You know when you discover a "new" band that you really like and then you go to tell a friend of yours about them and he replies with, “ I've been
listening to them for years, you should get their first record cause the new
one blows!” I loved being that guy. Now, I mostly hate that guy, but I understand him.
Sometime in the spring of 1992, Live came by my college
radio station to do an interview and the label rep was taking our Music
Director out to lunch. Labels used to spend money on college kids playing their
music on 100 watt mono FM stations back then! Now they don’t pay for toilet
paper in their own offices. “Don’t forget, this Friday is bring a roll from
home day!”
Anyway, I bonded with the guys from Live in the hallway for
a few minutes. I liked that we were all the same age and I really liked that
they gave me a free copy of Mental Jewelry. I knew it, cause I was playing
“Pain Lies On The Riverside,” and “Operation Spirit” on my show, but I hadn't spent any time with the other tracks.
I really understood where the songs on Mental
Jewelry were coming from. The band was born into the same kind of angst I was. Growing
up in a white middle class blue collar town believing you had an understanding
of the world and how things worked. Granted, that’s a thousand bands, but I met
these guys and we shot the shit about shared beliefs. That meant a lot to me.
It made it more tangible.
Mental Jewelry is a solid debut that explores a lot of the
topics the band’s later works would, just not in a shitball corny way like “The
Dolphin’s Cry.”
“The Beauty Of Gray” is probably the best Live song that you've never heard, or haven’t in years. “Tired Of Me,” “Water Song,” “Mirror
Song,” and “Brothers Unaware,” are all some of my favorites. I never really
noticed or thought that Ed Kowalczyk was trying to channel Aaron Neville, but I really heard it during this listen, especially during "Mirror Song."
For two years Live was mine, I didn't have to share them with anybody, then Throwing Copper came out.
I had a couple different groups of friends in my young
adult life. There were my college radio friends, my high school friends, and
then random pockets of people that I was thrown together with for whatever
reason… part time job, friends with the girl I was banging, people hanging
around the house I bought pot… whatever. It was with all those groups of
friends, minus the college radio crowd, that I lorded a smug “pffffft!” over when they tried to bring “this band Live” to my attention. “Yeah,” I would
say. “I hung out with them. You should get their debut, Mental Jewelry, it came
out two years ago.” I would actually say “debut.” Just to be extra douchey.
I did love Throwing Copper upon its release, but… well you know. Live
was probably the most overplayed band in 1994,1995 and 1996. It wasn't their fault, but man
did I get sick of them. I’ll definitely put Throwing Copper on April’s
playlist, cause outside the singles I can’t remember when I heard anything else
from that album. Coincidentally, it was released on April 26, 1994, two weeks
after Hole’s Live Through This.
I used to love when Courtney Love was batshit crazy, but
still kinda had her shit together. Although, I’m not going to fault her for her
current mental state and who would?
Live Through This hit stores just four days after Kurt
Cobain’s body was found and two months before Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff
overdosed. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Pfaff, is buried in Forest Lawn
Cemetery. It’s a stone’s throw away from a little lake in Delaware Park that is my favorite
place in the world to chill out. Pfaff and Cobain both passed at 27 years of age.
Putting the tragedies aside, this album is a triumph.
The first thing I heard from this disc was “Miss World”
from watching 120 Minutes on MTV and it was definitely an attention grabber.
Rough, loud, soft and sincere Live Through This basks and then roasts in its honesty, and then kicks men in the collective balls for good measure. 23-year-old
me and my 20-year-old Phish loving girlfriend finally had something we could
both listen to in the car! Although, sometimes when she was singing along, I
felt like I became the object of some unnecessary scornful glances. Fucking
broads. Am I right? A year later Phish-lover tried to run me over with her car after a Bob Mould show. I blame Courtney Love.
This is a perfect album. High praise from a douche like me,
but there isn't a bad song on this disc. I don’t give a shit who wrote it,
cause it’s all good!
As I moved into the digital age and my MP3 player ruined
everything, by making the mixed tape obsolete and the playlist king. Do I sound like a 100-year-old man every time I talk about mix tapes. Back in the day, if you were going to craft a good mixed tape in real time, you had to think about what you were committing to tape! Nowadays you can cook up a 100 track playlist in minutes. Regardless, in the playlist era all I ever wanted to listen to from Live Through This was "Gutless." Stupid, right?
Here are five songs I should have
been listening too; “Plump,” “Jenifer’s Body,” “Softer, Softest,” “She Walks On
Me,” and “I Think That I Would Die.” And that’s not counting the three big
singles from this disc “Miss World,” “Violet,” and “Doll Parts.”
 |
| Everyone's the same." |
It seems like the further we get from the release of Source Tags & Codes, the further ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are getting from that sound.
Masterfully crafted arrangements and songs that took us on journeys down deserted highways, stopping to see stoners and lovers along the way have been replaced by bombastic arrangements and songs that still stop at the old haunts but just not as gracefully. (I believe that is the longest sentence I ever wrote!)
Did the guy that wrote all that old stuff leave the band or something? I can't remember their history and am way too lazy to look it up.
I like this album, but I don't see myself giving it the time to fully appreciate it as a body of work. I really like "Open Doors," "Pinhole Camera," and the quietly beautiful "Time And Again." I'll probably just stick to those on my God forsaken playlists.
I think it's kind of weird that as these guys got older, they got louder. Chill out already!
 |
| ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Empty Potato Chip Bags |
Tomorrow I will listen to a bunch of drunken Micks to honor the snake charmer St. Patrick!
Here's the March Playlist!
No comments:
Post a Comment