The Liar

The Lookers
In Clover

Goodness. This is, by far, the hardest band look-up I've had to do. If you click the links, you'll see a large sample of the dearth of information out there on this band. Typically, for me, I'll say that's just a shame. The good news is that, if you find a copy of the album, it's bound to be super cheap.

Fronted by Sarah Dougher, The Lookers put out their one and only album in 1997 on Candy Ass Records. It immediately tanked. Somehow, a promo copy found me across the country, and I played the hell out of that album. Being the almighty third in charge at the record store has its privileges. Ms. Dougher, along with drummer sts (not a typo), also recorded under the name Cadallaca with Corin Tucker. She also released a handful of solo discs. This album, though, is the cream of the crop.

It was saddled with the throwaway line on the back cover of the album "Add this to your dyke-pop collection". Such posturing may have made it difficult to pick up a niche in the flooded music market of the late '90s, and the band may have overestimated the call for more lesbian musicians. You can ask any number of other Candy Ass acts about that (The Vegas Beat comes to mind, as well). That doesn't keep this album from being a great album, though.


I would put this as a female counterpoint the The Van Pelt's Sultans of Sentiment, an album whose clean lines and laid-back vibe belies the amount of hurt under the surface. As for "The Liar" itself, this track is a perfect microcosm of the album. If I ever decide to add mp3s to this blog, come on back and see what I'm talking about. It's a simple formula: Active drums put low in the mix, 2 clean guitars and a clear voice. But The Lookers were more than the easy dissection of their parts. While the formula may have been simple, the band itself was more than complex (whatever that may mean).