbs and guitar necks, among other things. It's not unusual to wake up the morning after a Born Liars show with some mysterious new cuts and bruises, which Noise is not ashamed to say he's done once or twice.
"They play loud and fast, and even their slow ones make you want to slug the person next to you," she says.
That was certainly the case at what Guerrero calls the Liars' most infamous show, one she skipped but her husband, Linus Pauling Quartet guitarist and former Free Press Houston music writer Ramon Medina, witnessed.
"That's the one where I believe a girlfight broke out over who knows what — does there need to be a reason at a Born Liars show?" she says. "Fists started flying, I think somebody got pounded with a stiletto heel and the band played on. It's all part of the show."
However honestly the Liars come by their debauched reputation, it tends to obscure the fact that they're serious musicians — the current lineup's other bands, past and present, include Gun Crazy, Hell City Kings, Insect Warfare and Homopolice — with a serious work ethic. Guerrero says they're already back in the studio working on the follow-up to Ragged Island, which will be their third full-length.
(By the way, Island will be released on CD later this year on Pat Todd of L.A. cowpunks the Rank Outsiders' Rank Outsider Records; the Liars and Outsiders will compete to see who can do the most damage to Rudyard's PA system Friday night.)
"I think they really know what exactly the sound is they're going for, and that makes things very expedient in terms of songwriting," Guerrero says. "This isn't experimental music, but certainly whatever it is they've been doing — or ingesting — it's working."
If anyone at Wicked Cool Records — the in-house label for Little Steven's Underground Garage — happens to be reading this, they might want to consider picking up the option on the Liars' work in progress. Ragged Island itself is like a mini-episode of Underground Garage, nodding at everyone from Pacific Northwest fuzz-tone pioneers the Sonics to British Invasion sneerers the Kinks and Yardbirds and contemporary Texas terrors the Riverboat Gamblers. It may not be rocket science, but it does rock. And then some.
"I really like 'em. I don't get that excited anymore about the type of music they do, but when I heard that album I was just blown away," says Sound Exchange owner Kurt Brennan, who likens the Liars to mid-'70s East Coast pre-punk legends the Dead Boys and New York Dolls. "I'm just so ancient that I remember that music when it first started, and I'm like, 'Ehhh, another garage band, another rock-and-roll thing,' but they're just really, really good at it."
The Liars' lyrics are littered with local references, and Guerrero says if she had to pick one band to represent Houston to the United Nations of rock and roll, it would be them. Why?
"It's basically the 'We don't care what you think about us' kind of attitude," she says. "That definitely comes across onstage. Certainly it could be argued that that kind of punk/rock and roll may seem anachronistic" — here she cites ear-­bleeding bygones like Australia's the Saints and Boston's the Real Kids — "but Houston is a hugely anachronistic town."
Speaking of anachronisms, they don't come much bigger than a band releasing its vinyl-only LP at an actual record store. Brennan has the somewhat dubious honor of maintaining some semblance of order at the Liars' release party Thursday night at Sound Exchange. Given the combined tendency for rowdiness between the Liars and their fans — and the fact that free Lone Star tallboys will be on hand — how worried is he about any potential property damage?
"Oh, we always are with these shows," he laughs. "It just comes with the territory. It's not a party unless something gets broken or the cops get called."
chris.gray@houstonpress.com

http://www.theskyline.net/2009/02/04/in-the-studio-born-liars/ 
 
or just read it here:
TSN: You were just in the studio. Where were you recording (and with who) and what were you working on?
Yeah we were at Dead City [Sound] on January 10th recording with Chris Ryan (who the fuck else) and did seven songs in around two hours. We did “Find Me In Church”, Poverty Check”, Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” (yes another fuckin’ don’t song), the Bob Seger classic “Get Out Of Denver”, “Ain’t Livin’ Today”, “Let Her Go” and “Move Right In”.
Even though we have 2 7″s out plus a brand new LP we can’t just sit and wait for the next big opening for another release (Heavy Leather [Records] is about to release 2 songs from the Ragged Island sessions that were not on the record) so we just went in and kicked ‘em out. And even though Scott has quit the band for the big paychecks of The Sideshow Tramps he was nice enough to end his time with us by recording some kick ass leads. I think Beau [Beasley (No Talk, The Homopolice)] will be adding a little more guitars since he’s in the band now. These songs already have releases set up for them. “Poverty Check” will be out on a free 7″ comp with No Talk, Secret Prostitutes plus one more I’m not sure of. This will be a free 7″ with a zine by our buddy CJ. and these will go fast so get them as soon as they come out. The rest will either be on an EP and 7″ or just one long 12″ EP.
If you want to know how crazy the recording day went I have no problem lettin’ the cat out on the whole day. Rosa [Gurrero (Ditchwater Records)] was there, took pictures and helped consume the mass amount of beer and Rumple Minze. We started drinking heavy at 11:00am and after the recording we made our way to a bar (can’t name the bar for legal issues) where we stole a case of tallboys (can’t name the brand again for legal issues) then made our way to an art show. Took a piss in the middle of a yuppie townhome parking lot as a few of them were coming home then went in. Jimmy loves cheese so he was happy they had a spread. I was happy about the free wine and nude photos. The chick who took the photos was interested in what we thought, I thought they were ok and wanted to know more about why one of the naked chicks was scared. Right then that particular chick walked in.
So after her telling us about her sex stories I/we decided the place needed to be rearranged. First I took some nice flowers out and started beating Rosa with them. Well Rosa wanted revenge so the rest of the flowers went. Well Jimmy was protecting the cheese and I felt no fucking way so then cheese became the art (the best I saw that night). I do feel Jimmy is still upset about the cheese. We got fucking kicked out. Off to Lolas we go.
TSN: Do your songs tend to evolve while you’re recording, or do you enter the process with a pretty definitive handle on what you want to do?

The only thing that evolves during the recording are the lyrics and backup vocals. The rest are whipped in to shape at the practice space. When I say whip I mean it. Our leader, Jimmy “Thunders/Westerberg” Sanchez, has a bull whip he uses to make sure we play his songs in the proper non-hipster fashion. Why the hipsters like us I will never know.
Two songs were created the night before we went into the studio. It’s funny cause they are both from the slow and faggotty (s. a. f.) trilogy “How It Gets At Night” s.a.f.II off our new LP and “Ain’t Livin’ Today” s.a.f.III. Just so you know, slow and faggotty I is “Quiet Lives”, but you should know that already as we let everyone know at every fuckin’ show we’ve played the last 2 years. The cover songs are already thought out by the person who wrote them in 60’s and 70’s so you will need to ask them about how they think we should handle their songs. Though that doesn’t matter as Jimmy will tell them to “Go Get Fucked”.