Habeas Corpus, the second album by Living Things, is a slingshot of modern Americana, arching from St. Louis through Chicago, New York City, London and Los Angeles to pierce the international vagabond outpost of Berlin; as seen through the eyes of four political junkies, high on the poet and the layman’s right to intellectual freedom. The themes they cover include life, love, money, religion and war in these turbulent times.
“In some ways I’ve looked at this whole record as a celebration of the uncertain times ahead,” says lead vocalist and lyricist Lillian Berlin. Anthemic, prophetic, bumping and grooving through Habeas Corpus, Living Things have taken their journey from St. Louis, the city where old-timers pick out the blues on their porches and giant signs proclaim “Guns Save Lives” and “Jesus Saves”, on to new cities and new horizons of the mind. Yet St. Louis and the contorting contradictions that this city wears is never far from their minds, it’s still the homestead to which they continue to sing their own fiery hymns of revolution and revelation.
The scream of four angry young men has been replaced with a record that brands flesh by way of a more elegant, textured fury that enters with jagged edges yet brings curves and love. The lead single “Let It Rain” is the acknowledgement that surrender to acceptance is the road back to strength.
Habeas Corpus was birthed in the beating heart of Hansa Recording Studios in Berlin, Germany, an expansive ballroom once used by the German military at the height of their powers to entertain society with classical recitals. Today, through a line of wide, tall windows, a virgin dawn breaks over the dark city skyline, touching Potzdamer Plaza where the Berlin Wall once stood and sweeping across a Gothic city that is blinking in the light of a new future.
Inside three rock’n’roll adventurers in residence attacked their guitars, taking their cue from the beating drums of fourth member Bosh Berlin which, with the wide acoustics of the ballroom, sounded like rolling peals of thunder, pumping bright blood through the dank air of this ancient, cavernous six-floored building. Drums, cables and percussive instruments were strewn across the floor. A Chamberlain box (etched with graffiti by previous Hansa recording tenants, “David+Iggy”) kicked up freaked out distortion and noise. To one side lay an old metal army suitcase heaving with notebooks full of lyrics, riffs and ideas scribbled by Lillian, some as old as ten years and others as new as here and now. When his brother Eve dropped his bass guitar to reach for one of the timbales, congas or shakers at his feet, a Star of David was revealed tattooed on his arm.
“Berlin is like a scar that reminds us how serious bombs, weapons and dictators are,” says Eve (who of all four band members soaked up the Dionysian delights of Berlin the most). “For us, to be writing our own version of soul music inside Hansa, knowing that once upon a time the most evil powers gathered there, yet there we were looking out the windows and seeing that good prevails felt really powerful. Now Berlin is a great city. It was a reminder how things can change if we take the blindfold off and don’t let power and greed ruin us.
The three brothers Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin have been in a band together since grade school. “We have a concrete basement at the bottom of our parents house; we’ve been rehearsing in it since we were kids and recorded half our first album in it,” says Lillian. “It was totally our own world where at one point everybody lost their virginity, tried drugs for the first time, wrote our first songs. It was the nucleus of our reality.” The three boys would disappear into the basement and play music late into the night. “There are also a lot of caves in St. Louis,” continues Lillian. “We’d go down to the caves after rehearsing, hold parties and the band would play. Two to three hundred people would fit into the caves and the music would go on until either the power generators blew, the cops came or the sun came up. Then we’d all go skinny-dipping in the Missouri River.”
With Lillian on vocals and guitar, Eve on bass and Bosh on drums the boys migrated to Chicago then New York then across to LA, up to Canada over to Europe and back. Inspired by a 60s poster that read “War is not healthy for children and other living things” the band found its name. Joining them both on the journey and guitar came childhood friend Cory Becker at the end of recording their debut album Ahead Of The Lions (released October 4, 2005 on Jive/Zomba, including the tracks “Bombs Below,” “I Owe” and “Bom Bom Bom,” featured in a Cingular television commercial.) Big, brotherly bust-ups and arguments are par for the course with the Berlin boys (“things don’t get going until one or all of us has thrown down their instruments and started yelling”) and Cory turned three into a balanced four.
While relentlessly touring the critically praised Ahead Of The Lions Lillian was loved and hated for visceral actions like burning George Bush posters onstage. “This whole idea of speaking out against the wrongdoings of government was something that we were taught at a very young age by our mother who protested in the 60s and 70s,” says Lillian. “When I first started writing songs it felt natural to sing about socially conscious ideas. Early on, as a young band, we were admonished not to talk about this or that. But an artist is in many ways a reflection of what is going on in their surroundings and they’re going to express what is affecting them. We write about what interests us.”
This doesn’t always lead to a happy result. After one gig Lillian was jumped and beaten by angry Bush supporters who fired a gun, the bullet whizzing past Lillian’s ear. “We’ve been perceived in some corners as an anti-American band but that’s the furthest away from what we are,” says Eve, “We love our country and that’s why we care to understand the reality of where it stands, how to make it better, and sing about it. What inspires us most is what’s going on in the world. Sometimes you need to step outside and look back in to have more perspective on your own country, to see what’s really going on. We’re not content to wait 50 years for the history to be written.”
Living Things haven’t changed their vision to fit anybody’s desire for politeness; instead they’ve pursued their own musical story, coming back up for air with a new chapter.
“Lillian came up with the name of the album and it sums up a lot of things,” says Eve. “Habeas Corpus is supposed to safeguard our individual freedom against arbitrary state action. It’s supposed to protect us from unlawful imprisonment by a rogue government. So many people we meet don’t even know their rights have been eroded lately. But we need to be aware of these rights to protect them.”
Lillian sums up his philosophy: “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.”
Eve added: “We really value our constitutional right to express ourselves. When somebody says rock’n’roll to me it means freedom, being who you are, running wild and letting it all hang out.
DISCOGRAPHY
EP (2003) Turn In Your Friends and Neighbors (SKG); US only
EP (2003) The Blackout Generation (Loog); UK only
EP (2004) Resight Your Rights (DreamWorks)
Album (2004) Black Skies in Broad Daylight (Universal); not released in US
Album (2005) Ahead of the Lions (Jive/Zomba)
Album (2009) Habeas Corpus (Jive/Zomba)
Check out livingthingsmusic.com for more information
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