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Live (band)
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceLive (rhymes with "five") (also typeset as LIVE) is an American alternative rock band from York, Pennsylvania, comprising Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals and guitar), Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass guitar) and Chad Gracey (drums and percussion). Live has also toured with Ed's younger brother Adam Kowalczyk as a rhythm guitarist, as well as with British keyboardist Michael "Railo" Railton, and Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon.
Live climbed from modest modern rock success to the mainstream spotlight worldwide on the strength of their 1994 breakthrough album, Throwing Copper, which to date, has sold 8 million copies in the US. It has been the only album in Billboard history to stay on the charts for 52 weeks before reaching #1.
Early history
Kowalczyk, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey first came together for a middle-school talent show in the Pennsylvania blue-collar town of York. The group remained together throughout high school, going through a handful of band names (such as First Aid, Club Fungus, Paisley Blues, Action Front, and Body Odor Boys) and new-wave covers before settling on the moniker Public Affection and recording a self-released cassette of originals, The Death of a Dictionary, in 1989. Soon after in 1990, Public Affection released an EP of demos produced by Jay Healy titled Divided Mind, Divided Planet through their Black Coffee mailing list. Frequent trips into New York City to play at CBGB helped net the band a deal with Radioactive Records in 1991. With the new name Live, the band entered the studio with former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison that year and began recording the EP Four Songs (1991). The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" went to #9 on the Modern Rock chart, and paved the way for the band's Harrison-produced full-length debut, 1991's Mental Jewelry (#73). The album lyrics, penned by Kowalczyk, were heavily inspired by Indian guru Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Mainstream success
Fueled by light touring (including billing at Woodstock '94 and Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour) and a string of hit singles ("I Alone," "All Over You" and the #1 Modern Rock hits "Selling the Drama" and "Lightning Crashes"), Live's next album, Throwing Copper, gave the band the breakthrough it desired. The steady success of the singles propelled the album to #1 on the Billboard 200 on May 6, 1995, more than a year after the album was released. To date, it is their best-selling album and often most highly regarded album by fans and critics. The band was invited to appear on NBC's Saturday Night Live where they performed their hits "I Alone" and "Selling the Drama."
The momentum continued long enough to help 1997's Secret Samadhi (co-produced by the band and Jay Healy) debut at #1. Deriving its name from a state of Hindu meditation, the album spawned four Modern Rock singles, but failed to match its predecessor's success, with sales topping off at 2 million. The band performed "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer" from this album on Saturday Night Live.
Harrison came back on board as co-producer for 1999's The Distance to Here, which debuted at #4 and featured the hit single "The Dolphin's Cry."
Post 9/11
On September 18, 2001, the more experimental V (originally scheduled to be titled Ecstatic Fanatic) was issued to mixed reviews, preceded by "Simple Creed" as the first single. However, with the events of 9/11—which occurred a week before V's release—the melancholic "Overcome" began receiving significant airplay, superseding "Simple Creed" and becoming V's selling point. Live's commercial stock—compounded by their petering radio airplay—had fallen further since The Distance to Here, with V merely reaching #22 at home, and failing to reach gold status. That same year, Live contributed a live performance version of their song "I Alone" to the charity album Live in the X Lounge IV.
Birds of Pray appeared in May 2003, bolstered by the unexpected success of "Heaven," Live's first U.S. Hot 100-placing single since "The Dolphin's Cry." Reaching #28, Birds of Pray ultimately outsold V, although it too received mixed reviews and failed to reach gold status.
In November 2004, Live released Awake: The Best of Live, a career-spanning compilation that included "We Deal in Dreams," a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, and a cover of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line," as well as Birds of Pray's "Run Away," re-imagined with Shelby Lynne on co-lead vocals.
In 2005, Live signed with Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Epic label, and released a new album entitled Songs from Black Mountain in June 2006, preceded by "The River" as lead single. Thus far, the album has achieved much international success and critical acclaim. However, in their native United States of America, it has proven Live's lowest-seller domestically, only reaching #52 before disappearing from the charts.
While Live remains only moderately popular in terms of record sales in the United States, much of their current sales come from places in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
American Idol incident
On season five of American Idol, finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing Live's rendition of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" and calling it his own. One week later Daughtry acknowledged it was not his own rendition, even saying Live was one of his favorite bands. In May 2006, Live appeared on The Howard Stern Show and addressed this issue.
On May 24, 2006, the band and Chris Daughtry performed "Mystery" on the season finale of American Idol, and on June 7, a new version of "Mystery" was released on the Friends of Live website featuring Chris Daughtry on guest vocals.
Recent times
On September 14, 2007, the band released their first album since 1989 on their own Action Front Records label, Radiant Sea: A Collection of Bootleg Rarities and Two New Songs, featuring two brand new songs: "Beautiful Invisible" and "Radiant Sea". In March of 2008, LIVE will begin a short tour in promotion of this album, and they plan to play at a few festivals during the summer of 2008.Discography
Albums
| Album | Release date | Chart positions | US sales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Albums | UK Albums | |||
| The Death of a Dictionary (as Public Affection) | August 17, 1989 | - | - | - |
| Mental Jewelry | December 31, 1991 | 73 | - | 1x Platinum |
| Throwing Copper | April 26, 1994 | 1 | 37 | 8x Platinum |
| Secret Samadhi | February 18, 1997 | 1 | 31 | 2x Platinum |
| The Distance to Here | October 5, 1999 | 4 | 56 | 1x Platinum |
| V | September 18, 2001 | 22 | - | 350,000 |
| Birds of Pray | May 20, 2003 | 28 | - | 445,000 |
| Awake: The Best of Live | November 2, 2004 | 65 | - | 330,000 |
| Songs from Black Mountain | June 6, 2006 | 52 | - | 90,000 |
| Radiant Sea: A Collection of Bootleg Rarities and Two New Songs | September 14, 2007 | - | - | - |
EPs
- Divided Mind, Divided Planet (1990, as Public Affection)
- Four Songs (September 24, 1991)
Singles
* "The River" charted at #33 on the Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks
Videography
- Appeared on MTV Unplugged, which includes a cover of Vic Chesnutt's "Supernatural" (1995)
References
External links
- Friends of Live (official website)
- Fans of Live (Live fansite)
- Live Collector's Resource Discography for official Live releases
- Interview with Chad Gracey on Drummer's Digest
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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 15:24:21 PDT (GMT -0700)
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