Liars were formed in 2000 in New York by Angus Andrew (vocals/guitar), Aaron Hemphill (percussion/synths/guitar), Pat Noecker (bass) and Ron Alberton (drums). The group emerged within the dance-punk scene, in which, at the beginning of the 21st century, the bands Radio 4, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, among others, emerged in the aforementioned city.

Liars' influences come mainly from British rock in the late 1970s and early 1980s, more precisely from bands that added dance rhythms to punk, such as Gang of Four and A Certain Ratio. In 2001, the group released They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, their first album, on the Gern Blandsten label. They Threw Us All in... was recorded in two days by producer Steve Revitte. The following year, Noecker and Albertson left the band. Drummer Julian Gross then joined the band.

In They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, released in 2004 and co-produced by TV on the Radio's David Sitek, the trio began to change their style, embracing experimentalism and producing concept albums. The band recorded Drum's Not Dead, an album released in 2006 in Berlin. Then, in 2007, Liars released an eponymous album, recorded in New York. In 2010, the band released Sisterworld, the fifth studio album. Then, in 2012, WIXIW came out and, in 2014, the band released Mess.

In 2017, Liars released TFCF, their eighth studio album. At this time, from the original lineup, only Angus Andrew remained in the band. The band released Titles with the Word Fountain in 2018. The Apple Drop, their tenth album, arrived in 2021.