Thursday, January 30, 1992
Alternative’s
still alive with
Live
by Brad Kane
The Collegian
Whal happened to alternative?
Spin magazine says it's dead, a
victim of that all encompassing
beast called Top 40.
Look at the charts for any
reassurance - Nirvana is in the
top-20 with a bullet, R.E.M.
went all-world with "Out of
Time" last year, U 2 visited
number one again recently and
the list goes on.
This is but a primer of what
has been expected for some time,
the incorporation of alternative
into the mainstream.
Scary? If you're a diehard
follower of the underground
music scene - yes it could strike
fear into your heart. But alas, a
beacon has appeared on the
horizon, and it is Live, four 20-
year-olds from York, PA who
have salvaged some familiar
alternative sounds, rehashing
them into a conglomeration that
might not yet be radio-ready.
Yes, this could be at least a
partial segue back into the
alternative world, a refreshing one
Enlightenment is what Live is all
about - not mere telling of tales
with open endings.
The group's striking debut,
Menial Jewelry , produced by
Talking Heads' guitarist Jerry
Harrison, is chock-full of
politically atuned lyrics (a la
many alternative bands) with a
sound that, on the surface, seems
simple but underneath is a mix of
styles.
With some slap-happy funk
bass and washes of reverberating
guitar, buoyed by singer Edward
Kowalczyk's nasal-toned but
soulful voice, the group sounds
like the Red Hot Chili Peppers
meet U 2 while silting on Otis
Redding's dock of the bay with a
cold.
Lyrically, Live does well, but
if Mental Jewelry had come out
four or five years ago, its
abundance of political gloom and
doom rhetoric may not have
'ashed well.
But with, once again, that
assimilation of normally
opinionated bands into the
mainstream (U 2, R.E.M., PiL,
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Big
Audio Dynamite 11, The Alarm),
politically inspired bands are few
and far between. Therefore, Live
is a much needed deterrent from
all of the nonsense music
circulating out there today.
Not that all of their ideas are
original, though. Racial harmony
("The Beauty of Gray"), war
("Take My Anthem"),
environmental problems
("Mother Earth is a Vicious
Crowd") and pleas for peace
("10,000 Years") are addressed on
Mental Jewelry. For the most
part, it’s nothing that hasn't been
heard before, but something here
is indeed different - it's in the way
the songs arc presented.
Instead of being pretentious
and preachy (with probably the
exception of "You Arc the
World"), Kowalczyk takes the
listener into his own personal
world of demons with a purpose -
that of finding answers, not just
asking questions.
This objective Kowalczyk
achieves. With help from bassist
Patrick Dahlhcimer's funky lines,
guitarist Chad Taylor's variation
of styles and drummer Chad
Gracey's angry clubbing,
Kowalczyk suddenly becomes
more accessible than Bono in his
younger days: Michael Stipe
currently.
On "Pain Lies on the
Riverside," Kowalczyk sings
"I've got to learn to live until no
end / But first I must learn to
swim all over again."
On the brilliant first single
"Operation Spirit (The Tyranny
of Tradition)," he asks "Did you
let it go? / Let's get it back /
Let's gel it back together."
On "The Beauty of Gray" he
declares "This is not a black and
white world / To be alive I say
that the colors must swirl / And I
believe that maybe today / We
will all gel to appreciate / The
beauty of gray." And this, my
friends, is just from the first three
songs on the album.
Everywhere on Mental
Jewelry are located these jewels
for the mind - little snippets of
wisdom that stick with the
listener long after the album has
been heard.
Maybe Kowalczyk's delivery
is responsible for this. Maybe the
understated tone of the music is
to be held due. Only on "Good
Pain" does Live kick in the doors
with a hard, steady beat, but even
this works well.
Whatever the formula is,
Kowalczyk undoubtedly has
become a quintessential
frontman, a focal point from
where the music can fan out
around him, improving upon
itself, enlightening all that hear.
Enlightenment is what Live is
all about - not mere telling of
talcs with open endings. In a
musical wasteland of ambiguities
with songwriters who cover their
defects by saying that their work
is to be left open to interpretation
by the listener, Live stands in
direct opposition to all of that -
presenting concrete images with
music that echoes the rise and fall
of emotions present.
Live is a genuine delight.
Most likely, popular radio won't
pick up on the foursome for a
while yet, if at all, but that’s
okay. Indeed, alternative may just
be alive and well.
The Collegian
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