The
Like Young - So Serious
 
The Like Young is comprised of two people: Amanda and Joe
Ziemba. Married in 2002 and playing in bands together since
1997 (Wolfie/Busytoby),
they were at a standstill after a year of musical confusion;
tired of taking things so seriously, overanalyzing every “career” move,
and longing for the days when making music just felt good… It
was time to shed the obsessive tendencies and embrace the wonderful
feeling of heading into the basement together and rocking out.
So that's what they did. No longer scared of saying what was on their minds and
feeling unfettered by the expectations of their previous musical output, The
Like Young took shape in Chicago during the spring of 2002.
In 2003, Parasol released the band’s acclaimed debut, “Art
Contest.” New City Chicago voted The Like Young's "Art
Contest" the Best New Rock Album by a Chicago Artist and the band piled up
the positive reviews like, “Infectious, stellar, and juicy, this will make my
2003 Top Ten list, hands down. Get your Big Muff and your wedding china, folks.
Holy shit." from Venus and, “Biting lyrically, inviting sonically — now that's
a marriage made in heaven." in The Los Angeles Times.
Cut to 2004. One year after the release of debut album “Art
Contest,” several national tours (including an opening stint for Mates Of
State), and two day jobs later, The Like Young have unleashed "So Serious." Building
on the base of their debut and kicking it up ten notches, the Ziembas rip through
12 songs in 24 minutes, producing their most focused and confident group of
songs yet. With Barry Phipps (Cocktails) back at the boards and some lyrical
brimstone
on the mic, The Like Young loses the suits and lets it all hang out. 50s-80s-00s
pop-rock-punk.
And the critics swoon:
from Pitchfork Media:
Here are some facts: The Like Young have only two members.
One is female. The other is male. The man, Joe Ziemba, plays
guitar and writes most of the songs. The woman, Amanda Ziemba,
plays drums and sometimes sings. Sharing a distinctive surname,
they could either be siblings or spouses. In fact, they're
the latter. They've shared a bill with The Von Bondies.
On paper, The Like Young resemble another popular, co-ed,
two-member band of siblings/spouses with connections to Jason
Stollsteimer's Motor City group, but the similarities end there.
While most of today's two-member bands, like The Black Keys
and Mr. Airplane Man, seem to gravitate toward blues-based
rock and, like sonneteers, find freedom in the limitations
of their line-ups, the Ziembas never sound like just two people:
they play tight power-pop as if they had an extra person or
two. In fact, they sound closer to The Spinanes than to The
White Stripes, and closer still to twice-their-size groups
like Weezer or Fountains of Wayne.
Tighter and more dynamic than last year's Art Contest, The
Like Young's second album, So Serious, is dense with sound
and noise, and not just because Joe overlays some songs with
spacey keyboards and thumping bass. In part thanks to former
Coctail Barry Phipps' snappy production, Joe's guitar makes
a really loud noise, and Amanda's drums crack like whips while
she does double and triple duty as her husband's backup singer
and verbal sparring partner.
None
of which is to suggest that The Like Young aren't, in their
own way, as elemental as any of the blues
twos. Clocking
in at a mere 24 minutes, So Serious is all a-jumble with catchy
guitars, hooky choruses, tight drumming, and backup vocals
that never run out of new ways to sing ooh and aah. However,
The Like Young move from one idea to the next so quickly and
frenetically that the catchiest parts are short-lived and rarely
repeated more than once. "Sabine & Me" concludes
with a propulsive start/stop jam that abruptly ends as soon
as it reaches its momentum; the song's over in less than a
minute and a half.
Nothing
on the album sounds half-baked or underdeveloped, but there's
more going on in the songs' brevity than a simple
leave-'em-wanting-more aesthetic. It takes several listens
to grasp the guiding logic on So Serious, not just in how the
songs progress but also in how the lyrics describe situations
in language that sounds coded and private. "Big ape, why
don't you sue them?" Joe sings on "Routines". "Big
ape, I'm giving up and laughing." On "Sharp or Messy",
he observes, "When my baby head was soft, thoughts like
this were never thought," without clarifying what he's
thinking.
The opacity of these lyrics is telling. In the end, So Serious
reveals itself generally and implicitly: These songs form a
dialogue between a couple who share not just a household but
a band. The specifics, however, are between Joe and Amanda.
Fortunately, they create and sustain a flurry of restless,
catchy pop energy that keeps listeners from feeling either
incidental or voyeuristic and that gives them something to
sing along with.
from New
City Chicago:
Raw
Material
Young,with heart
by Dave Chamberlain
The Like Young write and play the best straightforward rock
`n' roll songs you've ever heard.
Husband-and-wife duo Amanda and Joe Ziemba have a knack for
making the simplest of songs fly off a record or off a stage.
Comparisons are there to be made if necessary: a harvest of
The Beatles from pre-1965, the sweetest parts of The Ramones
and The Jam, and if you listen hard enough, even just a tincture
of Nirvana. But the comparisons are moot--The Like Young sound
like The Like Young, two musicians whose songs sound like they're
being played by a quartet. And those songs: simple but aggressive,
the latter trait smoothed out by dime-turning hook after hook.
Songs both sweet and bitter, without a hint of bubblegum's
sugary aftertaste.
With
the release of The Like Young's second full-length record
on Parasol Records, "So Serious," Joe (guitar, bass,
vocals) and Amanda (drums, vocals) didn't go back and scrap
the idea and strength of their debut from 2002, "Art Contest." But
it's not a carbon copy either. "Sonically, yeah it's similar," explains
Joe. "But I think `So Serious' is more of a distillation,
more of a focused effort of what we were going for originally.
`Art Contest' was kind of like a baby step, we wanted to test
the waters. But once we established that we were heading in
the right direction, `So Serious' brought it even more into
focus. I mean, they are similar albums. But for me, lyric-wise
and from a focus standpoint, it's way beyond the first one."
It's
fitting that he mentions lyrics. On "Art Contest" The
Like Young's lyrics (Joe does most of the singing on both,
but Amanda's backing vocals and occasional lead are ever-present)
were the bitter side of the songs, with vague and sometimes
obscured references to everything from mean people to money.
Lyrics were clever, but clouded enough to force you to look
hard to discover just how clever they were. That's not really
changed on "So Serious," but the obliqueness renders
a two-way picture: are Joe and Amanda really, umm, serious
about the veiled meanings, or are they pulling our collective
leg? Certain ideas are clear: Joe clearly hates his job on "Out
to Get Me," which ends with Amanda pining, "six is
way too early." But other ideas are less clear, and it's
possible to read lyrical bickering between a married couple
throughout the record.
"[The record] is pretty much all about anger and anxiety,
and things that happened in the year between our records," says
Joe, shedding some light into the lyrical gray areas. "It
has nothing to do with our relationship. Or rather, if it does
have to do with our relationship, it's about me personally.
Most of it deals with the job I was at, and failed friendships,
and other things that made me angry over the year."
On
stage, however, the specifics of the lyrics take a backseat
to the pair's performance presence: fun,
but intense and, in
every way, pure rock `n' roll. Both qualities are tangible,
but the fact that Joe and Amanda are having fun stands out
as more important; not having fun was part of the reason that
the two split from their former band, Wolfie. "What The
Like Young is now," explains Joe, "what we've grown
into, is definitely the best."
And
what exactly have they grown into? Joe answers, "We've
just become very focused, and very conscious of each other
and very passionate as a band. We're not frantic, we're not
scared to say what's on our mind in our songs, or afraid to
rock out. We are who we are now, and we feel--for the first
time--a comfort level of who we are now, something that's never
been there before. It's a matter of growing up too, and realizing
that we're comfortable enough to move forward."
Touring as The Like Young has, no doubt, contributed to the
comfort level. The two toured the States for a little more
than three months last year, including a month-long stint with
Mates of State. They have an inherent advantage in dealing
with the physical and mental vagaries of touring since they're
married. That could work as either an incredible bonus, or
pure torture. According to Joe, it's nothing but the former.
"Being on tour together is pretty much incredible," he
says. "The only drawback is like, the first tour when
we went out for two months, there were some times when it's
horrible because no one knows who we are, and we had no money.
We had to cut [the tour] short because we ran out of money.
But other than that, being together and traveling together,
it's amazing. Half the time, it's just like a huge vacation,
you know, and being able to play every night is just an added
bonus."
from
the Chicago Reader:
A
couple years on the road has tightened up the crunchy pop
attack of this local husband-and-wife duo. On their brand-new
second album, So Serious, guitarist Joe and drummer Amanda
Ziemba manage to sound bigger (and louder) than two people...
without sacrificing concision - the 12 fully formed songs
on the new disc run their course in just 24 minutes. The
group has nailed the mix of cheeky, joyous guitar huzzah
and hooky power pop that first put Weezer on the map, but
there's a muscularity in Joe's raspy singing that's worlds
away from Rivers Cuomo's cardigan-clad self-consciousness.
from Delusions
Of Adequacy:
They’re already back for round two, and they’re
better than ever. The explosive album opener, "Out to
Get Me," shows a band that has grown both musically and
lyrically. "You’re No Cheat" is no less tight
and concise, and things get down right aggro when Joe Ziemba
screams "You’re taking all our money." "Tighten
My Tie" sounds like the Like Young still seem intent on
out-Weezering Weezer "Just stop it / try silence / it
sounds easy, but I wish it was"(Pinkerton era, naturally).
When Amanda Ziemba’s vocals kick in, it’s near
perfection.
Trying
to explain what makes this album so exciting and refreshing
is hard, but a large part of it’s charm lays in the fact
that there is no rock posturing going on, no use of the "now" sound
saturating every newer bands latest releases. Something about
the Like Young just seems honest. Stripped down to just guitar
and drums, the songs themselves have to be good. There’s
no hiding behind distracting keys and gratuitous guitar solos.
And the songs found on So Serious more than meet the requirements
for what makes a song, well, good: insanely catchy melodies
("Routines"), sweet guitar riffs ("Degenerate"),
and enough healthy angst to make the listener nostalgic for
junior high ("Sharp or Messy").
That
said, for all the sugary pop the Like Young is capable of
creating, So Serious is markedly darker
than the band's
last full-length, Art Contest. It’s in the lyrics: "No
closing eyes / they’re out to get me / has a minute passed?
/ some tiny spit here / I wish I wasn’t here." Yeah,
it’s even in the title. These former Wolfie members mean
business. The result is an edgier version of an already superb
band, one that manages to be consistent creatively, and deserves
a wider audience.
from Mundane
Sounds:
Normally, it's not a good thing if a band's newest record
is so close in style to its previous record that all you would
have to do to review it is simply change the album title in
the older review. One-trick ponyism is not really a good thing,
especially if the record sounds identical to the album that
preceded it. I mean, a band's gotta grow to get better. Who
wants to listen to the same record again? If you're in a band,
why would you want to make the exact same record again? Sticking
with the formula is just boring.
That's most definitely not the case with The Like Young's
newest record, So Serious. Yes, it sounds exactly like Art
Contest, their kick-ass debut. Yes, Joe and Amanda still are
making wonderful Weezer/Rentals-style pop punk rock, and they're
still doing it better than you are. Yes, it doesn't seem like
the band's really made an attempt at artistic growth. Yes,
they have a sound that's instantly summertime on first listen.
So why should you run out and buy this record?
Because it's so damn good, that's why.
Look,
people. Summer's officially in full effect. Today is June
1st, so now it's time to get your summer fun
on, and like
Weezer's classic album, So Serious is never so serious as to
be unpleasant. This is one of the best summertime records you'll
hear all year. The music is poppy, upbeat, and just so darn
FUN, you'll immediately want to put it in your car stereo and
turn up the volume full blast. Considering the fact that Joe
and Amanda got out and played a bunch of live shows, it's no
real surprise that So Serious' sound has grown into a red-hot
fireball of pop-punk energy, made by two kids who are hyped
up on the mere excitement of rocking out. Every song on this
album is a keeper, but I've gravitated to "Sabine & Me" as
the constant hit-repeat hit.
To
be fair, I've also noticed that they've slowed down the tempo
in a few places--such as on the great "Routines" and "Don't
Know When To Stop"--but I don't want to scare you off
, because they've not gone all power-ballad or anything like
that. Not to worry, all of these songs clock in at around the
two minute mark--twelve songs in twenty-four minutes means
that they're not getting bogged down in their songs. They simply
do what they do best--and that is ROCK--and move on. Nothing
wrong with that!
You know you're going to be road-tripping this summer. You
know you're going to want a great record to just blast and
give no thought to listening to, and So Serious should be that
record. Joe and Amanda have made a fun, no-worries record AGAIN,
and they've done it well. Stop being so serious about your
music and have FUN. That's what the Like Young want you to
do--and when you do, you're gonna have a real good time. Guaranteed.
from New
City:
Says
my friend, who books a local music venue: "You need
to get off these guys' dick." Says me: "Never, until
they put out a bad record." With this husband-wife team's "So
Serious," the bad record still hasn't come. For The Like
Young (two former members of Wolfie) to trump or even equal
last year's "Art Contest," they needed a superlative
effort. And they did it. Guitar-driven pop songs with strong
drum support are the Like Young's raison d'être, with
alternating boy-girl vocals and hooks so sweetened with real
sugar, you'll get the cavity of your life if you listen too
much. But this isn't the Archies; inside the candy sits a seriously
bitter center, and it creates a great contrast. Even though
the mile-wide chorus for "Out to Get Me" sounds upbeat,
they sour it with the lines, "And I know/you want to see
me fail." Each of the twelve tracks on this record has
that little dissonant edge, a stinging backhand to every warm
embrace. And bless them for it, too: it's records like this,
bands like this, that remind me why I love music.
from All
Music Guide:
Now
this is more like it. The Like Young's first album Art Contest
was a slab of formulaic punk-pop
bereft of inspiration
and hooks. Their second album So Serious makes no radical changes
but is about 100% better and less cute, more real. This time
out they paid attention to the small things that make records
interesting like arrangements, pacing, dynamics and most of
all hooks. Joe and Amanda seem to have gotten the tuneless
anger out of their systems and loosened things up a bit. Sure,
there is still a level of aggression that was never to be found
in previous group Wolfie but it is leavened by liberal use
of Amanda's sweet back-up vocals and by the introduction of
more instruments (cheap synths, bass and lead guitar) that
keep things varied. They also make fine use of the quiet verse/loud
chorus dynamic that has served every band from Weezer to the
Kinks so well. The mention of Weezer is no accident since the
Like Young are direct sonic descendants of that band. On the
brief (12 tracks - 24 minutes) So Serious the group begins
to live up to their legacy. Some of the songs like the peppy "Out
to Get Me," the slow and sexy "Don't Know When to
Stop" or the frantic "Be a Sinner" wouldn't
sound out of place on a Weezer album. Not to say that they
are Weezer, Jr. Don't get that idea from the comparisons. It's
more that they both are imaginative, lyrically and vocally
powerful indie rock bands that share a sonic palette. Let's
just say that if you like Weezer, you will like this album,
okay? Okay. Even if you don't like Weezer but are a fan of
spiky, inspired punk with a pop sensibility, you will like
this.
http://www.thelikeyoung.com
 
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