The Liars The True Sound of the Liars – Anthology 1985/1990

(Finally available this 2Cd including all recordings made from the band between 1985 and 1990 for this great Garage Beat Psych Italian band!
Mastered from the original masters at WEst Link Studio, this anthology includes ‘Optical Sound’ mini Lp (1987), ‘Mindscrewer’ Lp (1988), ‘Cold Girl’ 7″ (1990), 3 unreleased songs recorded in 1989 and the whole debut demo tape ’86 Tears’ (1985)!!
Rich 16 pages booklet with unseen photos, reviews, discography and liner notes!!)Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli like Haight-Ashbury? The hyperbole is less risky than it seems. That’s just because in the mid-Eighties Pisa was the epicenter of the neo-psychedelic earthquake that was shaking Italy from north to south.
It all started there with three exceptional groups – Birdmen of Alkatraz, Steeplejack and Liars – whose family tree leads back to a single name: Useless Boys.
A band that, for once, we can call “seminal with no exaggeration: not only for the shockwaves they sent through the Italian underground scene with their cult demo tape Dream’s Dust Factory , but also because from the spores of that lysergic mushroom grew – almost by magic – three extraordinary bands. One of them was The Liars. From the ashes of the Useless Boys, bass player Alessandro Ansani called drummer Andrea Cecchi and guitarist Pierpaolo Morini who from then on became his inseparable “partner in crime”.

Initially, at least, The Liars highlighted a soft psychedelia influenced by new wave, a style that was in vogue at the time. You can hear it on the band’s first ever release: a demo tape called ’86 Tears’ – an obvious reference to the Question Mark & The Mysterians’ classic – that was very much appreciated by fans of the Italian underground scene. It was a sort of album on cassette: at long last, after nearly 30 years, you can listen to it for the very first time on the double CD you’re now holding.
It’s one of the most enjoyable moments of this anthology: ten inspired and naïve songs in which you can hear the band’s fledgling future sound.

Just one year later, in 1987, the trio released its debut record, a mini-LP titled “Optical Sound, on Supporti Fonografici, a small independent label from Milan .
The stylistic evolution of The Liars is pretty evident from the first grooves. The five tracks recorded on the white vinyl disc are a perfect balance between an aggressive rock’n’roll side (the first track She’s Allright as well as a cover of Jackie Wilson’s Squeeze Her Tease Her ) and a more acid side represented by songs like The Lady Knew and Changin’ Faces .

It’s just the appetizer for the masterpiece the band would release in 1988, with the addition of the new drummer and songwriter Daniele Caputo, former Useless Boys and leader of the lysergic Birdmen of Alkatraz: “Mindscrewer, one of the European neo-Sixties scene’s finest moments.
Released by Tramite, a small indie-label from Brescia run by Jean Luc Stote and Guido Biagi, the album contains a handful of inspired and brilliant songs. It’s a record of acid and visionary psychedelia, full of dreamy and sometimes dynamic sonic solutions with the three musicians taking turns at the microphone, thus enriching its musical spectrum.
The whole Sixties universe is explored in this incredible journey of a thousand colors: from the light and shade of Tulips Of Harlem to the imaginative energy that flows in She’s Crumblin’Down; from the garage-psychedelic mixture of Dumb Generation to the rock’n’roll driving of You Shock My Heart through the kaleidoscope of lysergic numbers such as It Gets Wasted and Fire Illusion .
In between there are three great covers: Nazz’s Wildwood Blooze, Kim Fowley’s Bubblegum , and the Frantics’ Her And Her Mountain . But that’s not all.
In “The True Sound Of… we also find the effervescent Cold Girl , released as a single in 1990 by German label Unique, two live numbers, Satisfaction Guaranteed and Baby Please Don’t Go, that appeared on the “Rockbeef compilation in 1988, and three songs – Julia Redhair, Lust For You and A New Start – taken from a demo recorded in 1989 and already oriented towards the hard-rock side that would characterize the sound of the extraordinaire Pisa’s band in the following decade. But we are already in the Nineties and that’s another story.

Liner notes by Roberto Calabrò

Author of “EIGHTIES COLOURS. Garage, beat e psichedelia nell’Italia degli anni Ottanta TRACKLIST:

Disc 1
1 – She’s Alright
2 – That’s In My Mind
3 – Squeeze Her, Tease Her
4 – The Lady Knew
5 – Changin’ Face
6 – Mindscrewer
7 – You Shock My Heart
8 – It Gets Wasted
9 – Dumb Generation
10 – Her and Her Mountain
11 – Bubble Gum
12 – Wildwood Blooze
13 – Tulips of Haarlem
14 – She’s Crumblin’ Down
15 – Fire Illusion

Disc 2
1- Cold Girl
2 – Flashin’
3 – Satisfaction Guaranteed
4 – Baby, Please Don’t Go
5 – Julia Red Hair
6 – Lust for You
7 – A New Start
8 – Cold Girl
9 – It’s Not True
10 – There Was a Time
11 – A Dream Within a Dream
12 – Just Like a Shadow
13 – The Lady Knew
14 – The Ghost On The Hill
15 – Flashin’
16 – Another Chance
17 – For Your Love

Tracks 1-5 (disc 1) taken from ‘Optical Sound’ MiniLp recorded at Bips Studio (Milan) in November 1986 and released by Supporti Fonografici in 1987
Alessandro Ansani – Bass and vocals
Pier Paolo Morini – Guitar and vocals
Andrea Cecchi – Drums

Tracks 6-15 (disc 1) taken from ‘Mindscrewer’ Lp recorded at Magic Frog Studio (Brescia) from 18 th April to 4 th May 1988 and released by Tramite in 1988
Alessandro Ansani – Bass, lead vocals on ‘Wildwood Blooze’, backing vocals
Pier Paolo Morini – Electric Guitar, Acoustic, Slide, and pedal effects, lead vocals on ‘You Shock My Heart’ and ‘Dumb Generation’, backing vocals
Daniele Caputo – Drums and tambourine, lead vocals on ‘Mindscrewer’, ‘Bubble Gum’, ‘She’s Crumblin’ Down’, ‘Fire Illusion’, backing vocals
Sound engineer – Dario Caglioni
Executive producer – Guido Biagi and Jean-Luc Stote

Tracks 1-3 (disc 2) taken from ‘Cold Girl’ 7″Ep recorded in 1989 at Loris Studio (Pisa) and released by Unique (Germany) in 1990
Track 4 (disc 2) taken from ‘Rockbeef’ Lp compilation released in 1988 by Tramite
Tracks 5-7 (disc 2) taken from studio master recorded in 1989 at Loris Studio (Pisa)
Alessandro Ansani – Bass and vocals
Pier Paolo Morini – Guitar and vocals
Fabio Galeazzi – Drums
Tracks 8-17 (disc 2) taken from ’86 Tears’ demo recorded in 1985 at Loris Studio (Pisa)
Alessandro Ansani – Bass and vocals
Pier Paolo Morini – Guitar and vocals
Andrea Cecchi – Drums
Track 1 (disc 1) also on ‘Yellow Purple & Italian Sunshines’ Lp compilation released by GMG/Venus in Furs (France) in 1987
Track 6 (disc 2) on ‘Punto Zero n.2’ released by Toast in 1990REVIEW

Patryck – rockencaux.musicblog.fr & Radio Soubielle 07/12

Just imagine The Who on a psychedelic music trend zone . This trio get a superbe Rhythm ( Drums

/ Bass guitar ) which reminds me Keith M. & John E.  savoir-faire . Futhermore a great

lead vocal  who use weird guitars  effects – echo- reverb  thru lotsa cool

purple & flashin ‘ songs like ” Cold girl ” / ” Flashin’ ” indeed . This lads ‘re from

Italia .  Story sez that Voxx rds ( Greg Shaw boss -R.I.P. ) ‘d dig their flyin’ music

‘spirit thru Battle of Garage Bands compilation … when he listened songs from a demo ‘ 86 T ‘

( in the memory  of their hero as ? Mark & the Mysterians ). Some good cuts emerged

from this tape ” The Lady knew ” / ” & others tracks into really psychedelic sound ….

This DCD anthology of 32 songs  allow to learn what ‘re these beans . Tramite ( Italian

label ) / Unique ( german label ) dig respectively LP & 7’Ep in the years of 1988-90 .But

the real thing is probabely their Mlp 5 songs with ” She’s alright ” a real psychedelic-punk

cut . The Liars dig too some great 6’T’ classic covers ” For your Love ” / ”

Baby please don’t go ” / ” Satisfaction Guaranteed ” / ” Squeeze her, tease her ” ( i love this

old -fashionned hit !) among 2 more . If you ‘s too young to see The Liars

between 1985 to 90 ….here’s a best of compilation double album to catch their greatest sound.

A must

Alan Brown – Shindig! Quarterly #3 – 07-09/2011

This is the story of a talented young group from Pisa, Italy who – at that time in the mid-late ’80s – managed to be both ahead and behind their time, especially in their skillful songcrafting ideas and keen usage of soft and heavy dynamics. Founded by former Useless Boys bassist Alessandro Ansani, plus personnel from Birdmen Of Alkatraz, they looked into ’60s garage and psychedelia, adding hard, expansive rock riffs, a blend that, with their love of tight vocal harmonies, created
some terrific moments.
Their Optical Sound and
Mindscrewer mini-albums heralded the excellent ‘The Lady Knew’ and ‘You Shock My Heart’, while remakes of Kim Fowley’s ‘Bubble Gum’ and The Nazz’s ‘Wildwood Blooze’ sound positively glowing. Commercially bowing out with an extremely melodic slice of pop-psych, 1990’s ‘Cold Girl’ 45, they somehow managed to invite a Teardrop Explodes/Clear Light comparison. It’s a pity these Liars weren’t afforded the wider breakthrough they so thoroughly deserved, but worry not as this double CD set of their complete recordings, including demos, is available for you to savour.

Dennis Dalcin – Ugly Things #34 – 09-12/2012

The Useless Boys were to the neo.psychedelic movement of the mid-’80s in Italy
what the Crucial Three were to the neo-psychedelic
movement in Liverpool of the late’70s. Three great bands – the Birdmen of Alkatraz, Steepleplejack, and the Liars – all formed w
hen the Useless Boys split. Bass player Alessandro Ansani, drummer Andrea Cecchi and guitarist Pierpaolo Morini formed the Liars in 1985 to play their own brand of psychedelia, and have never looked back. The first disc
of this double CD set brings together all the tracks from their first 10″ EP, Optical Sound (1987), as well as their
terrific Mindscrewer LP from 1988, all in excellent sound. The sound here ranges from the hyper-speed punk
thrash of “She’s Alright” and "The
Lady Knew” to the mid-tempo garage-psych sounds of “Mindscrewer" to the
mod-garage sound of “Dumb Generation"
to the late’60s British psychedelia of “Her and Her Mountain”.
Disc Two is the real goldmine, with
the superb Unique EP tracks “Cold
Girl” and “Flashin’" and the live tracks”Satisfai tion Guaranteed” and “Baby
Please Don’t Go” from the rare Rockbeef comp LP, which show the band moving to their present day power trio
brand of psychedelia. For the first time
on CD their entire 1985 demo tape “’86
Tears”, with its ’80s new wave brand
of psychedelia, appears in its entirety.
The superb 16-page full color book
let is filled with photos, memorabilia
and reproductions of picture sleeves
and LP covers.