The Lookalikes (USA)--"Life-o-phobia"--released 1996

Part 1: 1. Love Song While Running Away 2. From a Stranger #1 3. Life-o-phobia 4. Gravy Blubber Spam 5. Old Man 6. Fool In Love The Authority Trilogy: 7. i. You Don't Get To Have Fun 8. ii. Primal Scream 9. iii. U Can't Touch This 10. Rescue Me 11. From a Stranger #2 Part 2: 12. Arthur Murray's Dance Nightmare 13. Let's Go To The Dance 14. Faces on the Buildings 15. Wind and Water 16. Falling In Love With... 17. Watching Watching 18. Needles 19. You Whip Me 20. You've Lost Everything 21. From a Stranger #3 22. Gentle Ballad of Love (plus 3 hidden super-secret bonus tracks.)

This is a CD rerelease of the 1996 cassette album, recorded on 2 open-reel 4-tracks in a Seattle basement by the Lookalikes (USA) mostly in 1992-3, with a little extra 2 years earlier and later. It is a song cycle about existential cowardice, with subthemes of death, Seattle, personal ads and masochism. Half the songs are by Steve and the other half are by the great Alex Wolf. This CD re-re-release includes significantly improved sound (newly transferred from DAT in May 2002), and two additional hidden bonus tracks: "Reel 101", (a funky instrumental missing from the orig album because tape reel 101 was temporarily misplaced); and 6 minutes of Alex & Steve trying fruitlessly to psych themselves into singing the line "Don't touch dead people" without cracking up. The CD also includes a confusing "Sing-along Sheet" and a lot of unnecessary technical information on the experimental nature of much of the recording. Most songs feature piano and acoustic guitar, but you will find appearances by the 19-string Electric Tennis Racket, the 5-string Log-a-rhythm, some strings, some (feedback-loop) drums, a funky clavinet, and the broken childhood trumpet of The Young Fresh Fellows' (and REM's) Scott McCaughey, bought at a garage sale.

When recorded, this mostly-quiet material was utterly out-of-step with the ubiquitous Seattle sound, and the Lookalikes almost never performed live out of insecurity and lack of appropriate venues. However, it has become a sort of Antifolk classic (see Mike Rechner's review), and now the Lookalikes play very occasional packed-house reunions in New York City at the Sidewalk Cafe. "Love Song While Running Away" is one of the Moldy Peaches' favorite songs, and maybe yours, too. "Old Man" makes hardened criminals weep on a regular basis.

The Lookalikes recorded 3 newer songs in December 2001 with Do Peterson engineering. These songs can be downloaded for free at Myspace.com.

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