Throwing Copper by Live (Throwing Copper - Live)

Member Name: Lichfield1979

Product:	Throwing Copper - Live
Date:	03/11/08 (325 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of good songs and a very high standard of musicianship

Disadvantages: Be warned that this band deliberately try to sound like bands you've heard of and do it scarily well

Throwing Copper by Live (1994)

Chad Taylor - guitar
Edward Kowlacyk - lead vocals, guitar
Patrick Dahlheimer - bass
Chad Gracey - drums

The second studio album by Pennsylvania band Live, Throwing Copper sold eight million copies in the United States and featured a number of singles that for a time were ubiquitous on MTV and on the soundtracks of angsty television shows aimed at young adults in the mid 1990s. The band had struck upon the winning formula of combining the melodic sound of REM with the rougher edge of hard rock (Soundgarden, perhaps), although today the record sounds very much a phenomenon of its era. The band's other recordings are frequently marred by a tendency for preachyness, (Kowlacyk, despite his strong voice, perhaps worshipping at the temple of Bono) but Throwing Copper more or less keeps things together in a plausible fashion despite some uncomfortably melodramatic moments, and the band prove themselves accomplished musicians with precise timing and controlled dynamics. Production was by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. Live may be the only major band with two band members named Chad, although if you can think of another, please chip in. And if you can think of a band with two people called Chip, that would be even better.

One - The Dam At Otter Creek (4:43)

The first track builds slowly although the scratchy guitar line echoes noisily and before long it builds up a grand aura of feedback. The vocal is hushed to begin with but then shrieks throatily before growing sterner when the rhythm section suddenly joins in with fierce intensity and the band are basically playing thrash metal by the end although it still has quite a sparse feel to it. Although it sounds abrasive the use of sound is at all times tightly controlled and deliberate. The lyrics seem to recollect burying a dead man where they were building a dam across the creek. Kowalcyk seems like a pretty intense guy so I hope he's making that up.

Two - Selling The Drama (3:26)

This track has a warmer acoustic tone to it and the singer's eerie resemblance to Michael Stipe becomes especially apparent. This was one of the band's huge successful singles, and cynics will argue how blindingly obvious it was that there was giant niche for a hybrid of REM and Pearl Jam in the American charts in 1994, but to actually slip into those shoes and sound this convincingly credible is very impressive. By the end Kowalcyk is howling like Eddie Vedder and the guitars have gone electric. The lyrics manage to be both simple and earnest and have a slightly religious subtext.

Three - I Alone (3:51)

More overtly borrows the favoured quiet/loud song dynamics of Nirvana but hasn't got the big bass hook that the Seattle band preferred, opting instead for more of a heavy metal structure when the song gets noisy. Although Kowalcyk can growl quite well and commands the stage with authority, some might find his voice a bit whiny, but he sings the quiet parts with plenty of emotional nuance too. Once again the elliptical lyrics would appear to have a spiritual dimension to them. It's hard to dismiss how intelligently this band are able to synthesise the landscape of the mid nineties US rock charts without sounding like rip off merchants. It suggests mere opportunism wasn't the order of the day and these musicians would have carved a career in any era. A lot of the mid tier acts that cannibalised the latter years of the decade can't say that and expect to be taken seriously.

Four - Iris (3:59)

Iris is a dramatic and energetic hard rock song on which Live cut loose and forge a sound more distinctly their own. Surprisingly, the dynamic of the previous two songs is reversed here, as a pop instinct emerges out from the noise towards the end of the song. The rhythms are dense and controlled and the quiet lulls are well judged. The lyrics seem to hint at an undercurrent of violence lurking within love, metaphorically or otherwise, and also looks to link the individual sphere with national duty.

Five - Lightning Crashes (5:25)

Arguably the band's best-known song, Lightning Crashes spends two minutes gently strumming a single guitar with little amplification as the singer softly narrates the birth of a child. After a hundred and twenty seconds the chorus hits and the melody expands into catchier radio friendly territory as the band build up an unusually tight and heavy Christian rock song. You've probably heard it hundreds of times in montages of characters in hospital corridors looking overly emotional on American television. It should sound horridly self important but doesn't.

Six - Top (2:42)

Top has a more exuberant tempo to it and Kowalcyk reverts to his best Michael Stipe impersonation although Stipe rarely lets anger tinge his delivery as Kowalcyk does here with his lyrics about frustration and the insufficiency of personal iconographies.

Seven - All Over You (3:59)

Another hit single that follows the loud/quiet template and knows how to rock out with forcefully melodic momentum. Live have several songs like this one on the album but it's testament to the strength of their writing and musicianship that the record does not feel particularly repetitive but rather cohesive as a result of their consistency of style. It's probably a wise course to take too because it suggests their sound is sincere and not just a smash and grab raid on the trends they've been influenced by. The band sound confident and assured and are making the kind of noise that they want to.

Eight - Shit Towne (3:48)

This song makes more of a lyrical effort to transparently convey a story or at least a literal setting, as a lot of the words to the preceding tracks hold their cards a bit close to their chest in terms of direct meaning. Kowalcyk is quite a prickly lyricist and uses phrases that are interesting rather than poetic and tends towards keeping things brief whilst infusing a dash of spiritual allusion. The song here is about feeling a little barricaded into an insular life in a neighbourhood that isn't very friendly or prosperous. The angular muscle of the guitar sound and the precision of the rhythm section rather fit the band's rust belt roots and heavy rock is perennially popular in industrial heartlands. A big 1980s guitar solo uncoils at the end.

Nine - T.B.D. (4:28)

The acronym is for the Tibetan Book of the Dead I believe, and not to be determined. The bass rhythm that kicks the song off has a slinkier nuance than before and is accompanied by a patter of percussion as the vocals keep to a hush. It's very effective. The words are about reading and personal reflection and how that affects our lives. However, the subdued style submits to a brief outpouring of loud rage towards the end, before concluding softly. Inspired by Aldous Huxley.

Ten - Stage (3:08)

The model here appears to be a fusion of Appetite For Destruction and Ten and it's not the first time hints of Guns n Roses have appeared around the margins. The sound is raucous and loud but avoids the pitfall of sounding overwrought. At moments it does tip into outright homage but one gloriously silly hard rock anthem like this is just about perfect. The words are purportedly about Kurt & Courtney.

Eleven - Waitress (2:48)

The lyrics to this song are a bit childish. Ostensibly he's concerned about the fate of waitresses who are being treated poorly by customers and have to live off tips. But when he offhandedly sings "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 f*ck*ng change!" you do wonder if he's making some sort of attack on charity records. The song starts almost jauntily. Then the loud segments in this short song wail in distorted noise before the volume drops and Ed whistles through the last minute.

Twelve - Pillar of Davidson (6:46)

Another quieter track to start, although it's got more rhythm to it early than Lightning Crashes did, and I think it's intended as a work song, the title drawing on the names of factories in the band's home town. "Warm bodies, I sense / Are not machines that can only make money." At times the Michael Stipe impersonation is almost uncanny, and absolutely has to be deliberate. I had to check the CD booklet this wasn't a duet. If Edward Kowalcyk went on Stars In Their Eyes he'd obliterate everybody. He actually sounds more like Michael Stipe than Michael Stipe does. If Michael Stipe ever gets sued by Warner Brothers the way Neil Young got sued for not sounding like Neil Young (by David Geffen) then Mike Mills and Peter Buck can just hire this guy. REM never sounded this fierce. The traditional vocal rounds at the end are stunningly effective and provide a spine tingling moment the first time you hear them.

Thirteen - White, Discussion (6:08)

Somebody should be strung up for the line "And if the decibels of this disenchanting discourse / Continue to dampen the day." What were they thinking? The song ambles along politely allowing the bass line to wander playfully before dissolving in an onslaught of blistering noise for much of the concluding four and a half minutes. The intense squall sounds great and it's amazing you can choreograph such a thing because none of it sounds accidental.

Fourteen - Horse (4:16)

The record closes with this incongruous alt-country ballad that suggests the band may have more of a sense of humour than we hitherto suspected. It's really good, too. "Hey hey, hey, hey."

Summary: The numbers above are the track running times and not bible quotations, I think...