Video: The Like - He's Not a Boy

May 10, 2010

Liz Caruso

Does anyone else remember The Like?

In 2005, I trekked from Orange County to West Hollywood to see them play at the Troubadour. The show was packed - not sold out, but enough people gathered outside before doors opening for the line to wrap well around the block's corner. Five years and one Mark Ronson later, the band has lost bassist Charlotte Froom, added two new members, and ditched their dreamy pop sounds for a new girl-group, retro aesthetic. Previously recorded demos that had been posted on their myspace were abruptly replaced by shinier, poppier versions, now furnished by keyboards and an overall lighter, airier tone.

The change has been puzzling for many fans of their first record, Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?, but for this fan, it's only made The Like all the more interesting to keep up with.

In their video for He's Not a Boy, The Like is seemingly drawing inspiration from The Beatles. The clip is filmed in black and white in a cavern-esque location while the band plays to party-goers adorned from head to toe in vintage fashions. It all is very remniscent of those Beatles films in which they would break from mostly sparse dialogue to perform songs in the midst of friendly gatherings. Frankly, the comparison couldn't be any more obvious, unless the girls had all opted to crop their hair into bowl cuts.

The tune is fun enough to listen to, but I can't help but wonder if this new stylization would be ten times more effective and successful if they, say, recorded all their new material on 8-track cassettes. Come on, girls, you know lo-fi is all the rage right now.