Z Berg, daughter of famous studio musician/producer/A&R exec Tony Berg, meets Tennessee Thomas, daughter of legendary Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, and form a wishy-washy alt-rock outfit to little attention called The Like. Later, in 2010, they recorded with producers Mark Ronson and Alex Greewald the retro-pop gem Release Me…and it went nowhere. Undeservedly so.
Yeah, the premise of The Like's second incarnation certainly had next-to-no shelf life: the 60s styling of their look and sound could only last one album, maybe two if it had hadn't fizzled. But this album is chock full of of catchy, classically-styled hits, "all killer no filler" 2'50" born-to-be-45rpm-singles…and there's the rub! It shouldn't have fizzled! These are songs that The Ronettes wished they had in their repertoire! Ms Berg hones her songwriting skills—the entire album is either written or co-written by her—and her vocals. Her voice is wispy (that never stopped anybody in pop music before) but nevertheless there are moments during the album where she puts what seems very real emotion in her performance: her voice cracks just a hair during the "before I break your heart" triplet near the end of Release Me and it's hard not to imagine a tear forming in her eye while singing.
Lack of promotion? Bad timing? Too gimmicky? Who knows? The band broke up shortly after with each of the members going on to other projects, all still active in their careers as musicians and, in the case of organist Annie Monroe, acting.
Finally-A-Decent-Live-Mix BONUS: