Years active 2002–2010 | Active until 2010 | |
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Labels DreamWorks, Universal, Jive Origin St. Louis, Missouri, United States (2002) Albums Ahead of the Lions, Black Skies in Broad Daylight Members Lillian Berlin, Eve Berlin Genres Alternative rock, Garage rock, Psychobilly, Punk rock, Dub Similar The Bumblebeez, Locksley, Louis XIV, Rock Kills Kid, Lawrence Rothman | ||
Living Things were an American punk rock band from St. Louis, Missouri. The band consisted of the brothers Lillian Berlin (vocals/guitar), Eve Berlin (bass) and Bosh Berlin (drums); plus Cory Becker (guitar).
Contents
History
Brothers Lillian Berlin (born Lawrence Berlin Rothman), Eve Berlin (born Justin Yves Rothman and sometimes known as Yves Berlin), and Bosh Berlin (born Joshua Rothman) grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis. Future Living Things guitarist Cory Becker was a childhood friend. In the early 2000s the band had Steve Albini record their first album titled A.D.H.D. and released it on their own Ozark Mountain Blood label. The album gained the attention of many record labels, and the band eventually signed with Dreamworks Records.
Living Things released their critically acclaimed major-label debut album Ahead of the Lions in 2005. Produced by Steve Albini, the album ranked #42 on Rolling Stone magazine's top 50 albums of the year and #31 on Spin Magazine's top 40 albums of the year. The single "Bom Bom Bom" reached Billboard's US Modern Rock and US Mainstream Rock charts. The band released their next critically acclaimed album Habeas Corpus in 2009 but claimed that their preferred version of the album had been vetoed by the record company. Reportedly, two albums worth of material recorded during the interim remains unreleased. In 2010 Lillian Berlin composed the original score for The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lillian Berlin has attracted controversy due to his political beliefs and writing's. In 2003, he was stabbed in the leg at a concert in Kansas City while crowd surfing, because of anti-George Bush remarks. In July 2004, he was shot at by three men behind a Dallas rock club, and later that year he was arrested for protesting at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
At the 2009 SXSW music festival Lillian Berlin got arrested for burning money with nine homeless men while on stage. Berlin and his band mates made a video of it and tried to stage a protest on Wall Street on April 15, 2009 to protest Wall Street's bailout but got shut down by the NYPD. The Los Angeles Times music blog "Pop and Hiss" got into a war of words with Berlin over his SXSW stunt.
Lillian Berlin authored the book Postmortem Bliss (Apocrypha Press), describing his teenage years in which he was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, became addicted to anti-depressants, and had troubled relationships with an anarchist mother and gay father. An excerpt from this book was turned into a short film directed by Floria Sigismondi and broadcast on Turner Classic Movies in November 2005.
In 2010 Living Things, released a series of three EPs recorded by Bill Skibbe and Chris Woodhouse titled Malocchio, Economic Hitmen, and Har Megiddo. Also in 2010 the band announced via Spin.com that their third album would be a "triple album" produced by Steve Albini to be released in 2011. In the summer of 2010 Living Things released a controversial video for the song "Har Megiddo," in which a man has sexual intercourse with his car. Lillian Berlin stated that Ray Kurzweil's philosophy on "singularity" was the inspiration for the video.. The band broke up in August 2010.
Lineup
Discography
Songs
Bom Bom BomAhead of the Lions · 2005
Bombs BelowAhead of the Lions · 2005
Mercedes MarxistHabeas Corpus · 2009