The Like + Mabel Love + Kiziah and the Kings
The Like are an alternative rock band from Southern California, Elizabeth "Z" Berg (vocals/guitar), Laena Geronimo (bass), Tennessee Thomas (drums/vocals), and Annie Monroe (organ).
The Like were formed in September 2001 by Elizabeth "Z" Berg (vocals/guitar), Charlotte Froom (bass/vocals) and Tennessee Thomas at the ages of 16, 15 and 16, respectively. The band members are daughters of music industry veterans, with Berg's father being former Geffen A&R man/record producer Tony Berg, Froom's father being producer Mitchell Froom and Thomas' father being Pete Thomas, longtime drummer for Elvis Costello. From childhood, bassist Froom, singer/guitarist Berg and drummer Thomas were immersed in classic rock, and all three took piano lessons before teaching themselves their current instruments.
They formed when the parents of childhood friends Thomas and Froom learned that Berg had been writing songs and showed interest in forming a band. Froom learned bass two weeks before joining, and the three began working together, getting fast results. The name comes from a habit that the girls, as many do, have of saying "like" all the time. Thomas' mother suggested the name and it stuck. The three members are vegetarians.
Over a period of three years, the band independently released three EPs (I Like The Like, ...and The Like, and Like It or Not), which they sold at shows and on their website. Their song "(So I'll Sit Here) Waiting" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Thirteen. Soon a diverse fan base developed and magazines around the world began to take notice. Following their high school graduations in 2004, The Like signed to Geffen Records. Since forming, The Like have drawn major media attention and have being featured in magazines such as Teen People and Rolling Stone.
They toured with Phantom Planet and Kings of Leon. The Like released their first album, Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?, through Geffen on September 13, 2005. The album is a combination of reworked songs previously released on their independent EPs as well as new material. The band performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and at the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London. In September 2006 The Like supported Muse on a short string of tour dates in the U.S., before heading to Europe to support Razorlight. They then went touring with the Arctic Monkeys.
On September 18 2009, The Like posted a message on their MySpace page introducing new members Reni Lane and Laena Geronimo. The blog was entitled 'The Like 2.0'. They also posted a link to a free download of their new single, 'Fair Game'.
The music video for 'Fair Game' was directed by Gia Coppola, a friend of some of the band members since high school, and features the Zac Posen for Target fashion collection.
Their new album, "Release Me" produced by Mark Ronson is due out June 15th, 2010 on Downtown Music.
'The LA girl-band return with a fuzz-pop beauty (Hottest Download)' - Sunday Times Culture
‘Pick Of The Week’ – Guardian Guide
‘Trend-setting girl band’ – Daily Star
‘Part Sixties-style girl group, part Valley Of The Dolls madness’ - Music Week
‘UK fans will get a tasty teaser of The Like’s retro-neuvo sound (imagine The Shangri-Las meet Girls Aloud) on the Mark Ronson-produced single He’s Not A Boy’ – Daily Mirror
‘Wearing heavy eyeliner and tiny miniskirts, Californian quartet the Like are 1960s perfection: Wishing He Was Dead is wrapped in Motown- and Shadow Morton-inspired teen angst.' Guardian
Finding an exquisite balance between the 60’s girl group and British Invasion sounds they adore, and a lyrical point of view that can only be described as impossibly modern, LA based quartet The Like have come into their own.
Their long awaited new album Release Me is the product of hard work, fortuitous new partnerships and great songs that reflect a long and winding period where the band has collectively been through it all and come out on the other side far stronger for the experience.
Produced by Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Robbie Williams) with additional production by Thomas Brenneck and Homer Steinweiss (of The Dap Kings), and Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Release Me crackles and pops with girlgroup sass. Tracks like He’s Not A Boy – released as the first single on 31st May - and Don't Make a Sound somehow find the place where the edge of the Animals and the heartbreak of the Shangri-Las meet and are infused with an edgy, clear-eyed romanticism that are irresistible.
At the band’s core is the partnership between founding members Z Berg (lead vocals, guitar and main songwriting duties) and Tennessee Thomas (drums) who formed the all-girl band when they were 15. While Z and Tennessee are understandably thrilled with Release Me, they’re also ecstatic about the two newest members of the band, Laena Geronimo (bass) and Annie Monroe (organ). “We never intended to be a girl band,” says Tennessee. “But we became rather pleased about it eventually,” she says with a laugh.
Releasing three EP’s, which they sold at shows and on their website, the band quickly formed a rabid fan base and garnered immediate media coverage, which got them a record deal at Geffen Records. In 2006, they released their debut album Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking to critical acclaim, and toured worldwide, playing Coachella, the Wireless Festival, and opening for bands such as Muse and Kings of Leon.
Following up their debut album is where things got a bit mad. The band recorded a follow up in 2007, but it was clear that something wasn’t working, and shelved it. It was in that space of uncertainty that the band found some much needed good fortune. Tennessee recalls, “When things were crazy with the band, I ran away to England for a week, and the first night I was there I ran into (producer) Mark Ronson.” This run in led to Mark offering to record The Like’s album, which transformed the band. Z explains, “What Mark did was systematically take the songs right back to their original form. We spent almost 48 hours straight with Mark arranging the songs properly before we went into the studio, and then we recorded them live to half-inch tape with one mic on the drums - which is terrifying, but after recording that way, I truly believe there’s no other way to record.” Tennessee adds, “Before Mark, we recorded everything nitpicky and perfect, track by track. But on those great 60’s records, the mistakes were some of the best parts of it. It was chaos most of the time - but it absolutely brought us together as a band. We recorded for six days with Mark - and we got nine songs. Then we did four days with Alex Greenwald and the Dap-Kings. It was miraculous and we became far more confident as a band.”
You can hear that confidence in seemingly every note of Release Me. The album’s title track, Release Me, shimmers with a melody that’s like a glorious summer day, but the yearning of the lyric and the minor chords in the bridge create a mood of frustrated romanticism that, well, can’t help but remind one of the way John Lennon’s edge curbed Paul McCartney’s sunniness to make both far more resonant. Narcissus In A Red Dress throbs with a sense of warning and betrayal in the arena of love, a topic that Release Me deals with in full. “We all had our hearts broken while we were making this record,” says Tennessee, but somehow that heartbreak shimmers, as in the gorgeous In The End, where Tennessee’ s driving and propulsive beat and Z’s commanding yet elegant lead vocals (and gorgeous “oohs” and background vocals) create a three-minute slice of pop nirvana.
Fresh off their US tour with the Arctic Monkeys the band returned to the UK in May for a storming string of London dates and will return to the UK in September for a full UK tour. “We were home a lot the past few years,” says Z, “and I’m excited to get out there.” She continues with a grin, “We’re a very different kind of band now, and it’s a very different kind of show. One with infinitely more energy!” Indeed, Release Me heralds the arrival of a stronger, tighter, and more enthused band, one with a stronger and deeper sense of who they are, all of which comes out in their undeniable new music.