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Tonight is one of those nights when I'm afraid. I'm afraid of new things. I know, I'm immature. I'm growing up and I don't like it (as the Righeira also said). What a bummer... everyone changes but it doesn't mean they improve. Everyone is suggesting new music to me... but I'm fed up with Gnu-metal, I can't stand the new English bands, electronic rock is now made by anyone and everyone, Lo-Fi was invented by Sid Barrett... so what the heck am I feeling like tonight? I need pure rock... without compromises, without frills, sincere, with a touch of class, no, nothing trashy... I want violent rock that still winks at pop, otherwise how can I sing along? I need to scream, to feel alive... here, alive... LIVE!
LIVE - THROWING COPPER! You've been in my room for 11 years and you're still so beautiful! Smack!
How I loved this album! And here on DeBaser no one talks about it!?!? Crazy maniacs!
LIVE, they're a band from Pennsylvania that emerged with an interesting debut ("Mental Jewelry" dated 1991), and in 1994 released this surprising album.
So, 1994 we were saying, a spectacular year, full of great albums, a truly generous harvest: SUPERUNKNOW by SOUNDGARDEN, VITALOGY by PEARL JAM, GRACE by JEFF BUCKLEY, THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL by NINE INCH NAILS, MELLOW GOLD by BECK, GEEK THE GIRL by LISA GERMANO, DUMMY by PORTISHEAD, NO NEED TO ARGUE by THE CRANBERRIES, the first by KORN... (how many great records in a year, but do you realize?!?!)... All this, to understand what era we were in and to consider the fact that releasing an album 11 years ago and making good songs was much more difficult and perhaps more stimulating than now.
LIVE managed to blend the mechanics of melodic singer-songwriting with prog-rock nuances, sprinkled with a touch of neo-folk rock, shaking it all with a bit of ’90s grunge cunning. They borrow from REM and riff off perfect pop-rock songs like the straightforward "Selling The Drama" (a radio hit single everyone thought was really by REM!), the touching "Lightning Crashes" (full of Springsteenian pathos, dedicated to a certain Barbara, who died at 20 in a car accident) and the lively "Shit Towne" ("Shitty Town," dedicated to their dear hometown).
But don't be fooled by Ed Kowalczyk's Michael Stipe-like timbre: if anything, his passion-infused singing is closer to early Eddie Vedder, but without the hoarseness (the wonderful "I Alone" seems to have come from "VS."). Live know how to borrow something interesting from all the great alternative-power-folk masters, but at the same time, they are very good at detaching themselves from any cliché that encapsulated the bands of that time. You can still feel the heavy metal and hard rock influences ("Stage" and "Waitress"), but the band is a star player in the messy ballads.
Guitarist Chad Taylor is a craftsman of the instrument: a virtuoso in his own right who offers us the only solo worthy of the name in the whole record (it's in the thunderous finale of "White, Discussion"), but despite this, he has memorized all The Edge's tricks and spreads the sonic carpet by laying down his guitar with various delays, feedback, and noise so cleverly that we absolutely don't miss (the solos)! Besides, with a fabulous bassist like Pat Dahlheimer, the band can afford to play around with the rhythm like few can. Ed Kowalczyk is a great singer but, above all, an excellent interpreter. His always engaged and above-average lyrics do not lack social denunciation and intimate poetry.
Confident, LIVE dare to look forward with the opening track ("The Dam At Otter Creek") experimenting with distorted and hyper-filtered vocals, and then mid-album they strangely tease us and go classical by arranging the melody of "All Over You" until they turn it into a madrigal! Even though one of my favorites remains the very intense "Iris" (with drummer Chad Gracey working overtime), the track that undeniably makes the album worth buying (or downloading) is the cryptic "Pillar of Davidson": with that bass that regularly marks the beginning of each verse, with that sinister bridge you want to whisper (Oh bad eyes... almighty fear
) even if you already want to sing that chorus that you don't know you're not able to sing but you sing anyway because it comes from the heart (The shepherd won't leave me alone, he's in my face and I want you here by my heart...
). That damn catchy chorus stays in your head all the way to the end of the record and forces you to press the "play" button again on track no. 12 another 3-4 times.
No, please don't tell me LIVE are just angrier REM because with all due respect to Stipe, I am convinced that Michael could never sing like this and that REM could never play like this.
What a beautiful dive into the past... I needed it, I feel better, I feel ALIVE.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 The Dam at Otter Creek (04:30)
When all thats left to do
Is reflect on whats been done
This is where sadness breaths
The sadness of everyone
Just like when the guys built the
Dam at otter creek and all the
Water backed up
Deep enough to dive
We took the dead man in sheets
To the river flanked by love
Deep enough to dive
Deep enough to dive
Be here now
We took him there and three
In a stretcher made from trees
That had passed in the storm
Leave the hearse behind
To leave the curse
Be here now
03 Iris (03:56)
I liked the way my hand looked on your head
In the presence of my knuckles
And the beauty of this vision alone
Just like yesterday's sunset
Has been perverted by the sentimental
And mistaken for love
The felix of your truth will always break it
And the iris of your eyes will always shake it
And the armies
The armies I have created
Will always hate it
Will always bait you on
I liked the way my hand looked on your head
In the presence of my struggle
And the beauty of this vision alone
I can't shake from my tree just yet
It's invading all my private moments
Listen to me now
The felix of your truth will always break it
And the iris of your eye will always shake it
And the armies, yeah
The armies I have created
Will always hate it
Will always bait you on
06 Shit Towne (04:26)
The weavers live up the street from me
The crackheads, they live down the street from me
The tall grass makes it hard to see
Beyond my property
Hey man, this is criminal,
This hard line symmetry of people and pets
We dont bother anyone
We keep to ourselves
The mailman visits each of us in turn
We dont bother anyone
We keep to ourselves
The mailman visits each of us in time
Gotta live, gotta live, gotta live
In shit towne
Gotta live, gotta live, gotta live
In our town.
07 Waitress (02:47)
Come on baby leave some change behind
She was a bitch, but I don't care
She brought our food out on time
and wore a funky barrette in her hair
Come on baby leave some change behind
She was a bitch but good enough
to leave some change,
Everybody's good enough for some change
The girl's got family
She needs cash to buy aspirin for her pain,
Everybody's good enough for some change
Some fucking change!
Come on baby leave some change behind
She was a bitch, but I don't care
She brought our food out on time
and wore a funky barrette in her hair
Come on baby leave some change behind
She was a bitch but good enough
to leave some change,
Everybody's good enough for some change
We all get the flu,
We all get aids
We've got to stick together after all,
everybody's good enough for some change,
Some fucking change!
08 Pillar of Davidson (06:51)
warm bodies, i sense
are not machines that can only make money
past, perfect, tense
words for a feeling and all i've discovered
i'll be along son
with medicine supposed to, designed to
make you high
i'll be along son
with words for a feeling and all i've
discovered
old, bad eyes
old, bad eyes
old, bad eyes
on loneliness comes
go see the foreman, go see the profiteer
on loneliness drives
we're takin' our time movin' shit for
this holy slime
old, bad eyes
old, bad eyes
old, bad eyes, almighty fear
the shepherd won't leave me alone
he's in my face and i
the shepherd of my days
and i want you here by my heart
and my head, i can't start till i'm dead
(repeat 1st verse)
(repeat chorus twice)
(background words)
here i am locking horns with the stallion
failing to hold my head up, i'll go back again
pillar of Davidson feeling too hard to go down
cheaper than all the souls he will walk upon
deeper and deeper in love so i hold my head up
cheaper than all the souls he will walk upon
pillar of Davidson feeling too hard to go down
09 Top (03:00)
This is not helping me at all
What you are doing here
In the name of God and love
Its the distribution of fear
Pyramids, healing wires, analysts with fame
I haven't got your degree
And I forgot your name
Pick me up and put me on the ground
Set me up and spin me all around
No, you are not the one
You are not the one
No sir
This is not helping me at all
Where did we get this plan?
That you could give to me
What I might already have
Pyramids, healing wires, a musicians fame
I volunteered you my eyes
In place of facing me
Pick me up and put me on the ground
Set me up and spin me all around
No, you are not the one
You are not the one
Pick me up and put me on the ground
Set me up and spin me all around
You are not the one
You are not the one I wish to see
Oh hitler in a robe of truth
My emptiness has built your altar
And I've worshipped myself in you forever
Until now!
Pick me up
Set me up
Pick me up
Don't set me up
You are not the one, no, no
You are not the one I wish to see
I wish to see
I wish to see
I wish to see
10 Stage (03:11)
i wanna feel
i wanna try
i wanna rock in the city tonight
i wanna deal
don't wanna die
i wanna bring my captain hook into the light
people i've seen in my day
ranting and raving this beauty away
we are by and large the same
but words are too feeble, they cannot contain
he was a "rock and roll messiah"
she was known for her child care
the truth is gonna give up the world
if you can give up the stage
the stage, the stage,
come on..
i wanna feel
i wanna try
i wanna rock in the city tonight
i wanna deal
don't wanna die
i wanna bring my captain hook into the light
people i've seen in my day
ranting and raving this beauty away
we are by and large the same
but words are too feeble, they cannot contain
he was a "rock and roll messiah"
she was known for her child care
the truth is gonna give up the world
if you can give up the stage
if i can give up the stage
if we can give up the stage
come on..
come to this, i can't wait to come to you
don't do this, wake me up tonight
come to this, i can't come to you
don't do this, wake me up tonight
tonight, tonight,
come on,
motherfucker..
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