1247. Live / Throwing Copper. 1994. 4/5

How many people can truly say that they knew of the band Live prior to the release of their 3rd studio album? I posed this same question about The Offspring on the recent episode on this podcast about their album “Smash”, and I use the same analogy – if someone tells you they did, they are either a purveyor of random bands, or they are a liar.
Live had been together as a band since their high school days, and having completed their high school years they put out a cassette with their own songs titled “The Death of a Dictionary”. They continued to gig around for the next two years before landing a record contract with Radioactive Records in 1991. This allowed them to head into the studio to record a four track EP initially, and then later that year record and release the album “Mental Jewelry”. The major benefit of both of these recordings was the acquisition of Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison as producer, something that the band acknowledged was a benefit to their songwriting in particular, as that was a craft they were still coming to grips with.
With their stock rising, the band entered the studio again in the back half of 1993 to record the follow up, with Harrison still on board as producer. While their previous album had charted in the US, reaching as high as 73 on the Billboard 200 chart, the band was basically unknown outside of the US at that time. All of that was about to change considerably with the release of this album, which was titled “Throwing Copper”.

The moodiness of this album flows upwards and downwards throughout the entire track listing, from quiet lulls to raucous overtones and mid range feelings as well. It’s quite an achievement as you wander down the hills and valleys of the songs, each pulling in its own individuality and yet comprising a part of the whole.
The subtle lows and valleys are a mix of the moody slow flowing water in a peaceful creek and the person sitting under the tree with their hat tilted over their eyes. This is what some of these songs remind me of, or at least have me thinking about listening to them in this setting. The opening track “The Dam at Otter Creek” (no pun intended to the set up to this track) sets the album up in this style from the outset, with Ed’s vocals in a PJ Harvey phasing technique building in intensity along with the drums while the music remains in its calm setting. This then segues in to “Selling the Drama” returning to that softer start again, building up through to the chorus and riding the wave before rising and falling on the swell. Further along the album the third single released “Lightning Crashes” moves along the same lines, with the quiet acoustic first half of the song providing the base of the track and building to middle ground by the end of the track itself. “T.B.D” does the same but for much longer, only breaking out in the back quarter of the song for a 30 second burst, but for the remainder just quietly moving along, while “Pillar of Davidson” settles into the same tempo and calming mood.
The peaks of the hills show a more forceful vocal output both in volume and passion, and the harder element of the band coming to the fore as well. “I Alone” was the second single released from the album and mixes the swell along the way, but this is a bigger more energetic output than the songs already mentioned. The hard core emblazoning of the bridge and chorus are what tags this as a great singalong classic of the era, and one of the songs that the band built their reputation on. The same comes alive in “All Over You”, the fourth single release, which in its more energetic and jaunty approach is the perfect song to showcase the band on radio, getting the attention that the band would have hoped for by this stage of the album.
Along with these well known tracks are the ones that help build the album above the average. “Iris” is a beauty in this regard, with the drumming of Chad Gracey in particular working overtime on this song, driving the song along with Ed’s vocals to the harder element that the album works at its best. “Top” is also one of my favourites in this regard because the whole band sounds engaged throughout which doesn’t always happen on those softer acoustic songs. Here, Chad Taylor on guitar and Patrick Dahlheimer on bass best showcase their skills, and its a great number. Add to this “Shit Towne” which is classic small town belligerence, a song with more than a little frustration coming out in the vocals and lyrics. Along with “Stage” and “Waitress”, all of these songs in particular help build the album to its peaks, and showcase the fact that this album is not built on its single releases alone.

As I have already mentioned on a couple of occasions in this season of “Music from a Lifetime”, 1994 was a year that I bought very few albums due to several circumstances, including moving to the city and not having work for some months, and with money tight there was no opportunity to buy new music. Then came the year of 1995, also already mentioned on previous episodes, where much of my life went to... excrement. And I have also mentioned how albums such as Therapy’s “Troublegum” and The Offspring’s “Smash” became albums from 1994 that helped me survive the obliteration of 1995. Add to that list Live’s “Throwing Copper”.
Once again, I knew of the singles from the radio, as they received massive airplay throughout 1994. What finally tipped me into buying this album was getting to see the band play live at the Alternative Nation festival in April 1995 at Eastern Creek outside Sydney, the same day I first saw the band Therapy? It rained pretty much all day and night, the festival became a mud bath, and the conditions were generally miserable. Live had pulled a good crowd because of their popularity, but because there was so much mud, some of the less discernible fans watching decided to throw mud at each other, and then the band. The band soldiered on, but at the end of the set, Ed Kowalczyk crankily and without warning threw his guitar at the perpetrators at the front of the stage, and made to come off the stage and start pummelling them. Security made its belated way into the throng to stop the carnage and find the guitar, all the while as the crowd cheered the band and egged them on. How could you not follow a band after that?
So I bought the album, and it went into serious rotation. And like those other bands and their albums, what I was pleased to discover was that while the singles were good songs, the remainder of the album also held its own, and indeed for me some of the songs were stronger than the songs I knew. In particular, songs like “Iris”, “Top”, “Stage” and “Shit Towne” came with an intensity and passion that helped the album rise above the average, and prove to be a reward for all of those fans who had indeed made the dive into buying the album rather than just the singles. And, although I was a year behind the actual release date of the album, I became one of those fortunate people. The other endearing memory of this album is of spending a long weekend at Hill End in desolate NSW making an amateur western film, and this album being on the listening list of an evening as we sat back on the balcony of the old hotel we stayed at drinking cold beer at the end of the day.
This album still comes out onto the CD player on a regular basis, and it still as enjoyable as it was when I first bought it. Over the past three weeks it has been on the playlist for this episode, and it has built up a strong following once again. The band plays here in Wollongong in a couple of weeks as of the recording of this episode. I feel I may just pop along once again, if only to see if Ed throws his guitar at the audience at every gig, or if it is just when he has mud thrown at him.

1246. Annihilator / Alice in Hell. 1989. 4/5

Annihilator was formed in Ottawa in Canada back in 1984 by guitarists and vocalists Jeff Waters and John Bates. The meeting of Waters and Bates was through mutual neighbourhood friends with the intention to cover AC/DC songs. After their initial meeting, they decided to instead write original songs together, and the two of them formed what they called Annihilator. Bates then recruited bassist Dave Scott while Waters brought in drummer Paul Malek. The band rehearsed and played in the basement of a women's fashion shop for a two-year period before settling in Val-d'Or, a city in Quebec, after a residency there. During this time, Waters and Bates co-wrote most of the tracks that would eventually make up the majority of Annihilator’s first two albums, though as it turned out, it was not to be with the lineup that was together when they were written. In 1985, the band produced a demo titled "Welcome to Your Death", but not long after this Bates and Scott left the band, citing "artistic differences" and "personality conflicts". Not the first time those phrases have been used in the break up of band lineups. These two went on to form the band Ligeia, notably recording a version of the song “Alison Hell” in 1987 that pre-dated the Annihilator release.
The band, as it was, then went on to record two more demo’s, titled "Phantasmagoria" and "Wicked Mystic", before Waters moved to Vancouver, where he assembled what he hoped would be a more permanent line-up, including drummer Ray Hartmann and former D.O.A. bassist Randy Rampage on vocals. Rampage came with impressive credentials, having been in the influential Canadian hard core band D.O.A, but as bass guitarist. Here he had been brought on board by Waters to take on the lead vocal duties. In 1988, Waters, Rampage and Hartmann went into the studio, with Waters recording all of the guitar and bass tracks himself in lieu of other musicians, and produced what would become the band's debut album. Hartmann’s drums and Rampages vocals completed the task, and “Alice in Hell” was released upon the world as the debut album for the band Annihilator.

For what is, for all intents and purposes a thrash metal album, the opening to the band’s debut album is an interesting start. The instrumental “Crystal Ann” starts with classical acoustic guitar strains, completely out of character for what you would expect from this type of album. No “Hit the Lights” or “Over the Wall” or “Loved to Death” here. Simply almost two minutes of classically aligned guitar with no backing, starting off the album. I’m assuming most people were as bemused by this the first time they heard the album as I was. This then strums into “Alison Hell”, where there is more of the same to start the track, before the opening running riff kicks the album into gear at last. The move between clear guitar and distorted riff is an interesting play off against each other, as well as the change of pace literally within the song before it finally finds its groove. The move between a normal vocal throughout to the falsetto piece before the solo is another interesting touch. Given the lateness of the hour in regards to the thrash metal genre when this was released, this opening to the album at least showed the band had their own take and style with their music, rather than copying what had come before.
“Alison Hell” crashes straight into “W.T.Y.D” - Welcome to Your Death – and now the band has its mojo, with this song motoring along nicely and Rampage now find his range vocally. With John Bates credited with having co-written four of the tracks on this album, it’s interesting that both of the songs he contributed to at the top of the album have the insertion of the clear guitar into the tracks in the middle, a stylised impact that doesn’t occur elsewhere here.
“Wicked Mystic” suffers no fools, racing along and plunging headlong into the speed and riffage that you would expect. Both this song along with “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade” have elements comparable to bands like Overkill and Testament, and while they are both enjoyable tracks they do tend to hold the same rhythm riff throughout the song, and the same vocal monotone, interjected only by Waters selected solo to provide the balance. “Word Salad” creeps back into the same pattern as the opening tracks, with the slower clear guitar middle breaking up the word cycle first par and the complete over the top shredding guitar part of the second half. I mean, the second half of the song is just that shredding guitar, which does sound amazing but perhaps outstays its welcome.
"Schizos (Are Never Alone) Parts I & II" continues along the journey of amazing guitar riffs and changing song structure which is for the most part another full on instrumental, while "Ligeia" sticks to the style that has been moulded by this album, a rampaging cacophony of noise thumping out of the speakers at you in a formless void. The album then concludes with arguably the best song of the album, “Human Insecticide”, which flays along at great speed and in the best traditions of the thrash genre, again arguably the best formed track of the album.

This album came out at an interesting time for metal music as a whole. The genre of thrash had been on the rise for the previous three years, with bands such as Metallica and Megadeth and Slayer being followed into the fray by Testament, Overkill, Death Angel and others. And for this to be the band’s debut album in 1989, riding on that wave, I guess they had no idea the storm that was coming.
I came across this album through the Australian heavy metal magazine publication Hot Metal, a great source of interviews and reviews that began at about the time this album was released. On the back of its recommendation, I found the cash to buy the album. And it was certainly in my wheelhouse as to what I was listening to at the time, and it fit in well. That cacophony of guitar coming at you like a brick wall found its place for me right between the previous year’s “... And Justice for All” and the following year’s “Rust in Peace”. If it had come out a year later or a year earlier, I feel it may have missed its window to grab my attention. And as a result, it did find its place. And it had its moment in the sun with me in regards to listening pleasure.
Flash forward to today, and I still enjoy listening to it. Granted, I hadn’t put it on in quite a long time before two weeks ago, but since then, I have had a good 20-25 rotations of this album, and I still enjoy it. OK, so it isn’t as structured or overly imaginative as some of the great thrash albums you could mention – the aforementioned Justice and Rust, “Among the Living”, “The Legacy”, “Act III” - but that doesn’t mean that you can’t and won’t enjoy it. And say what you will about the actual song composition on this album, there is little more you can say about the guitaring of Jeff Waters here on his debut. At times sounding like Mustaine, at others sounding like Hammett, he really does try to throw the kitchen sink at this album. It’s just that, sometimes, you are looking for more in the actual songwriting than just fast guitars and smashing drums. Not all the time, mind you, but just some of the time. It does depend on your mood.
Beyond this album, Jeff had a revolving door policy with bandmates, from album to album, and the sound he maintained on those future albums seemed to change with the times. But this album remains as solid a debut album as you could wish for. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and if I was to get below the surface I can see why this is the case. But for pure thrash entertainment without trying to break down and critique every part of the album, this is still a fun ride.

1245. The Cult / Sonic Temple. 1989. 4.5/5

The six years that stretched between the band’s opening influence upon the music world and the release of “Sonic Temple”, their fourth studio album, brought forth more apparent change in The Cult’s music than was probably noticeable to those that grew up with the albums as they were released, rather than discovering them at a later date or all lumped into one big collection. Because it would have been slightly more subtle to have experienced the transition of their music from album to album rather than find it in a way that it could get all lumped together.
The Cult’s 3rd album “Electric” had a fairly significant rise in the hard rock genre than had been apparent on the first two albums which reside more in the goth rock area, and especially the gloriously moody and soulful guitar sound utilised by Billy Duffy throughout those albums, and highlighted by the still amazing “She Sells Sanctuary”. On “Electric”, the band changes it up, not the least by the hiring of Rick Rubin as producer, something to shake up any band’s sound. Coming from a very different musical background, Rubin shepherds The Cult through an album that has a far more traditional hard rock basis about it, with simple riffs and drum patterns held together by Ian Astbury’s vocal carcinogens, and almost looking for a way to force its way into the commercial bent that was occurring during that period of the later 1980’s decade. The move worked, with the album cracking top 40 in the US and UK, and the subsequent tour making significant inroads around the world.
One thing you can assess from the band at this point of their career is that they did not want to rest on their laurels. Even though apparently the beginning of the initial breakdown of the relationship between Astbury and Duffy had its tendrils starting to stretch outwards, that didn’t stop the band from pushing forward with their follow up to “Electric”, once again with an evolving sound coming through, and another producer who was about to become enormous in the music world brought in to help with the transformation that they were hoping to achieve. All of that was the lead up to one of the biggest albums of 1989, the star attraction called “Sonic Temple”.

So, something really occurs between the time the band wrote and recorded the “Electric” album and the time they come to record this album. The sound alone is the killer. This is smooooooooth. Listening to “Electric” and then listening to “Sonic Temple is like starting out drinking Johnnie Walker Black whiskey, and then switching over to drinking a Laphroaig single malt whiskey. “Electric” is a great album with a great sound, but from the opening bars of “Sonic Temple” that smooth sound just runs down the back of the throat so easily. And one of the great contributors to that is the new producer, Bob Rock. To this point of his career, he has been a sound engineer and mixer in the main, especially on previous two Bon Jovi Albums, and it was with this purpose that he was brought in here by the band. And although he had produced albums before this, "Sonic Temple” became one of the ones where he caught people’s attention. As it turned out, 1989 ended up being a big year for him on that front. Here on “Sonic Temple” he smoothed out a lot of external noises on the instruments, and really got the best of the sound available in the studio. Everything is clear in the mix compared to “Electric” which had a different producer looking for different ideas – ones that worked for that album and what t band had been aiming for, but different to what they wanted now.
Ian’s vocals here are being pushed harder and getting more from their output. This is noticeable on the first two tracks in particular, where his importance is at its peak. Whereas “Electric” had a very AC/DC feel about it in places in song structure, sound and tempo, none of that exists here. Indeed, when recording “Electric” apparently Rubin had spent the process comparing the guitar riffs as recorded to those of AC/DC. And yet, what is really interesting about this album is that “Sonic Temple” is a harder album in almost all aspects, an interesting feat given the history of the bands that Rick Rubin has produced in the past, and what Bob Rock generally pushes for in the future.
Jamie Stewart’s bass guitar and bass lines on this album are at their most important, and are the true driving force of the songs here. Their quality, and the perfect resonation that Rock’s producing gives them in post-production, helps to makes the songs here the amazing quality that they have. On the albums two opening tracks, that bass line is massive and is glorious in taking a centre stage in the mix. This is exemplified by Mickey Curry’s drums, the man who has played in more top shelf rock bands than just about any drummer ever. The drum sound he gets on this album is perfect, booming out of the speakers at you and wonderfully intricate without having a thousand drumbeats and cymbal crashes coming at you.
And then you have the writers and composers. Billy’s guitar sound on “Sonic Temple” steps up another notch, another refinement from the Angus Young like qualities of “Electric”, and more that the goth rock flow of “Love”. Here he contributes a guitar sound that probably isn’t harder than the previous album, but has more attitude and emotion. This of course is conducted by Ian’s amazing vocals, honeyed in the lower register and yet still with that unique quality he possesses when he reaches the higher positions of his vocal range. The combination of these two not-overtly-heavy-rock guitar and vocals actually combines to produce music that is, indeed, a heavier rock than they had produced before. Between the four members of the band and their producer, they have combined here to formulate an album that arguably has no weaknesses.

Back in 1989, I was at Tory’s Hotel in Kiama, seeing a band that some of my mates played in on a Friday night, no doubt enjoying a few beers at the same time. Actually, you can take that as a given. At one of the breaks the band had so they could... refuel... one of them came up to me and our other friends watching and said... “Have you heard the new Cult album?”. It was at this stage that I professed that I had no idea who The Cult were. “OK’, he replied, “at the next break I’ll play it through the PA”. Sure enough, an hour later, at the band’s final break, he placed the cassette version of “Sonic Temple” on for the listening pleasure of everyone in attendance, and I was greeted by the opening of the first Cult song I ever heard, “Sun King”. For me, despite Ian’s statement of “this is where it all ends”, it was in fact for me where it all began.
It is difficult to describe just what an immediate impact this album had on me. I went out that week to buy my own vinyl copy, and began playing it on heavy rotation. This was different to everything I was listening to at the time, which mainly involved thrash metal and old school heavy metal. This isn’t anything like that. This has a different presence, a whole different feel. And, as it turns out, perfect timing. Looking back now, at the music landscape as it was leading up to the release of this album, and then what occurred in the next few years, this album picked its moment perfectly. The world was heading away from the keys and synth driven 80’s decade into the stripped down grunge and alternative 90’s decade, and this album straddled that moment perfectly. And in doing so, became a monolith that crossed genres, certainly amongst my friends and acquaintances. Us metal heads loved this album, as did the more commercial rock loving friends of ours, and even those who professed no great lock for anything in a heavy direction. Even my sisters enjoyed it, and indeed were more than a little surprised when they heard me singing along to the songs whenever they played the album.
While I have most of The Cult’s albums now, and still enjoy most of them, for me nothing has ever matched the glorious and abundant joy that this album brought me at the time I discovered it, and that it has ever since. And of course that comes from the time it was released, and the memories it brings back of those days, of going to see bands at Tory’s in my late teens and early 20’s, of parties at mates houses where all we did was play albums and drink beer. This was right in the middle of those great days, and still reminds me of that to this very day. To be honest, that’s what I would like to do right now, have some mates around, open a beer, and play this album loud. I mean, what more could you possibly ask for? Just the mere snatch of this opening 60 seconds is enough to do it every time… ‘wound up, can’t sleep can’t do anything right little honey, since I set my eyes on you…’

1244. The Offspring / Smash. 1994. 4/5

If you meet anyone who said that they knew of The Offspring prior to the release of their third studio album “Smash", then they would fit into one of two groups. Either this person stumbled across one of their earlier releases through an obscure occasional acquaintance who only listened to bands that no one knew about until they got big, at which point they disowned them and moved on to some even more outrageously obscure speck of a band... or they are a liar. Because there is no way that you could have imagined that anyone would have COULD HAVE COME ACROSS a copy of either their self-titled debut album or the follow up “Ignition” prior to hearing and probably buying and digesting “Smash” for months on end, and then really wanting more of the band to experience. Absolutely, I was one of those people – not the ones who claimed to know the band before this album, just the one that bought the other two albums on the back of buying this. So I say again, my contention is that no one knew The Offspring before this album, and certainly not in Australia. Then the first single was released from this album, it got played for months on just about every radio station across the nation, and the beginning of the tsunami wave had begun.
The riders of the wave were the new punk-inspired bands like The Offspring. Green Day had released their seminal album “Dookie” just two months prior, and between them these two bands began to dominate the airwaves with their post-grunge reanimated punk pop music that grabbed the attention and the minds of the youth of the time. Add to this bands such as Hole with their album “Live Through This”, Bad Religion with “Stranger Than Fiction”, and Rancid with “Let’s Go”, the teenagers that had been hypnotised by grunge were now becoming the twenty-somethings that wanted something with a bit more rebellion, something they could jump around to and pump their fist at, something that could be the outlet for the rage rather than a railing for their moodiness. Each of these bands were able to harness that through these particular albums at this time. Arguably however, it was “Smash” that grabbed that attention the most fiercely, and through the airplay of the three singles directed that into album sales, where those same people found an even greater barrel of riches awaiting them.

For me, the songs on this album can be split into two categories, the fast tracks and the groove tracks, moderated by the tempo at which the songs come out at you. For me, the better songs on this album are the upbeat, up tempo, fast paced tracks, that really lock into that beat that gets people moving, whether physically on the dance floor or violently thrashing around in their chair while drinking their favourite alcoholic beverage. The opening track “Nitro (Youth Energy)”, as the title suggests is definitely one of those tracks. As an opening song, it casts the album in its best light from the outset, letting everyone who has just put on this CD what they are going to get. “Bad Habit” trends in the same direction, with energy rather than out and out speed the best quality of the song. The overt use of language towards the end of the song, which builds to a shout as the music suddenly disappears and is left as the only sound coming out of the speakers, is very effective in both proving the point that the lyrics are taking and for offending anyone who believes that swearing is not an avenue that should be taking in the musical arts. Fuck the lot of them, I say! “Genocide” is perhaps my favourite song of this category, driven by the forceful 2/4 beat of Ron Welty’s terrific drumming, barely halting for breath along the way apart from the steady break in the middle of the song. No mucking around on this song, it flies along with eminently singable lyrics and that fun Dexter implying vocal that often masks the real meaning of the lyrics. The other great example is “Killboy Powerhead”, a great track at top speed, Ron’s drum and cymbal work powering the song and high-octane vocals. Great song. Then there is the out and out punk track “So Alone” that could easily have been performed in the late 1970’s, though with less precision in the instruments and more English accent in the vocals.
The three singles from the album are the best example of the groove element of the album. “Gotta Get Away” settles into a really beautiful riff in the mid-tempo and allowing Dexter’s vocals to croon over the top without a change of either intensity or drive. “Come Out and Play” does the same by following Ron’s hard-hitting drumbeat, groove guitar riff and Dexter’s loudly explored vocals makes this another great and easy song to sing along with the volume turned up to 11. This is then followed by “Self Esteem” which became arguably the most popular single released off the album, one that I still enjoy but for me has been the lesser of the three. That is also possibly from the number of people who grabbed the band from this track, without knowing any other songs on the album. That kind of thing annoyed me as a teenager, and as a twenty-something... and still does today. “It’ll Be a Long Time” pulls along in the same wake, with faster start into the mid-tempo middle and the faster conclusion, while “What Happened to You” and “Not the One” both travel the same trajectory.
The final soaring conclusion of the title track is a perfectly wonderful ending to the album, with Dexter’s soulful vocals soaring along to provide the concluding track that this album deserves.

1995 is not a year that I recall with any fondness whatsoever. It was a fucked up period of my life, one where I didn’t handle the ups and downs of my life with any clear or organised thought processes. As I have mentioned in other episodes, music was one of the only saving graces of that year, and some albums were grafted onto my psyche as a result. “Smash” was one of them. I bought this album along with four or five others in one hit, but it was a year after its release. I knew the singles from the radio, but I had never felt the urge to actually buy the album. The difficulty of my personal circumstances in 1995 changed that and I grabbed onto it like a life preserver. The album grabbed me almost immediately, and much like another album reviewed earlier in this season, Therapy’s “Troublegum”, it became the soother of the raging torrent that was swirling around me. We all have those albums, the ones that are a port in that storm, and “Smash” acted as that for me.
In the years since, I haven’t really pulled it out very often to listen to. The albums that followed, like “Ixnay on the Hombre”, “Americana” and “Conspiracy of One” were The Offspring albums that I listened to a hell of a lot more than this one. Did it being tied to this time of my life make it less accessible for me in the years following? It’s a fair question and not one I have an answer for, beyond the fact that I do love those other three albums a lot. But certainly, having had this back in the rotation for the last three weeks or so, I can assess that I really should have listened to this earlier and more than I have over the years. To me it still stands up, and it is difficult to reconcile that it is 30 years old, because it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that I was listening to this often and constantly.
This was the massive breakthrough album for The Offspring, and they have barely looked back since. Commercial success and fan success over the years has often been a bone of contention, but what hasn’t changed is the excellence of their output. Alternative rock, or punk rock, whatever you want to call it, this album was one of the forerunner of the first genres to break out of the dominance grunge had held on the music business for the past three years, and is still as important 30 years later as it was on its release.