Living Things (band)

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Living Things
Origin	St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Genre(s)	Garage rock, Rock 'n roll
Years active	2003–present
Label(s)	Jive Records

Living Things are an American rock band based in St. Louis, Missouri featuring brothers Lawrence, Yves and Josh Berlin and their friend Cory Becker. Their songs are politically driven lyrically (especially where 9/11 and the Iraqi War is concerned) and their sound is described as^[who?] loud and in your face, but heartfelt.

1 Lineup
2 Alleged controversy
3 Recordings
4 Discography
5 Singles
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Lineup

Lillian Berlin: Vocals, guitar
Eve Berlin: Bass
Bosh Berlin: Drums
Cory Becker: Guitar

[edit] Alleged controversy

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The first of several violent physical assaults on the provocateur lead vocalist Lillian Berlin occurred in 2001 when he was attacked and stabbed after a concert in Kansas city, Mo. resulting from a heated debate with the crowd over the events of 9/11. Early sometime in 2004 an unknown person shot at the band's lead singer outside the Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas, Texas. Much like the incident in '01 it also resulted directly from stage banter over his political beliefs. And in fall of that same year while performing at a concert in New York's Roseland Ballroom opening for veteran rockers "Velvet Revolver", the band brought two fetish dressed women onstage, one wearing a George Bush mask another wearing a Dick Cheney mask, and had them stimulate anal sex via the stage. Geffen records promptly dropped the band before releasing the album "Ahead Of the Lions" after this event citing that the band had taken their political beliefs too far. The label also attempted to censor the album lyrics to the song's "Bombs Below" and "I Owe", claiming the lyrics where too direct on Berlin's feeling on war and peace. On June 14, 2006, The Living Things were allegedly attacked by Alter Bridge in Zurich,Switzerland while opening for them. Alter Bridge attacked them because of the things Lillian Berlin was saying on stage. However, this incident was denied by Alter Bridge.^[1].

[edit] Recordings

The Living Things released three albums as a trio. "Black Skies in Broad Daylight" in 2004, "The Blackout Generation" in 2003 and "Resight Your Rights" in 2001. In 2005, they added Cory Becker to the band and released the album Ahead of the Lions on Jive Records. The first single, "Bom Bom Bom," was used in advertising for an iTunes compatible Cingular phone and was released as a free download from the iTunes Music Store, helping the song's success.

The band is currently in the studio at work on their third album titled "Missouri Aches".