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.

1149. Live / Secret Samadhi. 1997. 3/5

Live is another band that started at school, this one all the way back in 1984, vocalist Ed Kowalcyzk joining the band after the original trio of lead guitarist Chad Taylor, bass guitarist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey lost a talent quest. And, like many of these same bands for whom ‘overnight success’ took a decade or more to develop, it was the hard work along the way that built the band up to what they became. And it was this that, from an outsiders perspective, kept them grounded enough to continue chasing that dream. They self released cassettes of demo songs, and eventually an EP as well, until they were eventually signed by Radioactive Records. Having played under the name of Public Affection it was now they changed their name to Live. Their debut album Mental Jewelry in 1991 contained the minor single hit "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)". But it wasn’t until 1994’s Throwing Copper that the band truly made their mark, and around the world. Several hit singles, long tours, and, after 52 weeks on the US charts, it finally went to number 1.After all of this success, as with all albums such as their previous release, trying to come up with an album that could equal or top it must have been a daunting task, and the desire to prove that they were not one hit wonders, and could produce something else that would surprise and delight the music listening world, would have been a huge one, I would imagine. Given the success of the previous album, they were afforded a bigger production budget and more time in which to write and record, something that can often cause more problems than not. And, whereas Throwing Copper had been produced by the renown producer Jerry Harrison, who had also been a member of Talking Heads, the band for this album decided to bring back Jay Healey as producer, who had been in charge of their first ever self-released cassette. Was this in an effort to ‘rediscover’ or return to their roots, or were they looking to make a statement that it was not the clean and sharp production that Harrison had performed for Throwing Copper that had made it so popular, and that they could reproduce that by utilising the tricks of their youth?

From the outset of the album, there is a difference from what Throwing Copper had produced. At the time, I had never heard their first album, and once I had had this album for a while I wondered if this was closer to that style. To be honest I still don’t have an answer to that. However, all fans of the band will know the opening of “Rattlesnake” and “Lakini’s Juice”, given the amount of airplay they received when they were released as singles from the album. There is a good energy from both.
From this point on, I get a little lost. “Graze” sits right back in tempo with the old alternative guitar distortion riff that runs through the whole song. “Century” and “Ghost” at times appear to be the same song, with the intertwined tempo and guitar riff similarly able to be confused between the two. And both “Unsheathed” and “Insomnia and the Hole in the Universe” don’t really get going until halfway through the song, it’s just a really strange way to go about it.
“Turn My Head” was released as a single and the format and arrangement of the song indicates why it was. The soft rock ballad, with accompanying string arrangements throughout, is a natural to pluck at the heartstrings of the masses, and hopefully pluck the dollars out of their wallets too. So for the fans of those songs out there, this one was for you. But for me, it just doesn’t grab me at all. Surprise surprise! long time listeners to this podcast will cry out! Instead, the next song, “Heropsychodreamer”, is 100% better when it comes to the best that the band can deliver. A brilliant bass line, well supported by a great guitar riff and hard hitting drums, and Ed’s vocals not crooning but belting out the lyrics. This is still the song that should have been the basis of this album for me. Short and sharp, but with power and drive. “Freaks” is another of the singles, and is also a mixed bag, starting off slow before building to a harder crescendo at its conclusion. And the final two songs of the album are really… easy listening tracks. If you want to have something on in the background while you are reading and/or drifting off to sleep, then the back half of this album, apart from the aforementioned “Heropsychodreamer”, is probably the ideal thing to throw on. And of course there is a market for this, and perhaps the fans of Live think these are the bees knees. But as someone who came into the band on the back of the energy and vitality of the previous album, it becomes a little disappointing as we reach the conclusion of this album.

I bought this album on that first week it was released, 25 years ago. Throwing Copper was one of a number of albums I bought back in 1995 when I was going through a rough period of my life, and it along with those other albums got me through it. And there is little doubt that I still hold it in such high regard because of that time and how the magic of music helped… save me. So Secret Samadhi had a lot to live up to in that regard alone, let alone just backing up a great album. And it was always on the back foot. The single “Lakini’s Juice” had come out just before this, and it wasn’t exactly what I had been looking for, and the music video was just whacked out, I still don’t have a clue what they were hoping to achieve with it.
I had a lot of trouble getting into this album, and I never actually succeeded in doing so. I gave it a fair run at the time of its release, but to be fair it was up against some other albums I had a lot more fascination with so it probably went on the backburner pretty quickly. And that was all a matter of musical taste. In comparison to The Offspring’s “Ixnay on the Hombre” for instance, it simply didn’t stand a chance. My major problem with the album was the lack of a real drive in the majority of the songs. It felt as though it was the wrong era for the album to have been written. Compare it to their next album, The Distance to Here, which ironically saw the return of Jerry Harrison as producer, and it highlights the weaknesses overall of this album. The songs for me just don’t have the same power or even arrangement as the albums that sandwich it. There are a few moments as I’ve mentioned, but the rest is a bit… blah. I pulled it out again some years later, probably over a decade ago now, just to see if time had mellowed my opinion or I had missed something at the time, or had my thoughts coloured by other music. And, in the end, I discovered I still felt the same way about it. This week, I have done that again, for the benefit of this podcast episode. And, 25 years later, as I sat here just listening to the album and not trying to judge it, but just allow myself to listen to it, I probably do find it more enjoyable now than I did then. And I do! The closing track, “Gas Hed Goes West” never ever attracted me, in fact I used to think it was a terrible way to end the album, but over the last week I have listened to that track more than a dozen times, and now in my advanced age I think it is a terrific song. But back then I was in my 20’s, and now I am in my 50’s. And to be fair I think that is where this album digresses. I’m pretty sure they weren’t aiming this album at 50 year olds all those years ago, but I feel it actually can be appreciated better by them. At least, by 50 year olds who are looking for a quiet album to nod off to rather than an album to jump around to.

238. Live / The Distance To Here. 1999. 3.5/5

This is more a return to form for Live after their inconsistent previous release Secret Samadhi. For the most part of this album, it is a return to their real rock sound, with their alternative roots.

Live is a band that I have very high peaks and troughs with, not because of the music generally, but because of my mood swings in regards to the likability of other forms of music other than heavy metal. Live have always fallen into that category.
Here though they put together an album that keeps the beat flowing through most of the album. There are what I would term a few flat spots on the second half of the disc. But overall it is a good album.

Favourites for me include The Dolphin's Cry, The Distance, Run To The Water and Feel The Quiet River Rage.

Rating : A pretty good effort. 3.5/5.

86. Live / Awake : The Best Of Live. 2004. 3/5.

When Live first came along, I became a big fan, especially of the album Throwing Copper. It was new, different, and a style of its own.
With each subsequent release, I have found less to enjoy. I thought the following two releases were good, but since then it has been very opaque.

This collection contains what they claim to be their best, but is generally just a singles package. Not that that detracts from its release, just that many of their singles I wasn't beholden to, and some of their other songs I believe are a lot better.

Rating : About average. 3/5.