Living Things is an American punk rock band from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. The band consists of the brothers Lillian Berlin (vocals/guitar), Eve Berlin (bass), and Bosh Berlin (drums), and Cory Becker (guitar).

History

Brothers Lillian Berlin (born

Lawrence Rothman Lawrence Rothman (born June 19, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. Their debut album '' The Book of Law'' was released on October 13, 2017 via Downtown Records/ Interscope. The album was produced by Rothman and Justin ...

), 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. The band self-released two early EPs produced by

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

, and gained the attention of several record labels. They first signed with

Dreamworks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label operated until 200 ...

, which released the album '' Black Skies in Broad Daylight'' in 2004, but the label then went bankrupt.

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

also spent money to develop the band but then dropped them due to their controversial, politicized concert performances. They eventually signed with

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, an ...

. Living Things released the critically acclaimed album '' Ahead of the Lions'' in 2005. Produced by

, the album ranked #42 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' Magazine's top 50 albums of the year. The single "Bom Bom Bom" reached #21 on the ''Billboard'' Alternative Songs chart. Lillian Berlin published the book ''Postmortem Bliss'' via Apocrypha Press, describing his teenage years in which he was diagnosed with

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

and became addicted to anti-depressants. The book was adapted into a short film directed by

Floria Sigismondi Floria Sigismondi (, born 1965) is an Italian-Canadian film director, screenwriter, music video director, artist, and photographer. She is best known for writing and directing '' The Runaways'', for directing music videos for performers includi ...

and broadcast on

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

in 2006.

Living Things released the album ''

Habeas Corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' in 2009. Also in 2009, Eve Berlin participated in a photo shoot with fashion designer

Roberto Cavalli Roberto Cavalli (; born 15 November 1940) is an Italian fashion designer and inventor. He is known for exotic prints and for creating the sand-blasted look for jeans. The high-end Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli sells luxury clothing, perfu ...

. In 2010 Lillian Berlin composed the original score for the film ''

The Runaways The Runaways were an all-female American rock band who recorded and performed from 1975 to 1979. The band released four studio albums and one live album during its run. Among their best-known songs are "Cherry Bomb", " Hollywood", "Queens of N ...

''. Living Things self-released a series of songs in 2010 and announced an upcoming triple album, though that album never appeared. They released a controversial video for the song "Har Megiddo" featuring a man having sexual intercourse with his car. Lillian Berlin stated that

Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and e ...

's philosophy on "singularity" and society's love of machines were the inspirations for the video. The band ended regular activities in 2011. Lillian Berlin launched a solo career as a singer-songwriter under their given name

. In January 2020 Living Things regrouped for the single "Take No Prisoners", a collaboration with

Sunflower Bean Sunflower Bean is an American rock band from Glen Head, New York and Brooklyn founded in 2013. The band consists of Julia Cumming (bass, lead vocals), Nick Kivlen (guitars, backing vocals), and Olive Faber (drums). Their most recent album ''Headf ...

for the film ''The Turning''. In May 2020 Living Things released their first new music in more than ten years, the three-song EP ''Shapeshifter'', which was co-produced by

Members

*Lillian Berlin - vocals, guitar *Eve Berlin - bass *Bosh Berlin - drums *Cory Becker - guitar

Discography

* ''ADHD'' (2001) * ''Turn in Your Friends and Neighbors'' (EP, 2002) * ''Resight Your Rights'' (EP, 2004) * '' Black Skies in Broad Daylight'' (2004) * '' Ahead of the Lions'' (2005) * ''

'' (2009) * ''Shapeshifter'' (EP, 2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Living Things Garage rock groups from Missouri Garage punk groups Jive Records artists Musical groups from St. Louis