Published on Mar 29, 2006
Grunge has its types. There is a “Nirvana” type,
fraught with barbarous aggressiveness with no sense of civility
whatsoever; a chainsaw in agony inflicted with animal-pain, which
somehow heals as it hurts. Then there is the other type of grunge
that is refined and cultured, though still effusing with the same
anger, but channeled with much more civility: the Throwing
Copper-type.
An album which was a big part of the 90s music scene,
Throwing Copper was different from the rest of the crowd.
While most of Live’s Seattle counterparts had blues and metal
influences, Live on Throwing Copper incorporated elements
from the alternative folk rock music scene of that time and created
a folk-grunge record. Hence, with all the meatiness of grunge and
the melodic earnestness of folk rock, Throwing Copper is
full of radio-friendly hard-rock numbers, such as “Selling The
Drama,” “I Alone,” “Top,” and “Shit Towne,” which were heavy but
easily accessible.
Unlike other grunge acts of the nineties and even
those of the present date, Live has been a band driven by
deep-rooted spiritualism, and this has been affecting its music
greatly. Throwing Copper has a spiritualistic undertone that
gives a psychedelic angle to its music. On what seems like a
straightforward rock record, Throwing Copper has strangely
moody moments on cuts like “The Dam At Otter Creek,” “Iris,”
“T.B.D,” and “Pillar Of Davidson” where the album drifts away from
the directness of grunge into the abstract realms of prog-rock.
Throwing Copper shows its inner discontent
without vomiting out its disharmony and creating a mess; the
aggression on this record is marked with a sense of sophistication.
Though there are odd occasions — like the final eruptive moments
on “Dam At Otter Creek,” and the uncontrollable rage on the
back-to-back “Stage” and “Waitress” — where the band throws things
around a little bit, the production still is well-crafted and
slick, thanks to the fantastic collaboration with Talking Heads
alumnus Jerry Harrison.
At the time Throwing Copper was released,
grunge was largely known for its pompous he-man vocals. But Live
frontman Ed Kowalczyk, with his versatility in singing with utmost
humility when he is not screaming, showed that being a delicate and
sensitive singer is not all that bad for this form of music.
Throwing Copper, as a matter of fact, is one of the most
well-sung albums in grunge. With the gushing guitars behind him,
Kowalczyk can blare hysterically “Look where all this talking got
us baby” among total tumult in an almost hypnotic cycle (something
that would make Kurt Cobain give the thumbs up) on “White,
Discussion,” and at the same time tune-in to his more softer side
and lament over the irony of death caused by birth on “Lightning
Crashes,” where all the anger is forgotten and forgiven, and all
that is left are tears of sorrow.
Throwing Copper is yet another “must-have”
record from the grunge era of the 90s. It is a great addition to
the other more hardcore grunge offerings from Seattleites of that
time. Very few records are as radio-friendly and as full of honesty
and substance as this one. It is a blessing for modern rock
music.