QPRIME.COM - Living Things

www.livingthingsmusic.com

Living Things is made up of three brothers Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin who grew up in the socially conservative suburbs of St. Louis, jamming their way through their teens in their parent's basement. Their debut album, Ahead of the Lions, hits the streets hard this fall, on Jive Records. It delivers a bullsh*t-free, shiv-sharp collection of surly rock with the simplicity of the Ramones and the fury of Nirvana.

Their lyrics are inspired by an acute political awareness and aim to provoke dialogue. Recorded by Steve Albini (PJ Harvey, Nirvana). Ahead of the Lions was tracked and mixed in St. Louis, Chicago and Stockholm. The band had released two EPs in 2003, Turn in Your Friends and Neighbors (U.S.) and The Blackout Generation (U.K.), and over the past two years has crisscrossed the U.S. and Europe, opening for bands as diverse as Velvet Revolver and The Libertines, Melissa Auf der Maur and The Vines.

Playing together and apart in various formations, locations and desperation, the brothers Berlin finally united around their common disdain for the St. Louis scene, or lack thereof, and borrowed a car from a girlfriend to drive to Los Angeles in search of a record deal. They were young, they had a bunch of good songs, they were comfortable onstage when they weren't beating the crap out of each other, they were loud, and big record companies were sniffing the air and catching a distant whiff of socially conscious rock 'n' roll preparing to storm the charts again. After a struggle with Dreamworks and Geffen to complex to recount here, Jive Records is proud to present Living Things, uncensored.

Says Lillian, "Society is divided into two antagonistic factions: those who issue the orders and those who obey the orders. The problem is the ones who issue the orders have abused their authority and have seduced society into abdicating their rights. It's time to learn to recite your rights like the ABC's and 123's so you are aware of what you're giving up."

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