Live albums are usually reserved for chronic self-inflators and flailing career rockers, at least in the rock world. But jam bands have somewhat flipped the script, since this segment of rock should for the most part avoid any and all studio time like the plague. And apart from a few exceptions, live albums consistently fail to transcend the medium, leaving listeners with dull, bass-heavy shadows of what was a vivid, neck-snapping performance. Most live albums are so augmented with post-production over dubs that they act as little more than greatest hits comps for musicians with bursting egos and flaccid live performances.
Columbia unleashes two new installments of its “Live From the Vaults” series, focusing on two acts that have all but completely disappeared from modern rock discourse, Living Colour and Soul Asylum. While Neko Case delivers a hot dose of indie rock and country flare on her latest Anti-Records release, The Tigers Have Spoken.
Living Colour’s Live from CBGB’s was recorded December 19, 1989 at New York’s punk pinnacle and “Home of the Underground.” The gig took place at the height of the bands popularity, as the group’s debut disc, Vivid went platinum and their single “Cult of Personality” was name-dropping its way onto rock radio and video programming across the nation. Living Colour would nab two Grammys and then scuttle away into oblivion.
The band’s chronicled CBGB gig supplies more than a few reasons why Living Colour never regained its one-time status as the premier black metal-punks.
The group’s spiritual core rested in lead guitarist and songwriter Vernon Reid, who for years couldn’t keep a steady rhythm section intact, losing members to acts like Lisa Lisa and Steve Winwood.
Stylistically Living Colour was a hair metal band bent on riffing the blues, but pretended to cut it up like Bad Brains and Fishbone. Vernon Reid also stressed social issues within his lyrics, adding another much needed voice for black rock artists. But unfortunately his group lacked the raw, original sound of Bad Brains’ Rastafarian hardcore (which inspired the Beastie Boys and kick started the DC hardcore scene and LA’s thriving 80’s punk set), opting to noodle endlessly on blues jams like the basic “Soldier’s Blues.” Reid’s social conscience also failed to extend much beyond name-dropping and punk sloganeering, especially evident on the group’s runaway hit, “Cult of Personality” (“Like Mussolini and Kennedy/ I’m a cult of personality … I’m the smiling face on your TV … I tell you one and one makes three”). And the group completely lacks the humor that made Public Enemy’s brash political bombast bearable (thanks Flava Flav!) and gave Fishbone a step up over every other ska-metal-hiphop-pop group around.
Lead vocalist Corey Glover’s vocals lose all meaning as he mumbles across the group’s ballads, “Little Lies” and “Open Letter To A Landlord” (which comes out decently enough until Glover’s screeching wails become a cruel parody of Bad Brains’ vocalist Paul Hudson’s — who went by HR [Human Rights] — most versatile pipes). Luckily Reid’s guitar is scorching, even 15 years on, shining through an often overpowering slick of muddy acoustics. The killer riffs of “Cult of Personality,” “Information Overload” and the second half of “Open Letter To A Landlord” sound fresh. But as the group covers a Bad Brains scorcher (“Sailin’ On”), its obvious that Living Colour could never have quite lived up to its inspirations.
Fast-forward eight years and acousti-grunge icons Soul Asylum finds itself at the top of the charts and playing a prom night gig in a Grand Forks, North Dakota Airline Hangar to a formally dressed Senior class of teens, displaced or homeless after massive floods practically washed away their town. And while a high school prom is hardly a prime space for a beautiful sounding live recording, Soul Asylum fares better than Living Colour, if simply for the fact that even on the recording its easy to tell that the band was having a blast.
The set opens up with Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out,” a fitting anthem for a town where the high school was literally no more. Lead singer and guitarist Dave Pirner (who perpetually looks like he’s been crashing on someone’s floor) slams his band into a heavy series of the group’s hits and best misses including a great rendition of “Misery,” “Black Gold,” “Just Like Anyone” and the jittery stutter of “Losin’ It.” Throughout, the band remains solid, only weakened at points by Pirner’s everyman, snapping vocals (“Somebody to Shove”). And the band loses its edge on melancholic slow-burners like “We 3” and “Runaway Train.” But Soul Asylum play to the audience, ending the night with a slew of covers including “Sexual Healing,” “I Can See Clearly Now” and “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and giving the kids some slow dance fodder with Pirner originals “The Game” and “Black Star.” While this set would make for a killer prom night, it doesn’t completely translate onto record, especially as the band’s energy dwindles during the slow-twisting final half of the gig and Pirner struggles to capture the right notes on the covers.
Neko Case’s The Tigers Have Spoken, culls recent live performances from a few shows in Toronto and at a Shuba’s show in Chicago. Case has been creating a diverse range of music for years, beginning with her early punk trios Maow and the melody pop-punk of Cub in the early 90’s and continuing through her work with Canadian-based super group, the New Pornographers and her own solo work, including the excellent Blacklisted, from 2002 and her solo debut on 1997’s The Virginian.
The Tigers Have Spoken exposes Case as one of our most important and diverse rock voices, colliding classic country storytelling with the kind of poppy indie rock that makes her work with the New Pornographers so exhilarating. Case keeps this disc a bit more upbeat and blends together a slew of originals, rare songs and well-picked and developed covers. The album opens with the pop fits of “If You Knew,” a roaring romp of indie rock on the right track. Foamy guitar fuzz crescendos and curdles across the top of Case’s deep soaring vocals on the driving pulse of “Loretta,” only reverting to a country-western blues dirge on “Favorite,” a track previously only available on Canadian Amp, a tour-only recording. Case also adds her own blistering takes on the Shangri-La’s “Train From Kansas City” and Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Soulful Shade of Blue.” Gender issues get a fierce treatment as Case explodes during Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X” and “This Little Light” vaults fast-picking antics and layered vocals into a frantic stomp down.
This album shines dually because of Case’s energetic performance and as a result of her fine accompaniment from the Sadies, whose own recordings stress the eclectic nature of today’s rock and country. Only the final track, “Wayfaring Stranger” was given some post-production work, but it serves as a distinct element from the rest of the record and works as almost an aural epilogue, keeping Case far above her less diverse alt-country peers.
Grades:
Living Colour Live From CBGB’s: C
Soul Asylum After the Flood:Live From the Grand Forks Prom: B/C
Neko Case The Tigers Have Spoken: A
