The Like Young – For Money Or Love

The Like Young
For Money Or Love

I’ve been a fan of the super-energetic poppypunk of The Like Young ever since I was passed the “Looked Up” Plus Four EP off Kittridge Records. (“You Can’t Get It Back” is a serious pop anthem on that record).

What’s that? You say there’s another band called The Like that I might be getting them confused with? Not so… and in fact IMHO The Like seem a bit overrated. Give me The Like Young anyday over them.

To make matters even more confusing, the married musical couple of Amanda and Joe Ziemba (remember the band Wolfie? That was them) have just been signed to Polyvinyl Record Co. who are home to another, slightly more famous married duo… Mates of State. Though the Mates are pretty cool, they never really knocked my socks off… I always thought their songs were a bit jarring. The Like Young, however, have been regulars in our CD players for some time and provide that winning combination of un-pop punk smarts with really good pop songwriting.

Anyhow, they are coming out with an album called Last Secrets on Polyvinyl in the spring but until then you can get a taste of what’s to come by listening to their track “For Money Or Love”. By the way, apologies that the thumbnail above is NOT the album cover but just a pic of them. I’ll change it out when the album comes out.

Brash and bratty vocal melodies by mop-topped Joe are wrapped in Amanda’s cooling vocal harmonies and the whole thing is rolled unceremoniously up in head-bobbin’, chugworthy punk rock. Imagine mid-period Sleater-Kinney with a guy on lead, or Quasi with much less acrobatics and keyboards. There’s also a throwback to the simpler pop-punk times of Weezer, The Rentals, even X at times.

This is a band that you just gotta root for. One reason for that is unlike some bands that have a tough exterior shell around their music, all the tough and crazy problems that The Like Young have survived through both as a musicians and as a couple are laid out bare in their songs. And according to the website, their next album is going to have even more of that heart-sleeve angst. They’ve truly lived through this. I mean, that one song is called “For Money Or Love” which pretty much says it all. Powerful, catchy stuff.

Members:

Joe Ziemba – guitar, vocals
Amanda Ziemba – drums, vocals

Albums available on Itunes:

“Looked Up” Plus Four (Kittridge 2002)
Art Contest (Parasol 2003)
So Serious (Parasol 2004)

The Like Young website

by Bryan