Deriving their moniker through a minor alteration from a grimly dystopian 1964 Twilight Zone installment, the Number Twelve Looks Like You crafts an equally unsettling strain of screamo. The sound merges expected metal and hardcore traits with Japanese noise rock modeled on the Boredoms plus the flashy tempo, time-signature, and dynamic maneuvers long associated with Frank Zappa.
The group coalesced in 2001 amid the Bergen County, New Jersey suburbs just outside New York City, at first under the name And Ever. Its original roster featured vocalists Jesse Korman and Justin Pedrick, guitarists Alexis Pareja and Jamie McIlroy, bassist Michael "Smoogs" Smagula, and drummer Christopher "Chree" Conger.
March 2003 brought the release of their debut EP, Put on Your Rosy Red Glasses. A concept piece examining the fictionalized psyche of a genuine serial killer, the recording earned the band a deal with the influential emo label Eyeball Records, which reissued the EP in 2006.
Early in 2005, after Jon Karel supplanted Conger on drums, the ensemble issued its second EP, An Inch of Gold for an Inch of Time. June of that year saw the arrival of the full-length debut Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear.
Following the album’s appearance, Smagula exited the Number Twelve Looks Like You to devote attention to his own outfit Batter Up, and Chris Russell took his place in the lineup.
