NPR interviews Corey Glover and Vernon Reid
Click on link and use Real Player or Windows Player.
NPR - Corey Glover and Vernon Reid Interview Windows Player 9 - link
Vernon Reid interview w/ Steinberg
Post Masque / Post Reunion, pre-collideoscope interview. 2 pages long
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Musicdish.com : Living Colour - Collideoscope review
By: Matthew S. Robinson (Associate Writer)
2003-11-21
Artist: Living Colour
Title: Collideoscope
Label: Sanctuary
Format: Rock/Funk
It's been 10 long years. And though Living Colour still brings the Funk (and the Punk and the R&B and the Aggro and all the rest), they are also lacking a few things. Top on this list is originality. Having created the world of Hip-Hop Rock while bringing social consciousness to new (decibel) levels, the band is apparently content to fall back on the familiar. In addition a squealing cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and helter-skelter exploration of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," the band also cops David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" in the bass-slapping 9/11 ditty "Flying." Alongside classic Colour cleverness such as the line "Fools Rush In Where Angel Fear it Said" ("Lost Halo") are tired turns of phrase like "Nobody Knows the Trouble She's Seen" ("Nightmare City"), the repetitive chorus "It's Operation Mind Control/It's the battle for America's soul" ("Operation Mind Control," which also contains the ironic line "It's down to repetition") and the equally circular "A ? of When." Fortunately, even these weak lines are hooked with Corey Glover's soulful slink and quickly overwhelmed by Vernon Reid's soaring/searing solos, Doug Wimbush and Will Calhoun's polyrhythmic excursions and a healthy dose of blaring samples. In addition to these overarching high points are a number of other positive spins, including the dark grooves of "Pocket of Tears," the edifying scorched earth attacks of "Sacred Ground" and the beautiful (but too short) instrumental coda "Nova." So even though there may be some unwelcome new additions on this latest album, the sound that made Living Colour the original "cult of personality" is still around.
It's been 10 long years.
Welcome back, Boys!
By: Matthew S. Robinson (Associate Writer)
2003-11-21
Artist: Living Colour
Title: Collideoscope
Label: Sanctuary
Format: Rock/Funk
It's been 10 long years. And though Living Colour still brings the Funk (and the Punk and the R&B and the Aggro and all the rest), they are also lacking a few things. Top on this list is originality. Having created the world of Hip-Hop Rock while bringing social consciousness to new (decibel) levels, the band is apparently content to fall back on the familiar. In addition a squealing cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and helter-skelter exploration of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," the band also cops David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" in the bass-slapping 9/11 ditty "Flying." Alongside classic Colour cleverness such as the line "Fools Rush In Where Angel Fear it Said" ("Lost Halo") are tired turns of phrase like "Nobody Knows the Trouble She's Seen" ("Nightmare City"), the repetitive chorus "It's Operation Mind Control/It's the battle for America's soul" ("Operation Mind Control," which also contains the ironic line "It's down to repetition") and the equally circular "A ? of When." Fortunately, even these weak lines are hooked with Corey Glover's soulful slink and quickly overwhelmed by Vernon Reid's soaring/searing solos, Doug Wimbush and Will Calhoun's polyrhythmic excursions and a healthy dose of blaring samples. In addition to these overarching high points are a number of other positive spins, including the dark grooves of "Pocket of Tears," the edifying scorched earth attacks of "Sacred Ground" and the beautiful (but too short) instrumental coda "Nova." So even though there may be some unwelcome new additions on this latest album, the sound that made Living Colour the original "cult of personality" is still around.
It's been 10 long years.
Welcome back, Boys!
Thursday, December 25, 2003
2001 interview w/ Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish - Free Bass
"I wanna spend some money too and run coolers in the Bahamas and all that other bulls**t. On the real side of it, I want to play some music and be happy." (Doug Wimbish)
When Living Colour split up in 1994, America was discovering its heart of darkness with a pre-Napster Metallica selling out arenas and Kurt Cobain's lank-haired features adorning every college students' bedroom walls. Against this dark background of pre-Columbine disarray, some serious naval gazing began to gestate, and Living Colour's message and style, it seems, were just too damn 'colourful'. Too gregarious, too talented, too exuberant, and perhaps just a little too black to survive this tidal wave of middle America angst, that has since spawned Marilyn Manson and a glut of screaming, disturbed and dissatisfied white male bands that feel even more disenfranchised than any black or minority group in society. Living Colour's politics made them distinctive but in a kind of fly-in-the-ointment way, their virtuosic playing at odds with the new anti-playing stance of the Nirvana's and Sonic Youth's gritty slabs of feedback, and a radical simplifying that took rock back to a far more punk influenced era, making it more accessible in both its unhappy, sometimes disturbing subject matter and its monumentally blunt riffing, á la 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Talking about racism just wasn't on people's minds, even Public Enemy went to ground, and Spike Lee stopped making such vicious, politically motivated movies in an attempt to court the mainstream.
Yet earlier this year, some eight years after they seemed to have been KO-ed and out for the count, rumours started circulating via the 'Rolling Stone' magazine website that four guys called Vernon, Will, Corey and Doug had reformed and were playing to sold out, ecstatic crowds down America's West Coast and that they seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. As a long time fan of 'The Colour', yours truly was glad, to say the least, that they'd decided to come back to dear old Blighty to perform a one-off show at the Kentish Town Forum, a little venue for a once huge band. To confirm the rumour and set aside any conjecture, I got on the phone to new boy and bass veteran Doug Wimbish to get the full story. Wimbish has, for the record, been part of some of the most influential points in musical history, particularly as a permanent member of the Sugar Hill Gang, and yes, it is he who played that bass line on the now classic 'White Lines' by Grandmaster Flash. Oh yeah, Doug has done his time with a few little names like Madonna, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and Seal, and formed his own bands Tackhead and Jungle Funk, not to mention his whole period in England with Bristol's Gary Clail and his On U Sound System and Adrian Sherwood's African Headcharge. Lest to say, the man's a little bit of a 'leg end', but a legend who has to take his two daughters to summer camp and run pro-tools sessions from his home studio. Despite the early (10am) start to our chat, Doug sounds fired up as ever and couldn't be more overjoyed at being part of one of the greatest American rock bands of the last 10 years. So why did they split? Wimbish is reflective and philosophical, "Really, the band just needed to chill, probably before even I joined the band, they should have sat down and figured out exactly what they wanted to do. They just came out of a spin, and an American spin can be really interesting, you know? Being this type of band, dealing with the kind of issues, being a black band and dealing with that whole label and blah, blah, blah. So a lot of times you just need to say 'Alright, gotta to go on holiday!' But it just didn't happen, man, it's like, 'Oh hell, no! We're gonna work you boys untilÑ' Because you're programmed to do that as a band trying to make it and trying to get over, but when that button gets hit there's no telling when it could stop. It could be anything between 18 months to 2 years, you might realise 'hey, wait a minute, I really like this cat on the other side of the stage!' It's plain and simple man, you need time to get away from something to see what you got. You don't do that, then you blow it."
Having literally only 18 months breathing space between joining the band and looking for his next gig, Wimbish & Co are using the reunion to begin exploring new sounds, both harder metal crunches and softer more dance-influenced sounds, taking some pieces from Doug's Jungle Funk group, with drummer Will Calhoun, and spinning them with a little Living Colour flavour. Yet it seems their working process is as organic as ever, "There are a couple of things that we're doing. 'Lost Halo' is a song that Vernon brought in, another one is 'Trance', a song that I had from Jungle Funk. We're doing 'Power Soul' by Hendrix, and probably 'Sacred Ground' from the 'Pride' compilation. Because 'Pride' was like a 'greatest hits' compilation that the record company put out after we broke up. I convinced the guys to come to London and let Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald do some production on them and that was when I think Vernon felt he'd lost his leash on everything else, and then it kind of collapsed. We ended up doing four tracks, three of which ended up being on 'Pride'. We never played that stuff live, we did a couple of drum & bass tunes, after recording that stuff in 1994. When the band broke up, man, everything got deleted from everywhere really quickly! From all the little fanzine magazines, everyone just went 'OK, Living Colour is done, great! Delete!'" That might have been the case in the mid '90s, but now people are remembering just what a killer live band Living Colour were. Wimbish continues, "Now, it's funny because we did seven gigs on the West Coast, a few days' rehearsal, but we basically just slugged it right out! Let's not trip out and go into a whole bunch of stuff, got to get on stage and play. Without a record cats are gonna want to hear stuff they're familiar with, and for those that aren't familiar with Living Colour, we had to do our best percentage of stuff that we thought people are going to want to hear. Then as we went along we introduced some new stuff. We did seven days on the West Coast, three days in South America, which was really good because we started doing larger venues, like, seven thousand seaters and five thousand seaters and three thousand seaters rammed to capacity, so that charged us up totally. Now we're coming to Europe to do these festivals, we're 10 gigs in, and we just decided, 'You know what? Let's have some fun! It ain't about the loot, it ain't this and that, we've had some offers, we could have done some other things, we just want to take it slow, let's have some fun! Period!' From that point everything else will happen."
If caution is the better part of valour here, it's this new-found maturity that will sustain these uniquely gifted musicians to create a new sound, and possibly their best album ever - but money, fame and all its trappings are the last thing on band's mind, priority number one being FUN! Bands, as so many musicians will concur, are very much like relationships, and there have been enough relationships in bands that go way beyond learning the chords to the song! So was it like meeting up with an old girlfriend and getting it back on for Doug and the boys? Wimbish couldn't agree more, "It really was, man! For me, man, I come from a lot of different backgrounds, I've done a lot of music, man, Living Colour was just part of the chest at the time. I was coming off doing Tackhead, doing Mick Jagger's stuff, doing some stuff with Seal, doing some stuff with Bomb The Bass, from that kind of stuff to all the On U Sound System stuff, so I've been very, very fortunate to be in a lot of different scenarios. So when Living Colour came up it was like 'I really didn't want to do a band', but I ended up in it, I was the one who told Jagger about the band, next thing you know I'm in the band! So I'm enjoying it more now after that break because when it happened so much stuff was going on. Next thing you know I'm in the band, next I know we're doing a record - next thing I know the band is over, so it's like, 'what the hell happened there?!'"
Whether there will be a new record before the year is out remains to be seen, but this is the start of a new chapter in the history of Messrs Reid, Glover, Calhoun and Wimbish. What and when the next thing will happen is very much being left to fate, and Wimbish is cautious not to oversell the potential opportunities here. "It's small steps right now, because we just decided to have some fun, to try and do some things. Now in doing that, there are other people that want to make money. We all want to support ourselves and do things but other people have a financial side to it all. I'm not bulls**ting you saying I don't wanna make some loot, I'm not a communist, I wanna spend some money too and run coolers in the Bahamas and all that other bulls**t. On the real side of it, I want to play some music and be happy - it's other elements that always exist of people that have ties, or have had ties, and I don't play a G major seventh note with them! Their vibe is like they are on the business head, and that's when things become complex, it's always going to be like people who want to present you 'opportunities' - that really means opportunities for you and opportunities for them. And if you don't find a way to slow that puppy up a little bit, you're gonna have a problem! If that was the reason a band broke up in the first place it will happen again. So we're trying to avoid that, and we're very, very blessed because people like the band, 'Living Colour has always sold out well here, so I'm booking them!'
Doug Wimbish - Free Bass
"I wanna spend some money too and run coolers in the Bahamas and all that other bulls**t. On the real side of it, I want to play some music and be happy." (Doug Wimbish)
When Living Colour split up in 1994, America was discovering its heart of darkness with a pre-Napster Metallica selling out arenas and Kurt Cobain's lank-haired features adorning every college students' bedroom walls. Against this dark background of pre-Columbine disarray, some serious naval gazing began to gestate, and Living Colour's message and style, it seems, were just too damn 'colourful'. Too gregarious, too talented, too exuberant, and perhaps just a little too black to survive this tidal wave of middle America angst, that has since spawned Marilyn Manson and a glut of screaming, disturbed and dissatisfied white male bands that feel even more disenfranchised than any black or minority group in society. Living Colour's politics made them distinctive but in a kind of fly-in-the-ointment way, their virtuosic playing at odds with the new anti-playing stance of the Nirvana's and Sonic Youth's gritty slabs of feedback, and a radical simplifying that took rock back to a far more punk influenced era, making it more accessible in both its unhappy, sometimes disturbing subject matter and its monumentally blunt riffing, á la 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Talking about racism just wasn't on people's minds, even Public Enemy went to ground, and Spike Lee stopped making such vicious, politically motivated movies in an attempt to court the mainstream.
Yet earlier this year, some eight years after they seemed to have been KO-ed and out for the count, rumours started circulating via the 'Rolling Stone' magazine website that four guys called Vernon, Will, Corey and Doug had reformed and were playing to sold out, ecstatic crowds down America's West Coast and that they seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. As a long time fan of 'The Colour', yours truly was glad, to say the least, that they'd decided to come back to dear old Blighty to perform a one-off show at the Kentish Town Forum, a little venue for a once huge band. To confirm the rumour and set aside any conjecture, I got on the phone to new boy and bass veteran Doug Wimbish to get the full story. Wimbish has, for the record, been part of some of the most influential points in musical history, particularly as a permanent member of the Sugar Hill Gang, and yes, it is he who played that bass line on the now classic 'White Lines' by Grandmaster Flash. Oh yeah, Doug has done his time with a few little names like Madonna, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and Seal, and formed his own bands Tackhead and Jungle Funk, not to mention his whole period in England with Bristol's Gary Clail and his On U Sound System and Adrian Sherwood's African Headcharge. Lest to say, the man's a little bit of a 'leg end', but a legend who has to take his two daughters to summer camp and run pro-tools sessions from his home studio. Despite the early (10am) start to our chat, Doug sounds fired up as ever and couldn't be more overjoyed at being part of one of the greatest American rock bands of the last 10 years. So why did they split? Wimbish is reflective and philosophical, "Really, the band just needed to chill, probably before even I joined the band, they should have sat down and figured out exactly what they wanted to do. They just came out of a spin, and an American spin can be really interesting, you know? Being this type of band, dealing with the kind of issues, being a black band and dealing with that whole label and blah, blah, blah. So a lot of times you just need to say 'Alright, gotta to go on holiday!' But it just didn't happen, man, it's like, 'Oh hell, no! We're gonna work you boys untilÑ' Because you're programmed to do that as a band trying to make it and trying to get over, but when that button gets hit there's no telling when it could stop. It could be anything between 18 months to 2 years, you might realise 'hey, wait a minute, I really like this cat on the other side of the stage!' It's plain and simple man, you need time to get away from something to see what you got. You don't do that, then you blow it."
Having literally only 18 months breathing space between joining the band and looking for his next gig, Wimbish & Co are using the reunion to begin exploring new sounds, both harder metal crunches and softer more dance-influenced sounds, taking some pieces from Doug's Jungle Funk group, with drummer Will Calhoun, and spinning them with a little Living Colour flavour. Yet it seems their working process is as organic as ever, "There are a couple of things that we're doing. 'Lost Halo' is a song that Vernon brought in, another one is 'Trance', a song that I had from Jungle Funk. We're doing 'Power Soul' by Hendrix, and probably 'Sacred Ground' from the 'Pride' compilation. Because 'Pride' was like a 'greatest hits' compilation that the record company put out after we broke up. I convinced the guys to come to London and let Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald do some production on them and that was when I think Vernon felt he'd lost his leash on everything else, and then it kind of collapsed. We ended up doing four tracks, three of which ended up being on 'Pride'. We never played that stuff live, we did a couple of drum & bass tunes, after recording that stuff in 1994. When the band broke up, man, everything got deleted from everywhere really quickly! From all the little fanzine magazines, everyone just went 'OK, Living Colour is done, great! Delete!'" That might have been the case in the mid '90s, but now people are remembering just what a killer live band Living Colour were. Wimbish continues, "Now, it's funny because we did seven gigs on the West Coast, a few days' rehearsal, but we basically just slugged it right out! Let's not trip out and go into a whole bunch of stuff, got to get on stage and play. Without a record cats are gonna want to hear stuff they're familiar with, and for those that aren't familiar with Living Colour, we had to do our best percentage of stuff that we thought people are going to want to hear. Then as we went along we introduced some new stuff. We did seven days on the West Coast, three days in South America, which was really good because we started doing larger venues, like, seven thousand seaters and five thousand seaters and three thousand seaters rammed to capacity, so that charged us up totally. Now we're coming to Europe to do these festivals, we're 10 gigs in, and we just decided, 'You know what? Let's have some fun! It ain't about the loot, it ain't this and that, we've had some offers, we could have done some other things, we just want to take it slow, let's have some fun! Period!' From that point everything else will happen."
If caution is the better part of valour here, it's this new-found maturity that will sustain these uniquely gifted musicians to create a new sound, and possibly their best album ever - but money, fame and all its trappings are the last thing on band's mind, priority number one being FUN! Bands, as so many musicians will concur, are very much like relationships, and there have been enough relationships in bands that go way beyond learning the chords to the song! So was it like meeting up with an old girlfriend and getting it back on for Doug and the boys? Wimbish couldn't agree more, "It really was, man! For me, man, I come from a lot of different backgrounds, I've done a lot of music, man, Living Colour was just part of the chest at the time. I was coming off doing Tackhead, doing Mick Jagger's stuff, doing some stuff with Seal, doing some stuff with Bomb The Bass, from that kind of stuff to all the On U Sound System stuff, so I've been very, very fortunate to be in a lot of different scenarios. So when Living Colour came up it was like 'I really didn't want to do a band', but I ended up in it, I was the one who told Jagger about the band, next thing you know I'm in the band! So I'm enjoying it more now after that break because when it happened so much stuff was going on. Next thing you know I'm in the band, next I know we're doing a record - next thing I know the band is over, so it's like, 'what the hell happened there?!'"
Whether there will be a new record before the year is out remains to be seen, but this is the start of a new chapter in the history of Messrs Reid, Glover, Calhoun and Wimbish. What and when the next thing will happen is very much being left to fate, and Wimbish is cautious not to oversell the potential opportunities here. "It's small steps right now, because we just decided to have some fun, to try and do some things. Now in doing that, there are other people that want to make money. We all want to support ourselves and do things but other people have a financial side to it all. I'm not bulls**ting you saying I don't wanna make some loot, I'm not a communist, I wanna spend some money too and run coolers in the Bahamas and all that other bulls**t. On the real side of it, I want to play some music and be happy - it's other elements that always exist of people that have ties, or have had ties, and I don't play a G major seventh note with them! Their vibe is like they are on the business head, and that's when things become complex, it's always going to be like people who want to present you 'opportunities' - that really means opportunities for you and opportunities for them. And if you don't find a way to slow that puppy up a little bit, you're gonna have a problem! If that was the reason a band broke up in the first place it will happen again. So we're trying to avoid that, and we're very, very blessed because people like the band, 'Living Colour has always sold out well here, so I'm booking them!'
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Living Colour 2004 North American rescheduled dates
Feb 26, 2004 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT USA
Feb 27, 2004 - The Downtown - Farmingdale, NY USA
Living Colour 2004 Collideoscope Tour
thanks ferdinand!
04.03.2004 Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
05.03.2004 Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
06.03.2004 Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
07.03.2004 Vlissingen (southwest of the Netherlands)
08.03.2004 Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
10.03.2004 Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
dates courtesy of www.visions.de and Pollstar.
click on links for more details. please make sure to check with the local venues to confirm show dates and details
Rockers Digest LIVE review (including setlist)
Living Colour
24 September 2003
The Garage, London
The Garage is a small venue for a big comeback like this tonight and a crowd of people unable to get in to the sold out venue had gathered outside hoping someone might arrive with an elusive spare ticket. Inside it’s hot, very hot and by way of support there’s just a DJ.
Suddenly Living Colour appear on stage tinkering with equipment and the crowd go nuts. New album Collideoscope has only been out three days and it’s apparent throughout that the majority of the audience haven’t heard it, particularly by the shocked expressions of appropriate set opener Back In Black. I spotted a couple of fans in AC/DC shirts staring in disbelief. Corey Glover effortlessly handles the Brian Johnson high pitched vocals.
The frantic Time’s Up is next and the band are already clearly enjoying their return to London with smiles all round. Vernon Reid announces that there’s a new record out and we’re going to hear a lot of it tonight and with that they kick in to A ? Of When. I have to say I find the production a bit odd on the record but tonight, with the best sound I’ve ever heard at a Living Colour gig, the new songs really make sense. I actually found myself wanting them to play more new stuff rather than the old classics.
The familiarity of Middle Man had the crowd bouncing along again. Vernon Reid appears to have reigned in his excessive playing of past Living Colour live performances and sticks to what’s needed. He remains pretty static throughout with a new double dreaded hair cut which resembles Predator.
Back to the new material and the debate continues on whether Flying and it’s Sept 11th references is emotive or a bit sick, though I’ll go for the former. Sacred Ground see’s Doug Wimbish making all kinds of weird noises on electronic pads and it has to be said he was a revelation tonight. Back in the day he was always seen as new boy, but tonight he really took centre stage with his commanding presence and flawless playing.
Nightmare City sounds like something Bad Brains might have done on record and live it takes on a new life even seeing most of the metallers bopping along to it’s heavy dub grooves. Towards the end a guest saxophonist joins the band for a solo and the sweaty smokey atmosphere certainly gave off the right vibe.
The crowd go wild for massive hit single Love Rears It’s Ugly Head and Corey Glover needn’t have bothered singing. Likewise the Talking Head’s cover and first album favourite Memories Can’t Wait goes down a storm.
This Little Pig is personally dispensable to me being a aggression for aggressions sake, though the same can’t be said for Glamour Boys with it’s African funky vibe. Type is played at practically double speed and Corey amazes us with his speedy Everything That Comes Around… refrain.
Of course Cult Of Personality is the one everyone wants to hear and the place goes mental, though there’s still time for an encore of Hendrix classic Cross Town Traffic.
A big thumbs up to Will Calhoun on the drums as I haven’t mentioned him yet, mainly as I could only see the top of his head, but his top drawer playing didn’t go unnoticed.
A welcome come-back then and one with an eye fixed firmly on the future given the concentration of new material. Come back soon!
Living Colour Set List:
Back In Black / Time’s Up / A ? Of When / Operation Mind Control / Middle Man / Flying / Song Without Sin / Trance / Sacred Ground / Nightmare City / Love Rears It’s Ugly Head / Ignorance Is Bliss / Memories Can’t Wait / Pocket Of Tears / This Little Pig / Glamour Boys / Type / Cult Of Personality / Cross Town Traffic
Feb 26, 2004 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT USA
Feb 27, 2004 - The Downtown - Farmingdale, NY USA
Living Colour 2004 Collideoscope Tour
thanks ferdinand!
04.03.2004 Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
05.03.2004 Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
06.03.2004 Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
07.03.2004 Vlissingen (southwest of the Netherlands)
08.03.2004 Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
10.03.2004 Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
dates courtesy of www.visions.de and Pollstar.
click on links for more details. please make sure to check with the local venues to confirm show dates and details
Rockers Digest LIVE review (including setlist)
Living Colour
24 September 2003
The Garage, London
The Garage is a small venue for a big comeback like this tonight and a crowd of people unable to get in to the sold out venue had gathered outside hoping someone might arrive with an elusive spare ticket. Inside it’s hot, very hot and by way of support there’s just a DJ.
Suddenly Living Colour appear on stage tinkering with equipment and the crowd go nuts. New album Collideoscope has only been out three days and it’s apparent throughout that the majority of the audience haven’t heard it, particularly by the shocked expressions of appropriate set opener Back In Black. I spotted a couple of fans in AC/DC shirts staring in disbelief. Corey Glover effortlessly handles the Brian Johnson high pitched vocals.
The frantic Time’s Up is next and the band are already clearly enjoying their return to London with smiles all round. Vernon Reid announces that there’s a new record out and we’re going to hear a lot of it tonight and with that they kick in to A ? Of When. I have to say I find the production a bit odd on the record but tonight, with the best sound I’ve ever heard at a Living Colour gig, the new songs really make sense. I actually found myself wanting them to play more new stuff rather than the old classics.
The familiarity of Middle Man had the crowd bouncing along again. Vernon Reid appears to have reigned in his excessive playing of past Living Colour live performances and sticks to what’s needed. He remains pretty static throughout with a new double dreaded hair cut which resembles Predator.
Back to the new material and the debate continues on whether Flying and it’s Sept 11th references is emotive or a bit sick, though I’ll go for the former. Sacred Ground see’s Doug Wimbish making all kinds of weird noises on electronic pads and it has to be said he was a revelation tonight. Back in the day he was always seen as new boy, but tonight he really took centre stage with his commanding presence and flawless playing.
Nightmare City sounds like something Bad Brains might have done on record and live it takes on a new life even seeing most of the metallers bopping along to it’s heavy dub grooves. Towards the end a guest saxophonist joins the band for a solo and the sweaty smokey atmosphere certainly gave off the right vibe.
The crowd go wild for massive hit single Love Rears It’s Ugly Head and Corey Glover needn’t have bothered singing. Likewise the Talking Head’s cover and first album favourite Memories Can’t Wait goes down a storm.
This Little Pig is personally dispensable to me being a aggression for aggressions sake, though the same can’t be said for Glamour Boys with it’s African funky vibe. Type is played at practically double speed and Corey amazes us with his speedy Everything That Comes Around… refrain.
Of course Cult Of Personality is the one everyone wants to hear and the place goes mental, though there’s still time for an encore of Hendrix classic Cross Town Traffic.
A big thumbs up to Will Calhoun on the drums as I haven’t mentioned him yet, mainly as I could only see the top of his head, but his top drawer playing didn’t go unnoticed.
A welcome come-back then and one with an eye fixed firmly on the future given the concentration of new material. Come back soon!
Living Colour Set List:
Back In Black / Time’s Up / A ? Of When / Operation Mind Control / Middle Man / Flying / Song Without Sin / Trance / Sacred Ground / Nightmare City / Love Rears It’s Ugly Head / Ignorance Is Bliss / Memories Can’t Wait / Pocket Of Tears / This Little Pig / Glamour Boys / Type / Cult Of Personality / Cross Town Traffic
Monday, December 22, 2003
ViewMag.com - Collideoscope Review
LIVING COLOUR
By Alex Erasmi
CollideØscope
Rock outfit Living Colour showed remarkable growth during their initial three albums. From the politically minded yet straight ahead funk rock of “Cult Of Personality” to the socially aware, darker hues of their Bad Brains inspired final work Stain, the band made few concessions to expectations and creatively stretched themselves until they could no longer agree on where they were going.
Leaping ahead a decade, the band has returned and have essentially picked up where they left off, pushing their music into even darker and edgier places while continuing to find new ways to remain true to their hybrid sound. The echos of Stain run through CollideØscope’s songs, with the emphasis firmly placed on the rhythms and lyrics. The tone both lyrically and musically is dark and bleak, with the only respite coming from the occasional vocal melody or funky beat. The 9/11 chill of “Flying” is the emotional centre point of the album and its mood dominates the album’s themes of desperation and fear.
While CollideØscope's dark heart is what gives it its soul, it is also what makes it tough listening. Even the varied rhythms and borrowed stylistic flourishes do nothing to lighten the mood. As if to emphasize the point, the spirited if directionless cover of AC/DC’s “Back In Black” fails to counter the shadows, instead serving as a one line review of a powerful if almost unlistenable return.
LIVING COLOUR
By Alex Erasmi
CollideØscope
Rock outfit Living Colour showed remarkable growth during their initial three albums. From the politically minded yet straight ahead funk rock of “Cult Of Personality” to the socially aware, darker hues of their Bad Brains inspired final work Stain, the band made few concessions to expectations and creatively stretched themselves until they could no longer agree on where they were going.
Leaping ahead a decade, the band has returned and have essentially picked up where they left off, pushing their music into even darker and edgier places while continuing to find new ways to remain true to their hybrid sound. The echos of Stain run through CollideØscope’s songs, with the emphasis firmly placed on the rhythms and lyrics. The tone both lyrically and musically is dark and bleak, with the only respite coming from the occasional vocal melody or funky beat. The 9/11 chill of “Flying” is the emotional centre point of the album and its mood dominates the album’s themes of desperation and fear.
While CollideØscope's dark heart is what gives it its soul, it is also what makes it tough listening. Even the varied rhythms and borrowed stylistic flourishes do nothing to lighten the mood. As if to emphasize the point, the spirited if directionless cover of AC/DC’s “Back In Black” fails to counter the shadows, instead serving as a one line review of a powerful if almost unlistenable return.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
AmpliferMagazine.com review : Living Colour - House Of Blues, Los Angeles, CA
By Kimberly Mack
Some things never change. Living Colour has always been an exceptional live band and on this night they powered their way through an intense, 90-minute set featuring their trademark mélange of jazz, funk, blues, reggae and electronica - expertly wrapped up in a blistering hard rock ribbon.
The band had enormous success in the late 1980s and early '90s, but its demise in 1995 left a void not only on the black rock scene, but also in the hard rock genre as a whole. Living Colour's reunion in December 2000, and their subsequent series of mini-tours, found the group in surprisingly good musical form, and paved the way for Collideoscope, their first studio album in a decade.
Living Colour mainly performed songs from the new album, but they included a sprinkling of older songs. Highlights included "Sacred Ground," from Collideoscope, a straight-up metal (read: loud), headbanger's dream featuring a thick, sludgy guitar riff by guitarist Vernon Reid, and singer Corey Glover's impassioned, take-us-back-to-church vocals. It also highlighted the talents of bassist Doug Wimbish who, with all of his toys and gadgets, is one of the most interesting and innovative bass players around. Drummer Will Calhoun also had a fantastic drum solo during that song's protracted jam.
The evocative ballad, "Flying," also from Collideoscope, sung from the point of view of a man who leaps out of a World Trade Center window on September 11, was moving and Reid absolutely tore up the guitar solo. There were many such moments where the audience stood in awe while Reid went off on one of his rapid-fire, million-notes-a-minute solo excursions. A raucous cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" complete with a falsetto by Glover that Robert Plant might have had trouble hitting in his prime, was also great fun.
By the time Living Colour got around to playing the frenzied hardcore tune, "Time's Up," from the album of the same name, a small mosh pit had materialized in front of the stage, in sharp contrast to the largely thirty- and fortysomething audience. After the band ran through "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" and "Type," also from Time's Up, and then finally "Cult of Personality" from 1988's Vivid, both band and audience were utterly and happily spent.
By Kimberly Mack
Some things never change. Living Colour has always been an exceptional live band and on this night they powered their way through an intense, 90-minute set featuring their trademark mélange of jazz, funk, blues, reggae and electronica - expertly wrapped up in a blistering hard rock ribbon.
The band had enormous success in the late 1980s and early '90s, but its demise in 1995 left a void not only on the black rock scene, but also in the hard rock genre as a whole. Living Colour's reunion in December 2000, and their subsequent series of mini-tours, found the group in surprisingly good musical form, and paved the way for Collideoscope, their first studio album in a decade.
Living Colour mainly performed songs from the new album, but they included a sprinkling of older songs. Highlights included "Sacred Ground," from Collideoscope, a straight-up metal (read: loud), headbanger's dream featuring a thick, sludgy guitar riff by guitarist Vernon Reid, and singer Corey Glover's impassioned, take-us-back-to-church vocals. It also highlighted the talents of bassist Doug Wimbish who, with all of his toys and gadgets, is one of the most interesting and innovative bass players around. Drummer Will Calhoun also had a fantastic drum solo during that song's protracted jam.
The evocative ballad, "Flying," also from Collideoscope, sung from the point of view of a man who leaps out of a World Trade Center window on September 11, was moving and Reid absolutely tore up the guitar solo. There were many such moments where the audience stood in awe while Reid went off on one of his rapid-fire, million-notes-a-minute solo excursions. A raucous cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" complete with a falsetto by Glover that Robert Plant might have had trouble hitting in his prime, was also great fun.
By the time Living Colour got around to playing the frenzied hardcore tune, "Time's Up," from the album of the same name, a small mosh pit had materialized in front of the stage, in sharp contrast to the largely thirty- and fortysomething audience. After the band ran through "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" and "Type," also from Time's Up, and then finally "Cult of Personality" from 1988's Vivid, both band and audience were utterly and happily spent.
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Living Colour: "CollideOscope"
(3 1/2 stars)
A decade has passed since Living Colour's last album, but the band obviously hasn't been fallow in the intervening years. There's a dash of humor in the pulsating cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black," but "Collide0scope" otherwise is a serious effort punctuated with wry social commentary.
The quartet displays a wealth of musical styles, too, all of which get the branding-iron treatment from guitar wiz Vernon Reid, who's equally comfortable with thundering riffs ("Nightmare City"), subtle, jazzy touches ("Flying") and fire-and-brimstone leads ("Lost Halo").
James Healy, Union-Tribune
(3 1/2 stars)
A decade has passed since Living Colour's last album, but the band obviously hasn't been fallow in the intervening years. There's a dash of humor in the pulsating cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black," but "Collide0scope" otherwise is a serious effort punctuated with wry social commentary.
The quartet displays a wealth of musical styles, too, all of which get the branding-iron treatment from guitar wiz Vernon Reid, who's equally comfortable with thundering riffs ("Nightmare City"), subtle, jazzy touches ("Flying") and fire-and-brimstone leads ("Lost Halo").
James Healy, Union-Tribune
Friday, December 19, 2003
First CD in a decade showcases many shades of Living Colour
BY TIM SHELLBERG
Times Correspondent
NorthWest Indiana news
It took Japanese food and an old band locker to help bring Living Colour out of retirement in late 1999.
"We had to resolve this space, and in doing that it made us have some conversations," bassist Doug Wimbish said. "We went out for Japanese, and ... we just started talking as friends, and parked everything else on the side. We had a nice evening ... it's amazing what Japanese food will do you."
Scheduled to perform an all-ages show Tuesday at Chicago's Park West in support of "Collideoscope," their first new album of new material in a decade, the New York City-bred hard-rockers first assaulted the airwaves in 1987 with "Cult of Personality," from their debut album "Vivid." They found continued success with "Vivid's" 1990 follow-up "Time's Up," performed in the first Lollapalooza tour, and showed staying power in the grunge era while keeping true to themselves with 1993's "Stain."
But in 1995, cults of musical personalities within the band clashed, and they called it a day. At least for the time being.
"When the band hit the shank, it happened abruptly," Wimbish said. "The ball just got dropped, (but) there was always this question of what and when could possibly something happen again."
Frontman Corey Glover released a solo set in 1998, "Hymns," and served briefly as a VJ on cable music station VH1. Guitarist Vernon Reid also released a solo album, "Mistaken Identity," in 1996, performed with his new band, Masque, and performed on and/or produced recordings by everyone from blues guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer to Cream bassist Jack Bruce to funnyman Chris Rock.
Wimbish, a long in-demand bassist who has performed on record and stage with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Madonna to Annie Lennox, released his solo set, "Trippy Notes for Bass," in 1999, and formed a pair of bands with drummer Will Calhoun, Headfake and Jungle Funk.
While still apart in name, Glover and Reid made selected appearances with Wimbish and Calhoun in the late 1990s. The above-mentioned Japanese dinner resulted in a Living Colour gig at CBGB's, the legendary New York City venue where the band got their start more than a dozen years earlier.
"But we all still had other things happening," Wimbish said. "It wasn't like we said ‘Yeah! We're going to stop everything else we're doing and jump back into (the band).' We slowly took our time to let it mean something for us to get to this point."
The band returned to the road for a successful tour in 2001 and convened at Wimbish's Massachusetts home base to record what would become "Collideoscope." Released Oct. 7, Living Colour effortlessly picks up where they left off on "Stain," with covers of AC/DC's hard-rock anthem "Back in Black" and the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" alongside more than a dozen originals.
"I'm so thankful that we were given the opportunity to park our indifferences, whatever they may be, and what really isn't anything now, and to just be able and enjoy the music," he said. "A lot of real good music out there today, to me, is rare. So you have to love it while you can. And to be a part of it is just so beautiful."
The band kicked off their current tour opening for pioneering prog-rockers King Crimson before venturing out on their own. Their current tour is scheduled to conclude in New Haven, Conn., on Dec. 7, but Wimbish says the band doesn't plan to stay dormant for another near-decade.
"Right now, there's a few things we have in the works," Wimbish said. "The album just came out (re-released) in 5.1 digital sound, and maybe we'll do an acoustic record of some kind. We've got a lot of great songs, and they sound really good not (performed) heavy -- we really have something timeless and special right now."
Chicago InnerView Preview : Living Colour @ Park West
Living Colour Returns
with Fresh Hybrid Sound, Serious Political Messages
story by Matt Meisinger
Living Colour synthesized metal and psychedelia to perfection with the acclaimed Vivid in 1988 and the overlooked Times Up in 1990. Their unique sound was a breath of fresh air amongst the high grunge concentration of the early '90s, and it sounds even fresher today amidst the current slate of homogenized rock acts - now that they are back in action after disbanding in 1995.
The band's meteoric rise on the strength of Vivid's powerful hit single "Cult of Personality" came sooner than vocalist Corey Glover had expected, but the band took it in stride. "Our kind of instant fame was a slight downfall," Glover told Chicago Innerview. "We would have preferred a slow burn, but success is what it is, you can't control it. If it happened after our second or third album, then people would be asking what took so long."
Collideoscope, the new album from Living Colour, begins with an aural assault of riffage and searing solos from guitarist Vernon Reid, one of today's truly visionary guitarists on "Song Without Sin". Their sonorous return to form begins with a theme evident throughout the record, commenting on dark times of the present, but brightly looking ahead. Collideoscope rolls on with the rumbling ferocity of Living Colour's rhythm section and Glover's soulful howling.
The new album title is a nod to the synergy that occurs when the right pieces come together. "Everything is the result of collision of something else. If it weren't for your parents colliding, you wouldn't be here. It's a play on words. Collision brings change, which we need today," Glover said.
It is not by coincidence that the band sounds as fresh as ever - they have been collaborating on each other's solo projects in between Living Colour projects. "We all worked on each other's solo albums," said Glover. "Will [Calhoun] worked on mine and I worked with Will and Doug [Wimbish]. We would always keep track of what the others were up to, helping out where we could."
Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish make up the relentless rhythm section that drives Living Colour's more balanced new sound. Elements of drum'n'bass and ambient jungle are interspersed throughout Collideoscope. The two played together as Headfake before being joined by Glover and Reid onstage at CBGB, planting the seed for a reunion. "The idea of getting back together was always around in conversation. We really had to do it. It felt like there was unfinished business," Glover said.
This album sounds like no other by Living Colour. The result of all their solo projects and experimentation has come together seamlessly on their latest effort. Besides guitar effects, looping machines and a slew of percussion instruments, they also used "different sequences, stuff we did in the past, but we really went full hog and took time to make use of new technology," Glover said.
Collideoscope took over a year to finish, and it sounds like their best ever. "We took the time to find our common focus, we wanted to have something to say with all that's happening in the world today," Glover noted. The song "Operation Mind Control" has a droning, raw sound and relates Glover's feelings about a fear-inducing media. "We are constantly told something is going to happen, hearing there is an orange alert. This causes chaos, which is a great motivator for some. But people can also be immobilized by fear."
Glover is fed up with the barrage of fear conveyed by the media, as his lyrics reflect: "Damn the repetition in this shadow factory / It doesn't look much like freedom to me…Just try on this straight jacket of conformity / While we force feed you propaganda / On the state TV." Another aspect of the media that he disagrees with is their questionable focus on celebrity. "How many people died in Turkey and Afghanistan today?," he asked. "It is hard to tell because every news channel is too worried about Michael Jackson riding around in some van."
Glover also keeps tabs on the government's dealings beyond what the media is feeding the masses. "In the time they are saying some terrorism is going to happen, they pass the Patriot Act, and people don't even realize it," he said. "They are too busy buying plastic sheets and duct tape." The war itself has also been on his mind. "I'm against any war, fighting never solves anything. It is always just taking something by force." Indecision and worry are prominent in "A ? of When," a new song that dissects fears of imminent war with the chorus "Not a question of if / But a question of when."
For all the songs with dark subject matter, there is an equal amount of joy expressed, as in the blazing cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and a transcendental version of The Beatles' Revolver-closing "Tomorrow Never Knows". Glover notes the contrast: "It's the two sides of same coin, talk about 'A ? of When', the flipside is 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. Tomorrow can be whatever you make it. It is not promised."
So what bands impress him today? "I love P.O.D.," he said. "I'm also into Sevendust, Linkin Park." This is so ironic since they are borrowing more than a little bit from Living Colour's sound, but they are an understanding bunch of guys - who waited for the perfect time to return.
This is like hearing that Eddie Vedder listens to Creed. Hopefully followers of nu-metal will hear this album and realize they are empty from years of a water-and-milquetoast diet. What to expect from their upcoming Chicago show? "It's going to be loud, fun and everyone will know we're back. Expect to be there for a while."
Thursday, December 18, 2003
2004 Living Colour tour dates
Feb 26, 2004 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT USA
Feb 27, 2004 - The Downtown - Farmingdale, NY USA
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
March 4, Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
March 5, Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
March 6, Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
March 8, Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
March 10, Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
Feb 26, 2004 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT USA
Feb 27, 2004 - The Downtown - Farmingdale, NY USA
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
March 4, Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
March 5, Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
March 6, Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
March 8, Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
March 10, Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Variety.com Review of King Crimson/Living Colour
only the Living Colour portion is printed here
...The recently reunited Living Colour opened the program with a 50-minute set that showed the band to have evolved somewhat since its early '90s heyday. Where its first incarnation emphasized the friction between guitarist Vernon Reid's arty ambition and singer Corey Glover's arena-rock aspiration, Living Colour reconciles the two elements with surprising ease -- as was particularly evidenced by a kick-out-the-jams cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black."
Drummers World - pics of Will Calhoun
only the Living Colour portion is printed here
...The recently reunited Living Colour opened the program with a 50-minute set that showed the band to have evolved somewhat since its early '90s heyday. Where its first incarnation emphasized the friction between guitarist Vernon Reid's arty ambition and singer Corey Glover's arena-rock aspiration, Living Colour reconciles the two elements with surprising ease -- as was particularly evidenced by a kick-out-the-jams cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black."
Drummers World - pics of Will Calhoun
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
The Downtown - Farmingdale, NY (Long Island) show : rescheduled
Friday, February, 27, 2004
Miller Lite Presents:
Living Colour
+ Tony C and The Truth & J-Rad
*RESCHEDULED DATE FROM SAT DEC 6TH 2003*
Friday, February, 27, 2004
Miller Lite Presents:
Living Colour
+ Tony C and The Truth & J-Rad
*RESCHEDULED DATE FROM SAT DEC 6TH 2003*
Monday, December 15, 2003
Setlist from 12/30/01 - House Of Blues Orlando, Florida
Power Of Soul
Lonely Lonely Nights (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson cover)
Sacred Ground
Times Up
Lost Halo
Ignorance Is Bliss
Memories Can't Wait
Trance
Glamour Boys
Visions (to Jah Rule's Always On Time)
Middle Man
Release The Pressure
Research and Development (will solo)
Cult Of Personality
Crosstown Traffic
Power Of Soul
Lonely Lonely Nights (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson cover)
Sacred Ground
Times Up
Lost Halo
Ignorance Is Bliss
Memories Can't Wait
Trance
Glamour Boys
Visions (to Jah Rule's Always On Time)
Middle Man
Release The Pressure
Research and Development (will solo)
Cult Of Personality
Crosstown Traffic
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Living Colour - Toad's Place, New Haven, CT : Feb. 26, 2004
Ticketmaster link for tickets : click here
Ticketmaster link for tickets : click here
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Living Colour photo gallery : Live @ the Trocadero - Philadephia, PA - Dec. 4, 2003
Courtesy of EmpyreLounge.com
Head Fake Soundsystem
Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun, both members of Living Colour, play together as Head Fake Soundsystem. Bronx native Calhoun has received best drummer awards from various magazines. Bassist Wimbish has worked with artists from Madonna to Mick Jagger. Dec. 15 at 9, Lucerna Music Bar - Prague
Remaining Head>>Fake dates
Sun 12/14/03 - Brno, Czech Rep @ Capitol Music Hall
Mon 12/15/03 - Prague, Czech Rep @ Luzerna Music Bar
Tue 12/16/03 - Vienna, Austria @ Porgy
Wed 12/17/03 - Winterthur, Switzerland @ Salzhaus
Thu 12/18/03 - Arnheim (NL) @ Willemeen
Fri 12/19/03 - Enschede(NL) @ Atak
Sat 12/20/03 - Zoetemeer(NL) @ Boerderij
Sun 12/21/03 - Berlin, Germany @ Kato
Courtesy of EmpyreLounge.com
Head Fake Soundsystem
Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun, both members of Living Colour, play together as Head Fake Soundsystem. Bronx native Calhoun has received best drummer awards from various magazines. Bassist Wimbish has worked with artists from Madonna to Mick Jagger. Dec. 15 at 9, Lucerna Music Bar - Prague
Remaining Head>>Fake dates
Sun 12/14/03 - Brno, Czech Rep @ Capitol Music Hall
Mon 12/15/03 - Prague, Czech Rep @ Luzerna Music Bar
Tue 12/16/03 - Vienna, Austria @ Porgy
Wed 12/17/03 - Winterthur, Switzerland @ Salzhaus
Thu 12/18/03 - Arnheim (NL) @ Willemeen
Fri 12/19/03 - Enschede(NL) @ Atak
Sat 12/20/03 - Zoetemeer(NL) @ Boerderij
Sun 12/21/03 - Berlin, Germany @ Kato
Friday, December 12, 2003
BostonHerald.com : Living Colour / King Crimson @ Avalon (snippet)
Wednesday night guitar madness in Boston
By Brett Milano, Bob Young and Christopher Blagg
Friday, November 14, 2003
Show: King Crimson and Living Colour
Venue: Avalon
Axmen: Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Vernon Reid
Audience: Serious guys (KC), '80s MTV fans (LC)
Special guitars: One hooked up to a roomful of electronic devices (LC); two guitar sounds combined into one celestial guitar (KC)
Main motif: Fiendishly complex prog rock (KC); metal cut with funk, jazz (LC)
Best song: ``The ConstruKction of Light,'' 10 minutes of sonic shimmer (KC); ``Cult of Personality,'' great arena anthem (LC)
Best solo: Reid's three ultra-shredders on ``Time's Up,'' Fripp's brain-melter on ``Facts of Life''
Stunt playing: Reid MIDI-ing his ax into a synth orchestra
Worst moment: Fripp breaking his mystique by standing and smiling
Air guitars in audience: None, audience too intimidated
Fashion statment: Reid's combat fatigues; Fripp's all-black wardrobe
Local patter: Glover says drummer Will Calhoun went to Berklee
Wednesday night guitar madness in Boston
By Brett Milano, Bob Young and Christopher Blagg
Friday, November 14, 2003
Show: King Crimson and Living Colour
Venue: Avalon
Axmen: Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Vernon Reid
Audience: Serious guys (KC), '80s MTV fans (LC)
Special guitars: One hooked up to a roomful of electronic devices (LC); two guitar sounds combined into one celestial guitar (KC)
Main motif: Fiendishly complex prog rock (KC); metal cut with funk, jazz (LC)
Best song: ``The ConstruKction of Light,'' 10 minutes of sonic shimmer (KC); ``Cult of Personality,'' great arena anthem (LC)
Best solo: Reid's three ultra-shredders on ``Time's Up,'' Fripp's brain-melter on ``Facts of Life''
Stunt playing: Reid MIDI-ing his ax into a synth orchestra
Worst moment: Fripp breaking his mystique by standing and smiling
Air guitars in audience: None, audience too intimidated
Fashion statment: Reid's combat fatigues; Fripp's all-black wardrobe
Local patter: Glover says drummer Will Calhoun went to Berklee
Thursday, December 11, 2003
March 2004 Tour Dates - Europe
courtesy of www.visions.de
click on link for more details
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
March 4, Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
March 5, Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
March 6, Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
March 8, Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
March 10, Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
courtesy of www.visions.de
click on link for more details
09.03.2004 Bochum - Zeche
14.03.2004 Luzern - ABC Club
15.03.2004 Winterthur - Gaswerk
16.03.2004 Bellinzona - Garage
22.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
23.03.2004 Wien - Porgy & Bess
30.03.2004 Salzburg - Rockhouse
March 4, Hedon, Zwolle no tickets yet
March 5, Boerderij, Zoetermeer or Ticketservice
March 6, Plato, Helmond or ticketservice
March 8, Kade, Zaandam or ticketservice
March 10, Brussels, BEL Ancienne Belgique
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Enter to win a guitar autographed by Living Colour
note - this site is was made for the intent purpose of promoting Living Colour. We've tried to find all kinds of reviews, from good, to mediocre, to bad, and the following review is the latter. Remember, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. If you agree or disagree with the writer, his email is at the end of this article.
NBC 10 review - Living Colour Collideoscope
Living Colour "Collideoscope"
Back in the pre-Nirvana, hair-metal-infested dark ages of the late '80s and early '90s, New York's Living Colour enjoyed a brief reign as hard rock's great, er, black hope.
Hailed by critics and fellow musicians alike and showered with Grammy awards, the band created rock that bravely drew from an array of musical forms fused with Jimmy Page-style guitar crunch and politically and socially biting lyrics that at their best, could make you stop headbanging for a moment and ponder the world at large.
At the group's commercial zenith, however, it was the eternally amiable Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead who proved to be the most astute critic and unknowing seer of the band's future.
Remarking on the band in a 1991 interview in Rolling Stone, Garcia said, "Living Colour is a great band. Their whole approach is interesting, but they're short on melodies ... That's a tough space where they are right now; I think the most talented guy in the band is going to look to break out if the band doesn't go somewhere."
Four short years later, Garcia's prediction came true when Living Colour founder/guitarist Vernon Reid quietly dissolved the group. As one record label remarked at the time, the group had become "four guys with five opinions."
After the 1995 breakup, the group members went their separate ways. Reid chased his ambition, busying himself with production duties and the release of a grossly underrated solo album. His former compatriots faired poorly, exploring a series of tuneless and increasingly irrelevant solo projects. By the dawn of the new century, however, even Reid was beginning to see diminishing returns (creatively as well as financially) and the band reunited for some gigs in late 2000.
Two years later, the band has released "Collideoscope," its first album of new material since 1993's "Stain," a post-grunge homage to heavy rock and personal dysfunction.
Despite the passage of time, "Collideoscope" in many ways is also an album of personal dysfunction. But instead of it being the record's common theme, "Collideoscope" is defined by its dysfunction, or rather the band's. It seems the group's internal power struggles and eclectic approach has got the better of them and caused the group to crank out the worst album of their careers.
As is evident in many of the interviews the band members have done to promote "Collidescope," their music is the product of a contest of wills. But instead of benefiting from multiple opinions, these songs seem to languish in a musical middle ground between the conflicting ideas. This music is banal and the lyrics lack any brilliant insights. There's no sense of adventure to these songs -- that the band is pushing the musical envelope -- which was what made Living Colour an exciting listen back in their glory days.
Instead, this album succeeds in bringing out the band's worst aspects: their didacticism, their shotty lyric-writing, and the aforementioned lack of melodicisim.
Most of these songs never rise above mediocrity. Tracks like "A ? Of When," "Song Without Sin," "In Your Name" or "Great Expectations" are based around rather ordinary guitar riffs. And that's not taking into account the lyrics that while taking a decided anti-Bush, anti-Big Business stance, come across as a collection of monotonous slogans. Equally disconcerting is the inclusion of two dismal covers, AC/DC's "Back In Black" and the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." While "Back In Black" is so loyally done that it begs whether a redo was really necessary, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is just an opportunity for the group to pile on the studio's digital effects.
Not surprisingly, "Collidescope" is at its best when the band is expanding its hard rock oeuvre. There's the dub-reggae swing of "Nightmare City," (featuring some sweet Wailers-like angelic background harmonies) and "Holy Roller," a blues-rock romp that includes organ licks from former E Street Band keyboardist David Sancious. Reid, whose playing up until then is surprisingly uninspired, delivers a lovely understated solo on the latter.
So many of the songs on "Collidescope" beg its listeners to wake up, to recognize the world's evils and fix them. What's needed now is for Living Colour to wake, up, take a long, hard look in the mirror and fix themselves.
Comments : David Hyland
CD REVIEW: Living Colour sound faded on latest release
by Jenny Oakson
(U-WIRE) SAN DIEGO -- The "new" Living Colour album is just what it sounds like: A contradiction.
When the Living Colour of yore first appeared on the scene and cranked out "Vivid," it was clear that this band had something to say. They were four young black men prying their way into a long-haired white man's genre, and they used the medium as a makeshift soapbox to expound upon the inequities of society. Their radio-friendly single "Cult of Personality" became an anthem for the disenfranchised; from slums to suburbs, the record called out to overcome the barriers and look beyond the parochial.
As they progressed with albums like "Stain" and "Time's Up," they added levity to their social commentary. Balmy melodies transitioned into cutting tracks with fluent movement. In 1993, after the release of "Stain" and the subsequent breakup of the band, heavy metal mourned.
And now, 10 years later, Living Color has recoagulated to offer "Collideoscope." What they didn't realize, it seems, is that 10 years is quite a long time. While Corey Glover's voice still resounds with passionate vibrancy and Vernon Reid's guitar cuts and curves with sharp, meticulous racing, Doug Wimbish's bass seems muted and Will Calhoun's drumming doesn't come close to the unimaginable brilliance demonstrated in past songs like "Solace of You." Much like an 80-year-old woman in low-rise jeans, while the effort to be current is admirable, the design doesn't best present the content.
"Collideoscope" starts off with that patented Living Colour sound, but it sounds outdated. And why not? Ask yourself what you listened to 10 years ago -- is it still in your CD player? Futile attempts at contemporary music devices are transparent: The jarring techno used in "In Your Name" sounds like an overactive child let loose in Beck's recording studio. While other bands may need to add post-production effects to a mediocre lead singer, Living Colour certainly aren't one of them. The grainy garage production on tracks like "Choices Mash Up" distorts Glover's phenomenal voice in an attempt to emulate the likes of the Strokes.
The lyrics seem base and blunt in dealing with emotional subject matter. Much of the album touches on Sept. 11, the Patriot Act, overall fear and panic. The sincerity may very well be there, but the theme comes off as trite as a "very special" episode of "The Real World: Chicago." Songs like "? Of When" and "In Your Name" rely on lyrics like "Who will be next / Will it be me" and "We got bombs and planes." Pretty risky in an era where musicians are crucified for commercializing tragedy.
This album certainly does have its diamonds in the rough -- rough and inconsistent as it may be. "Flying" showcases Reid in a guitar solo that ranks among his best and their cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" is a decent tribute, though it seems out of place. Could this really be a tongue-in-cheek play on words in the middle of a left-wing rant about terrorism? This band has always had something to say, it's just that in the past, no one else had ever said it before.
Shepherd-Express : Living Colour Collideoscope review
Living Colour
Collideoscope (Sanctuary)
On their first album in 10 years, Living Colour prove that no truly engaged band ever runs out of things to say. In theory, Collideoscope should gain them a place of honor among all the genre-mixing musicians for whom they tore across the borders of perception. Remember when the fact that these guys were black was almost as big a hook as the fact that Eminem is white?
In practice, Collideoscope reinforces the notion that the problem for any artist isn't running out of things to say; it's running out of ways to say them. Reunited, Living Colour grasp their core distinctions: singer Corey Glover continues to meld soul feeling with rock stomp, and guitarist Vernon Reid retains his capacity to hit one chord with the power of 10 (ungraceful solos notwithstanding). Beyond such traits, they struggle, noticeably, to be different.
They crank aggressive changes on reggae on "Nightmare City," but they hit a traditionalist wall on the blues-rock of "Holy Roller." Ever socially conscious, they respond to the numb arrogance of post-9/11 American power with "A ? of When," "Operation Mind Control" and "In Your Name"--each packing enough tightly wound intensity to shame the rest of contemporary thrash. However, "Choices Mash Up: A) Happy Shopper" nearly drowns in scorn heaped on consumers, losing the argument in a tone as self-righteous as Bill O'Reilly.
Conventional composition and performance frequently threaten the best moments of Collideoscope, but semi-salvation emerges from the drummer and the cover song. In the former case, Will Calhoun's decade of outside experience--touring with jazz legend Wayne Shorter, studying aboriginal music in Australia--goads Living Colour past even their own notions of what they should be. His rhythms turn the foursquare into the exploratory.
In the latter case, Living Colour unleash their innate clowns with a ferociously straight take of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and a phantasmagoric trip-hop on the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." In "Nova," their perfectly segued coda to John Lennon's psychedelic experience, Living Colour create the shimmering kaleidoscope the rest of the album often occludes.
--Jon M. Gilbertson
13 Live Living Colour Tour Photos from Sept. 21, 2003 @ the Podium in Hardenburg
Living Colour : Live @ the House Of Blues - concert review
Listen Up! Colour Of Soul
by Carter Yarbrough, Special to the Voice
REWIND: Got my small taste of holiday traffic last Wednesday night. I spent 45 minutes in gridlock on the way down to the House of Blues to check out the Living Colour comeback tour. They are back! I never saw their first incarnation, but what I saw at the HOB rocked. Sweating down four albums worth of songs to the 12 most moving messages, the live renditions they delivered of their latest ("Ignorance is Bliss," "Flying," "Sacred Ground") left no doubt how they garnered two consecutive Grammies in ‘89 and ‘90 for "Best Hard Rock Live Performance," Let me tell you, lead vocalist Corey Glover can bring it — screaming like a warrior and storming around in his own private mosh-pit like an ecstatic shaman. Lead guitarist and composer Vernon Reid injects an amalgam of funk and rock styles and on-the-fly innovations. And we can’t forget bassist Will Calhoun and drummer Doug Wimbash, who laid a foundation stout enough for a fortress of sound.
"The band’s first studio album in over ten years sees them staying true to their roots, while keeping their grooves current and hearts open," says the band’s Web site. Many of the songs off "CollideØscope" challenge the rule by fear ("A ? of When"), mourn the consequences of 9-11 ("Song Without Sin") or criticize our current administration’s "Operation Mind Control." "Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay" and the Violent Femmes’ "Please Do Not Go" were standout covers, while the nuclear power of "Cult of Personality" could not be matched with their second encore of "Middle Man."
Over a couple of beers, after the show, I spoke with Glover, who proved personable and positive and more than a little interested in the Bushwhacker Benefit Concerts I’ve been brewing. Along with the new release, you should know about the re-mastered release of the 1988 double platinum album "Vivid."
Collideoscope Review
Shredders Delight
...Of all those acts, the ones with the most commercial success to their name are Living Coloür, the NYC band who won two Grammys during their 1989–1990 heyday. Anchored by guitarist Vernon Reid’s hair-raising riffs, their MTV smash "Cult of Personality" is one of the most enduring rock songs of its era. They opened a Rolling Stones stadium tour and crossed the country with the first Lollapalooza festival. By the time they broke up, in the wake of the 1993 album Stain (Epic), they had set a new standard of popularity for all-black rock bands. But that almost seemed irrelevant to their fans, who were wowed enough by the broad streaks of experimentalism and social consciousness in their music.
There’s an ample supply of those two qualities on Collide0scope (Sanctuary), the first new Living Coloür album in 10 years. Working for the first time without a big-name rock producer, the band use sampling and drum loops more than ever before. But they start things off with the old-fashioned rocker "Song Without Sin," a psychedelic spiritual that proves they can still rumble with the best of them. On "? of When," Reid drops the disc’s thorniest riff and Corey Glover introduces the September 11 theme, something the group also hint at by posing in front of a gray Manhattan sky in the back-cover photo. Glover gets more literal over the gentle pop funk of "Flying," an unsettling look through the eyes of a World Trade Center victim who laments, "Fate has given me wings/Such a terrible funny thing."
Glover is a distinctive frontman whose sly wordplay and maximum-soul bombast have polarized audiences from the start — fans will be happy to hear he hasn’t mellowed with age. Neither has Reid: check out his synapse-frying solo on "Lost Halo," or the sinister pop licks on "Pocket of Tears." Bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun, who also play together in rapper Mos Def’s rock supergroup Black Jack Johnson, catalyzed the reunion, and they keep pushing the rhythmic boundaries here. The pair of cover songs span the ridiculous and the sublime: the claustrophobic transcendence of "Tomorrow Never Knows" makes it a fitting closer, but Glover’s relentless yelping detracts from the trusty stomp and mischievous double entendre of "Back in Black." Still, as is the case with their old Lollapalooza tourmates Jane’s Addiction, it’s good to have Living Coloür back.
Music Misfits.com : Living Colour - Collide0scope
If there is one statement I can make with absolute certainty when it comes to rock band reunions, it is this:
The idea of a reunion is ALWAYS better than the results of the actual reunion.
Does that keep me from hoping for greatness from artists who have reunited? Hell, no. It's just an observation that has come to me over the years. Living Colour's return to the studio is no exception to this rule. I love Living Colour. I especially dug Time's Up, which was such a blend of styles that it still sounds completely contemporary today. Living Colour was a very important band for me in the midst of the metallic 80's and while Stain was a let down to me in many ways, I still hated to see them break up. That's why the news of their comeback really made me smile.
Collide0scope is no Time's Up but it's no Stain either. It lies somewhere between the two and while it does misfire (and amazingly badly when it does), most of the time it's right where you'd expect Living Colour to be... bottom heavy, funky and hard as hell. Corey Glover's voice is still in prime condition and the rhythm section of Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish is tight as Hell. Vernon Reid's guitar playing is on par with everything he's ever done and let's face it people... he's a master and should be considered as such. Don't get me started on how criminally overlooked his Mistaken Identity solo disc was.
Where the band shines is on the heavy blues funk of "Holy Roller" and the experimental drum and bass dance grooves of "In Your Name". Living Colour have always shone brightly when they branch out. Where this band makes you cringe is when they cover "Back in Black". Yeah, guys... we get the joke. This needed to be covered and recorded about as much as Kelly Osbourne's version of "Papa Don't Preach".
The good thing is that through the miracle of modern technology, you can program around the songs you don't like and there aren't many on here. Overall, I'd recommend this disc to anyone who liked Living Colour's back catalog and if you happen to see me sometime in the near future, ask me to play you "In Your Name". You'll probably buy the disc based on that song alone.
note - this site is was made for the intent purpose of promoting Living Colour. We've tried to find all kinds of reviews, from good, to mediocre, to bad, and the following review is the latter. Remember, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. If you agree or disagree with the writer, his email is at the end of this article.
NBC 10 review - Living Colour Collideoscope
Living Colour "Collideoscope"
Back in the pre-Nirvana, hair-metal-infested dark ages of the late '80s and early '90s, New York's Living Colour enjoyed a brief reign as hard rock's great, er, black hope.
Hailed by critics and fellow musicians alike and showered with Grammy awards, the band created rock that bravely drew from an array of musical forms fused with Jimmy Page-style guitar crunch and politically and socially biting lyrics that at their best, could make you stop headbanging for a moment and ponder the world at large.
At the group's commercial zenith, however, it was the eternally amiable Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead who proved to be the most astute critic and unknowing seer of the band's future.
Remarking on the band in a 1991 interview in Rolling Stone, Garcia said, "Living Colour is a great band. Their whole approach is interesting, but they're short on melodies ... That's a tough space where they are right now; I think the most talented guy in the band is going to look to break out if the band doesn't go somewhere."
Four short years later, Garcia's prediction came true when Living Colour founder/guitarist Vernon Reid quietly dissolved the group. As one record label remarked at the time, the group had become "four guys with five opinions."
After the 1995 breakup, the group members went their separate ways. Reid chased his ambition, busying himself with production duties and the release of a grossly underrated solo album. His former compatriots faired poorly, exploring a series of tuneless and increasingly irrelevant solo projects. By the dawn of the new century, however, even Reid was beginning to see diminishing returns (creatively as well as financially) and the band reunited for some gigs in late 2000.
Two years later, the band has released "Collideoscope," its first album of new material since 1993's "Stain," a post-grunge homage to heavy rock and personal dysfunction.
Despite the passage of time, "Collideoscope" in many ways is also an album of personal dysfunction. But instead of it being the record's common theme, "Collideoscope" is defined by its dysfunction, or rather the band's. It seems the group's internal power struggles and eclectic approach has got the better of them and caused the group to crank out the worst album of their careers.
As is evident in many of the interviews the band members have done to promote "Collidescope," their music is the product of a contest of wills. But instead of benefiting from multiple opinions, these songs seem to languish in a musical middle ground between the conflicting ideas. This music is banal and the lyrics lack any brilliant insights. There's no sense of adventure to these songs -- that the band is pushing the musical envelope -- which was what made Living Colour an exciting listen back in their glory days.
Instead, this album succeeds in bringing out the band's worst aspects: their didacticism, their shotty lyric-writing, and the aforementioned lack of melodicisim.
Most of these songs never rise above mediocrity. Tracks like "A ? Of When," "Song Without Sin," "In Your Name" or "Great Expectations" are based around rather ordinary guitar riffs. And that's not taking into account the lyrics that while taking a decided anti-Bush, anti-Big Business stance, come across as a collection of monotonous slogans. Equally disconcerting is the inclusion of two dismal covers, AC/DC's "Back In Black" and the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." While "Back In Black" is so loyally done that it begs whether a redo was really necessary, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is just an opportunity for the group to pile on the studio's digital effects.
Not surprisingly, "Collidescope" is at its best when the band is expanding its hard rock oeuvre. There's the dub-reggae swing of "Nightmare City," (featuring some sweet Wailers-like angelic background harmonies) and "Holy Roller," a blues-rock romp that includes organ licks from former E Street Band keyboardist David Sancious. Reid, whose playing up until then is surprisingly uninspired, delivers a lovely understated solo on the latter.
So many of the songs on "Collidescope" beg its listeners to wake up, to recognize the world's evils and fix them. What's needed now is for Living Colour to wake, up, take a long, hard look in the mirror and fix themselves.
Comments : David Hyland
CD REVIEW: Living Colour sound faded on latest release
by Jenny Oakson
(U-WIRE) SAN DIEGO -- The "new" Living Colour album is just what it sounds like: A contradiction.
When the Living Colour of yore first appeared on the scene and cranked out "Vivid," it was clear that this band had something to say. They were four young black men prying their way into a long-haired white man's genre, and they used the medium as a makeshift soapbox to expound upon the inequities of society. Their radio-friendly single "Cult of Personality" became an anthem for the disenfranchised; from slums to suburbs, the record called out to overcome the barriers and look beyond the parochial.
As they progressed with albums like "Stain" and "Time's Up," they added levity to their social commentary. Balmy melodies transitioned into cutting tracks with fluent movement. In 1993, after the release of "Stain" and the subsequent breakup of the band, heavy metal mourned.
And now, 10 years later, Living Color has recoagulated to offer "Collideoscope." What they didn't realize, it seems, is that 10 years is quite a long time. While Corey Glover's voice still resounds with passionate vibrancy and Vernon Reid's guitar cuts and curves with sharp, meticulous racing, Doug Wimbish's bass seems muted and Will Calhoun's drumming doesn't come close to the unimaginable brilliance demonstrated in past songs like "Solace of You." Much like an 80-year-old woman in low-rise jeans, while the effort to be current is admirable, the design doesn't best present the content.
"Collideoscope" starts off with that patented Living Colour sound, but it sounds outdated. And why not? Ask yourself what you listened to 10 years ago -- is it still in your CD player? Futile attempts at contemporary music devices are transparent: The jarring techno used in "In Your Name" sounds like an overactive child let loose in Beck's recording studio. While other bands may need to add post-production effects to a mediocre lead singer, Living Colour certainly aren't one of them. The grainy garage production on tracks like "Choices Mash Up" distorts Glover's phenomenal voice in an attempt to emulate the likes of the Strokes.
The lyrics seem base and blunt in dealing with emotional subject matter. Much of the album touches on Sept. 11, the Patriot Act, overall fear and panic. The sincerity may very well be there, but the theme comes off as trite as a "very special" episode of "The Real World: Chicago." Songs like "? Of When" and "In Your Name" rely on lyrics like "Who will be next / Will it be me" and "We got bombs and planes." Pretty risky in an era where musicians are crucified for commercializing tragedy.
This album certainly does have its diamonds in the rough -- rough and inconsistent as it may be. "Flying" showcases Reid in a guitar solo that ranks among his best and their cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" is a decent tribute, though it seems out of place. Could this really be a tongue-in-cheek play on words in the middle of a left-wing rant about terrorism? This band has always had something to say, it's just that in the past, no one else had ever said it before.
Shepherd-Express : Living Colour Collideoscope review
Living Colour
Collideoscope (Sanctuary)
On their first album in 10 years, Living Colour prove that no truly engaged band ever runs out of things to say. In theory, Collideoscope should gain them a place of honor among all the genre-mixing musicians for whom they tore across the borders of perception. Remember when the fact that these guys were black was almost as big a hook as the fact that Eminem is white?
In practice, Collideoscope reinforces the notion that the problem for any artist isn't running out of things to say; it's running out of ways to say them. Reunited, Living Colour grasp their core distinctions: singer Corey Glover continues to meld soul feeling with rock stomp, and guitarist Vernon Reid retains his capacity to hit one chord with the power of 10 (ungraceful solos notwithstanding). Beyond such traits, they struggle, noticeably, to be different.
They crank aggressive changes on reggae on "Nightmare City," but they hit a traditionalist wall on the blues-rock of "Holy Roller." Ever socially conscious, they respond to the numb arrogance of post-9/11 American power with "A ? of When," "Operation Mind Control" and "In Your Name"--each packing enough tightly wound intensity to shame the rest of contemporary thrash. However, "Choices Mash Up: A) Happy Shopper" nearly drowns in scorn heaped on consumers, losing the argument in a tone as self-righteous as Bill O'Reilly.
Conventional composition and performance frequently threaten the best moments of Collideoscope, but semi-salvation emerges from the drummer and the cover song. In the former case, Will Calhoun's decade of outside experience--touring with jazz legend Wayne Shorter, studying aboriginal music in Australia--goads Living Colour past even their own notions of what they should be. His rhythms turn the foursquare into the exploratory.
In the latter case, Living Colour unleash their innate clowns with a ferociously straight take of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and a phantasmagoric trip-hop on the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." In "Nova," their perfectly segued coda to John Lennon's psychedelic experience, Living Colour create the shimmering kaleidoscope the rest of the album often occludes.
--Jon M. Gilbertson
13 Live Living Colour Tour Photos from Sept. 21, 2003 @ the Podium in Hardenburg
Living Colour : Live @ the House Of Blues - concert review
Listen Up! Colour Of Soul
by Carter Yarbrough, Special to the Voice
REWIND: Got my small taste of holiday traffic last Wednesday night. I spent 45 minutes in gridlock on the way down to the House of Blues to check out the Living Colour comeback tour. They are back! I never saw their first incarnation, but what I saw at the HOB rocked. Sweating down four albums worth of songs to the 12 most moving messages, the live renditions they delivered of their latest ("Ignorance is Bliss," "Flying," "Sacred Ground") left no doubt how they garnered two consecutive Grammies in ‘89 and ‘90 for "Best Hard Rock Live Performance," Let me tell you, lead vocalist Corey Glover can bring it — screaming like a warrior and storming around in his own private mosh-pit like an ecstatic shaman. Lead guitarist and composer Vernon Reid injects an amalgam of funk and rock styles and on-the-fly innovations. And we can’t forget bassist Will Calhoun and drummer Doug Wimbash, who laid a foundation stout enough for a fortress of sound.
"The band’s first studio album in over ten years sees them staying true to their roots, while keeping their grooves current and hearts open," says the band’s Web site. Many of the songs off "CollideØscope" challenge the rule by fear ("A ? of When"), mourn the consequences of 9-11 ("Song Without Sin") or criticize our current administration’s "Operation Mind Control." "Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay" and the Violent Femmes’ "Please Do Not Go" were standout covers, while the nuclear power of "Cult of Personality" could not be matched with their second encore of "Middle Man."
Over a couple of beers, after the show, I spoke with Glover, who proved personable and positive and more than a little interested in the Bushwhacker Benefit Concerts I’ve been brewing. Along with the new release, you should know about the re-mastered release of the 1988 double platinum album "Vivid."
Collideoscope Review
Shredders Delight
...Of all those acts, the ones with the most commercial success to their name are Living Coloür, the NYC band who won two Grammys during their 1989–1990 heyday. Anchored by guitarist Vernon Reid’s hair-raising riffs, their MTV smash "Cult of Personality" is one of the most enduring rock songs of its era. They opened a Rolling Stones stadium tour and crossed the country with the first Lollapalooza festival. By the time they broke up, in the wake of the 1993 album Stain (Epic), they had set a new standard of popularity for all-black rock bands. But that almost seemed irrelevant to their fans, who were wowed enough by the broad streaks of experimentalism and social consciousness in their music.
There’s an ample supply of those two qualities on Collide0scope (Sanctuary), the first new Living Coloür album in 10 years. Working for the first time without a big-name rock producer, the band use sampling and drum loops more than ever before. But they start things off with the old-fashioned rocker "Song Without Sin," a psychedelic spiritual that proves they can still rumble with the best of them. On "? of When," Reid drops the disc’s thorniest riff and Corey Glover introduces the September 11 theme, something the group also hint at by posing in front of a gray Manhattan sky in the back-cover photo. Glover gets more literal over the gentle pop funk of "Flying," an unsettling look through the eyes of a World Trade Center victim who laments, "Fate has given me wings/Such a terrible funny thing."
Glover is a distinctive frontman whose sly wordplay and maximum-soul bombast have polarized audiences from the start — fans will be happy to hear he hasn’t mellowed with age. Neither has Reid: check out his synapse-frying solo on "Lost Halo," or the sinister pop licks on "Pocket of Tears." Bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun, who also play together in rapper Mos Def’s rock supergroup Black Jack Johnson, catalyzed the reunion, and they keep pushing the rhythmic boundaries here. The pair of cover songs span the ridiculous and the sublime: the claustrophobic transcendence of "Tomorrow Never Knows" makes it a fitting closer, but Glover’s relentless yelping detracts from the trusty stomp and mischievous double entendre of "Back in Black." Still, as is the case with their old Lollapalooza tourmates Jane’s Addiction, it’s good to have Living Coloür back.
Music Misfits.com : Living Colour - Collide0scope
If there is one statement I can make with absolute certainty when it comes to rock band reunions, it is this:
The idea of a reunion is ALWAYS better than the results of the actual reunion.
Does that keep me from hoping for greatness from artists who have reunited? Hell, no. It's just an observation that has come to me over the years. Living Colour's return to the studio is no exception to this rule. I love Living Colour. I especially dug Time's Up, which was such a blend of styles that it still sounds completely contemporary today. Living Colour was a very important band for me in the midst of the metallic 80's and while Stain was a let down to me in many ways, I still hated to see them break up. That's why the news of their comeback really made me smile.
Collide0scope is no Time's Up but it's no Stain either. It lies somewhere between the two and while it does misfire (and amazingly badly when it does), most of the time it's right where you'd expect Living Colour to be... bottom heavy, funky and hard as hell. Corey Glover's voice is still in prime condition and the rhythm section of Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish is tight as Hell. Vernon Reid's guitar playing is on par with everything he's ever done and let's face it people... he's a master and should be considered as such. Don't get me started on how criminally overlooked his Mistaken Identity solo disc was.
Where the band shines is on the heavy blues funk of "Holy Roller" and the experimental drum and bass dance grooves of "In Your Name". Living Colour have always shone brightly when they branch out. Where this band makes you cringe is when they cover "Back in Black". Yeah, guys... we get the joke. This needed to be covered and recorded about as much as Kelly Osbourne's version of "Papa Don't Preach".
The good thing is that through the miracle of modern technology, you can program around the songs you don't like and there aren't many on here. Overall, I'd recommend this disc to anyone who liked Living Colour's back catalog and if you happen to see me sometime in the near future, ask me to play you "In Your Name". You'll probably buy the disc based on that song alone.
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Shows Postponed
Both Living Colour shows @ The Downtown Club - Farmingdale, NY and Toad's Place - New Haven, CT have been postponed.
Living Colour - Bowery Ballroom setlist
special thanks Leon
Memories
Song Without Sin
Funny Vibe
A? Of When
Operation Mind Control
Ignorance Is Bliss
In Your Name
Flying
Sacred Ground
Middle Man
Pocket Of Tears - (sex machine)
Nothingness
Love Rears
Times Up
Type (vernon singing Police and Thieves)
Cult
Tomorrow Never Knows - (Nova/This is the Life)
(Back in Black)
Now somewhere in there they switch something, but I can't remember. All I know is that the show ROCKED! I think they were glad that folks made it out and they thanked the people for coming out. The Bowery is a nice joint, upstairs is where the stage is along with a bar.
Downstairs is another bar, but thats where the LC store was set up. Got my T-shirt, pick. And thats where the band came down to, when it was time to do signings and meet the people. Thats one thing about this band, they always stay close to the people, hang out and talk and take time to take pic's.
Both Living Colour shows @ The Downtown Club - Farmingdale, NY and Toad's Place - New Haven, CT have been postponed.
Living Colour - Bowery Ballroom setlist
special thanks Leon
Memories
Song Without Sin
Funny Vibe
A? Of When
Operation Mind Control
Ignorance Is Bliss
In Your Name
Flying
Sacred Ground
Middle Man
Pocket Of Tears - (sex machine)
Nothingness
Love Rears
Times Up
Type (vernon singing Police and Thieves)
Cult
Tomorrow Never Knows - (Nova/This is the Life)
(Back in Black)
Now somewhere in there they switch something, but I can't remember. All I know is that the show ROCKED! I think they were glad that folks made it out and they thanked the people for coming out. The Bowery is a nice joint, upstairs is where the stage is along with a bar.
Downstairs is another bar, but thats where the LC store was set up. Got my T-shirt, pick. And thats where the band came down to, when it was time to do signings and meet the people. Thats one thing about this band, they always stay close to the people, hang out and talk and take time to take pic's.
HeadFake Sound System Dec 2003 European Tour
Arguably one of the best rhythm sections in the business, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish will return to Europe with their DJ-influenced world music. A show with more sound than a 10 piece band. Both musicians have performed and or produced such artists as: Mick Jagger, The Rollling Stones, Seal, Jeff Beck, Madonna, Mos Def, Living Colour, Sugar Hill Gang, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, James Brown, Pharaoh Sanders, Jungle Funk, Busta Rhymes, and many more.
Don't miss the electronic, acoustic, groove-ambient sounds of Head>>Fake!
Wed 12/10/03 - Solothurn, Switzerland @ Kofmehl
Thu 12/11/03 - Luzern, Switzerland @ Boa
Fri 12/12/03 - Salzburg, Austria @ Jazzit
Sat 12/13/03 - Innsbruck, Austria @ Treibhaus
Sun 12/14/03 - Brno, Czech Rep @ Capitol Music Hall
Mon 12/15/03 - Prague, Czech Rep @ Luzerna Music Bar
Tue 12/16/03 - Vienna, Austria @ Porgy
Wed 12/17/03 - Winterthur, Switzerland @ Salzhaus
Thu 12/18/03 - Arnheim (NL) @ Willemeen
Fri 12/19/03 - Enschede(NL) @ Atak
Sat 12/20/03 - Zoetemeer(NL) @ Boerderij
Sun 12/21/03 - Berlin, Germany @ Kato
Arguably one of the best rhythm sections in the business, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish will return to Europe with their DJ-influenced world music. A show with more sound than a 10 piece band. Both musicians have performed and or produced such artists as: Mick Jagger, The Rollling Stones, Seal, Jeff Beck, Madonna, Mos Def, Living Colour, Sugar Hill Gang, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, James Brown, Pharaoh Sanders, Jungle Funk, Busta Rhymes, and many more.
Don't miss the electronic, acoustic, groove-ambient sounds of Head>>Fake!
Wed 12/10/03 - Solothurn, Switzerland @ Kofmehl
Thu 12/11/03 - Luzern, Switzerland @ Boa
Fri 12/12/03 - Salzburg, Austria @ Jazzit
Sat 12/13/03 - Innsbruck, Austria @ Treibhaus
Sun 12/14/03 - Brno, Czech Rep @ Capitol Music Hall
Mon 12/15/03 - Prague, Czech Rep @ Luzerna Music Bar
Tue 12/16/03 - Vienna, Austria @ Porgy
Wed 12/17/03 - Winterthur, Switzerland @ Salzhaus
Thu 12/18/03 - Arnheim (NL) @ Willemeen
Fri 12/19/03 - Enschede(NL) @ Atak
Sat 12/20/03 - Zoetemeer(NL) @ Boerderij
Sun 12/21/03 - Berlin, Germany @ Kato
Friday, December 05, 2003
Dr. Brookenstein reviews Living Colour @ the Trocadero
LIVING COLOUR took to the stage at 10:00pm to perform an oldie, "Memories Can't Wait".....the highlights were during the 3rd verse when Wil Calhoun broke it down on the mighty drums and when the band strategically threw in pauses between lines....that was da bomb!! The guitar (courtesy of Vernon Reid) and bass (courtesy of Doug Wimbish) rock chords were definitely solid and so was the ever-so-passionate vocals of Corey Glover! "Song Without Sin" (from the new CD, COLLIDE0SCOPE) was a great, hardcore funk-rock tune and "Funny Vibe" was superb, with moments of punk-rock energy, Doug announcing "Philly, hello dare I's your new neighbor!" and a bad case of "nasty bass-itis"....DOUG, YOU"RE TOO CRAZY!! "? of When" was another rock scorcher, which segued into "Operation Mind Control" (like on the CD)......Vernon was the absolute star with some crazoid guitarisms!! I caught some fans singing the chorus.....go ahead, fans! "Ignorance is Bliss" was good. "In Your Name" was a great piece of metal-bending, brain-melting stuff with the bass and guitar a-blazin' with an element of Headfake/Jungle Funk artillery.....some pre-recorded sound samples, like programmed drumbeats and laser-sounding effects! "Flying" was a beautiful slow song, considering that it focused on what probably happened to 2 people on that dreadful day on the upper floors of the World Trade Center complex. The highlight of "Flying" was the distorted guitar riffs of Vernon, but a funnier highlight was seeing Doug jump in during the last 3 seconds of the instrumental break to shoot out a spanking funk-bass riff!! "Sacred Ground" lit the club afire with the heavy crunch of guitar-bass metal.....yours truly could not control himself! Wil is too lethal on drums......so bad, he could break down tall buildings with his sticks of death!!! "Middle Man" and "Time's Up" were great. "Cult of Personality" was da bomb......Wil was lethal on drums, the guitar-bass rock combination was killer on the ears, and the fans were in rock heaven!! Fans knew and sang the lyrics along with Corey! Corey climbed atop a speaker and onto the second floor balcony, funkin' with the Living Colour fans! Corey even demanded that the second floor fans stand on their feet. The band finished and walked offstage, to come back a few minutes later to do the Jimi Hendrix classic "Crosstown Traffic"........ the club was ripped apart by the rock force...... them boys will work you like a full-time job on the stock exchange pit!!!! Again, fans were singing the lyrics and Corey was definitely feeling love from Philly! The show was over at 11:20pm. (note : TM Stevens was in the house as well, and got a special shout out from Doug Wimbish)
LIVING COLOUR took to the stage at 10:00pm to perform an oldie, "Memories Can't Wait".....the highlights were during the 3rd verse when Wil Calhoun broke it down on the mighty drums and when the band strategically threw in pauses between lines....that was da bomb!! The guitar (courtesy of Vernon Reid) and bass (courtesy of Doug Wimbish) rock chords were definitely solid and so was the ever-so-passionate vocals of Corey Glover! "Song Without Sin" (from the new CD, COLLIDE0SCOPE) was a great, hardcore funk-rock tune and "Funny Vibe" was superb, with moments of punk-rock energy, Doug announcing "Philly, hello dare I's your new neighbor!" and a bad case of "nasty bass-itis"....DOUG, YOU"RE TOO CRAZY!! "? of When" was another rock scorcher, which segued into "Operation Mind Control" (like on the CD)......Vernon was the absolute star with some crazoid guitarisms!! I caught some fans singing the chorus.....go ahead, fans! "Ignorance is Bliss" was good. "In Your Name" was a great piece of metal-bending, brain-melting stuff with the bass and guitar a-blazin' with an element of Headfake/Jungle Funk artillery.....some pre-recorded sound samples, like programmed drumbeats and laser-sounding effects! "Flying" was a beautiful slow song, considering that it focused on what probably happened to 2 people on that dreadful day on the upper floors of the World Trade Center complex. The highlight of "Flying" was the distorted guitar riffs of Vernon, but a funnier highlight was seeing Doug jump in during the last 3 seconds of the instrumental break to shoot out a spanking funk-bass riff!! "Sacred Ground" lit the club afire with the heavy crunch of guitar-bass metal.....yours truly could not control himself! Wil is too lethal on drums......so bad, he could break down tall buildings with his sticks of death!!! "Middle Man" and "Time's Up" were great. "Cult of Personality" was da bomb......Wil was lethal on drums, the guitar-bass rock combination was killer on the ears, and the fans were in rock heaven!! Fans knew and sang the lyrics along with Corey! Corey climbed atop a speaker and onto the second floor balcony, funkin' with the Living Colour fans! Corey even demanded that the second floor fans stand on their feet. The band finished and walked offstage, to come back a few minutes later to do the Jimi Hendrix classic "Crosstown Traffic"........ the club was ripped apart by the rock force...... them boys will work you like a full-time job on the stock exchange pit!!!! Again, fans were singing the lyrics and Corey was definitely feeling love from Philly! The show was over at 11:20pm. (note : TM Stevens was in the house as well, and got a special shout out from Doug Wimbish)
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Philadelphia Weekly - Living Colour @ the Trocadero preview
Living Colour
The last time Living Colour was out on the road a couple of years ago, it was for a good reason: They hadn't performed together in six years, but someone had to go out there and perform remotely decent rock given that all the other so-called rockers were getting their hair frosted and churning out emo lovelies for the 'tween-girl set. Now Living Colour's on its latest tour for a better reason. The foursome--Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish--has just released its first album, Collideøscope, in 10 years, and fans will be pleased to find that the compromises that come with middle age haven't sneaked up on these boys one bit. They're still the same socially conscious hellions they were back in the day, as their latest batch of anthems are both rambunctiously noisy and aggressively relevant. (They even do a tongue-in-cheek rendition of AC/DC's "Back in Black.") So for all those diehards who rocked out to "Cult of Personality" in their rooms and now have young ones of their own, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to take the kids to the show. A live Living Colour show may not be the definitive school of rock, but it sure is an efficient crash course. (Craig D. Lindsey)
7pm. $19. Trocadero, 1003 Arch St. 215.922.LIVE. The Trocadero
Living Colour
The last time Living Colour was out on the road a couple of years ago, it was for a good reason: They hadn't performed together in six years, but someone had to go out there and perform remotely decent rock given that all the other so-called rockers were getting their hair frosted and churning out emo lovelies for the 'tween-girl set. Now Living Colour's on its latest tour for a better reason. The foursome--Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish--has just released its first album, Collideøscope, in 10 years, and fans will be pleased to find that the compromises that come with middle age haven't sneaked up on these boys one bit. They're still the same socially conscious hellions they were back in the day, as their latest batch of anthems are both rambunctiously noisy and aggressively relevant. (They even do a tongue-in-cheek rendition of AC/DC's "Back in Black.") So for all those diehards who rocked out to "Cult of Personality" in their rooms and now have young ones of their own, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to take the kids to the show. A live Living Colour show may not be the definitive school of rock, but it sure is an efficient crash course. (Craig D. Lindsey)
7pm. $19. Trocadero, 1003 Arch St. 215.922.LIVE. The Trocadero
Chicago Park West : Living Colour Setlist
Memories Can't Wait
Funny Vibe
Song Without Sin
A ? Of When
Operation Mind Control
Ignorance Is Bliss
In Your Name
Flying
Middle Man
Nothingness
Love Rears It's Ugly Head
Times Up!
Cult Of Personality
-------------------------
Tomorrow Never Knows
This Is The Life (radically changed!)
Chicago Tribune Review
Living Colour flying in rare air
By Blair R. Fischer
Special to the Tribune
Published December 4, 2003
When Living Colour emerged out of New York's Bowery 15 years ago, the funk-rock troupe was something of an anomaly.
Drowning out the death rattle of glam metal and flouting the dawn of grunge, the African-American quartet earned props--and the coveted opening slot on The Rolling Stones' "Steel Wheels" tour--with a fresh melange of jerky rhythms, Vernon Reid's virtuoso guitar work and frontman Corey Glover's caustic, sociopolitical lyrics.
Living Colour took on greed ("Glamour Boys"), gentrification ("Open Letter [to a Landlord]") and racism ("Funny Vibe") with flare and originality. Then they did something completely unoriginal: Citing constant infighting, they broke up without fanfare two years after the release of 1993's "Stain."
After solo careers from Reid and Glover stalled, the group reunited and toured in 2001.
Another sojourn without a new album would have officially landed Living Colour on the pathetic nostalgia circuit so the band, rounded out by bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun, released "Collideoscope" in October. As if time stood still, the album packs wallop with its aggressive sonic bursts and acute perspective on a post-9/11 society in flux.
Tuesday night at the Park West, in front of an almost entirely white audience, it was "Flying," a new song written from the perspective of someone choosing the asphalt over flames inside the World Trade Center, that secured Living Colour's relevance in the new millennium. As poignant as Bruce Springsteen's "Empty Sky," Glover, sporting a blond`fro, closed his eyes as he sang the chilling refrain ("I jumped out the window to get to the parking lot").
"A ? of When," another new song about our nation's psyche in the aftermath of 9/11, seemed a bit obvious ("Not a question of if/But a question of when"), although "In Your Name" was a timely swipe at the Bush regime ("We are hurting you to heal you").
Throughout the 70-minute show, Living Colour vacillated between free- form funk-jazz odysseys "Memories," "Tomorrow Never Knows") and disciplined fury ("Time's Up," "Middle Man").
"Time's Up" featured furious, Metallica-size rhythms courtesy of Calhoun, and a blistering solo from Reid. Reid was equally deft bringing the funk on the shambling "Love Rears its Ugly Head."
Other stellar moments came with the anesthetizing "Nothingness" and hyper "Funny Vibe." Living Colour's biggest hit "Cult of Personality" should have brought down the roof, but Reid's killer riff was muffled and the group's delivery seem hurried.
Oddly, the band ignored a slew of minor hits ("Glamour Boys," "Open Letter [to a Landlord]," and "Leave It Alone," among them) that should have added at least 20 minutes to a short set.
Living Colour easily could have truncated their one-song encore, a cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." The song set out on the right path but slowly atrophied into a lethargic stoner jam that just sort of ended, thus ending the show. Living Colour never did know how to say goodbye.
Memories Can't Wait
Funny Vibe
Song Without Sin
A ? Of When
Operation Mind Control
Ignorance Is Bliss
In Your Name
Flying
Middle Man
Nothingness
Love Rears It's Ugly Head
Times Up!
Cult Of Personality
-------------------------
Tomorrow Never Knows
This Is The Life (radically changed!)
Chicago Tribune Review
Living Colour flying in rare air
By Blair R. Fischer
Special to the Tribune
Published December 4, 2003
When Living Colour emerged out of New York's Bowery 15 years ago, the funk-rock troupe was something of an anomaly.
Drowning out the death rattle of glam metal and flouting the dawn of grunge, the African-American quartet earned props--and the coveted opening slot on The Rolling Stones' "Steel Wheels" tour--with a fresh melange of jerky rhythms, Vernon Reid's virtuoso guitar work and frontman Corey Glover's caustic, sociopolitical lyrics.
Living Colour took on greed ("Glamour Boys"), gentrification ("Open Letter [to a Landlord]") and racism ("Funny Vibe") with flare and originality. Then they did something completely unoriginal: Citing constant infighting, they broke up without fanfare two years after the release of 1993's "Stain."
After solo careers from Reid and Glover stalled, the group reunited and toured in 2001.
Another sojourn without a new album would have officially landed Living Colour on the pathetic nostalgia circuit so the band, rounded out by bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun, released "Collideoscope" in October. As if time stood still, the album packs wallop with its aggressive sonic bursts and acute perspective on a post-9/11 society in flux.
Tuesday night at the Park West, in front of an almost entirely white audience, it was "Flying," a new song written from the perspective of someone choosing the asphalt over flames inside the World Trade Center, that secured Living Colour's relevance in the new millennium. As poignant as Bruce Springsteen's "Empty Sky," Glover, sporting a blond`fro, closed his eyes as he sang the chilling refrain ("I jumped out the window to get to the parking lot").
"A ? of When," another new song about our nation's psyche in the aftermath of 9/11, seemed a bit obvious ("Not a question of if/But a question of when"), although "In Your Name" was a timely swipe at the Bush regime ("We are hurting you to heal you").
Throughout the 70-minute show, Living Colour vacillated between free- form funk-jazz odysseys "Memories," "Tomorrow Never Knows") and disciplined fury ("Time's Up," "Middle Man").
"Time's Up" featured furious, Metallica-size rhythms courtesy of Calhoun, and a blistering solo from Reid. Reid was equally deft bringing the funk on the shambling "Love Rears its Ugly Head."
Other stellar moments came with the anesthetizing "Nothingness" and hyper "Funny Vibe." Living Colour's biggest hit "Cult of Personality" should have brought down the roof, but Reid's killer riff was muffled and the group's delivery seem hurried.
Oddly, the band ignored a slew of minor hits ("Glamour Boys," "Open Letter [to a Landlord]," and "Leave It Alone," among them) that should have added at least 20 minutes to a short set.
Living Colour easily could have truncated their one-song encore, a cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." The song set out on the right path but slowly atrophied into a lethargic stoner jam that just sort of ended, thus ending the show. Living Colour never did know how to say goodbye.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Skinny's Music - Collideoscope Review
Along with the likes of fellow black-American acts Fishbone, Bad Brains and Body Count, Living Colour helped crash-tackle the rock scene of white America in the 1980s and early 90s, with seminal tunes such as "Love Rears Its Ugly Head," "Bi," "Leave It Alone" and "Cult Of Personality." So when I heard there was a new Living Colour CD being released, I assumed it would another posthumous greatest hits package. But "Collideoscope" is actually a new studio album, the band's first in a decade since 1993's "Stain." It only takes about ten seconds of opening track "Song Without Sin" to realise Living Colour are back, thanks to the distinctive mix of Glover's vocals and the chunky guitar riffs of Vernon Reid. But Living Colour have diversified their hard rock sound for this new decade by adding fresh elements to the mix. Electronic beats and sampling are the backbone of "In Your Name" (with a lyrical structure reminiscent of The Beatles classic "Come Together"), reggae and dub permeate the excellent "Nightmare City," while there's plenty of funk in "Holy Roller." And they've cleverly spliced elements of Public Image Ltd's "The Order Of Death" with the mantra-like refrain of 'The customer is always right' to come up with the rock/techno hybrid "Choices Mash Up/Happy Shopper." As with the band's past work, there is a decidedly social and political bent to many of these songs, such as on "Sacred Ground," with references to Chico Mendez and the Rainbow Warrior, and the dirty lo-fi grunge of "Operation Mind Control." But whereas on previous albums Living Colour mastered a fun and surreptitious way of delivering their social commentary, they seem more overtly serious on "Collideoscope." It shouldn't come as any great surprise that Living Colour have covered two songs here, given their last decent output was a cover of Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" for the movie soundtrack of Arnie's (sorry, Governor Schwarzenegger's) "True Lies" in 1994. The choice of the first cover song might startle some however - an electro-laced take on The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows." And while Glover's attempt at emulating Brian Johnson during their faithful rendition of the AC/DC classic "Back In Black" is substandard (and almost comical), Reid's sensational guitar solos more than compensate. Metallica take note - guitar solos still have a place in heavy rock music today! You'll find more examples of Reid's outstanding craft on "Lost Halo" and "Great Expectations." Another string in the band's bow is the ability of its rhythm section (bassist Doug Wimbash and drummer Will Calhoun) to maintain the volume and momentum while Reid takes off on his flamboyant guitar excursions. Other highlights on "Collideoscope" include "A ? Of When," with its surreal and twisted sampled introduction, the sublime "Flying," sounding like a long-lost Ben Harper gem, and the laid-back groove of "Pocket Of Tears." Living Colour could easily have played it safe by reverting back to the straight-up rock sound of their early "Time's Up" and "Vivid" albums with this comeback release, but kudos to the band for their willingness to further expand their sound.
Lee Oliver
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Living Colour burst onto the scene in with their debut album ‘Vivid’ in 1988, the world praise the hard rock acts amazing mix of jazz, funk and metal. Their follow up, 1990’s ‘Time’s Up’ proved the band’s incredible musicianship growth, and a strengthening political consciousness, while 1991’s ‘Biscuits’ and 1993’s ‘Stain’ maintain the high the band had achieved. Then, without warning, they split. Apart from a best of release a couple of years later (1995's ‘Pride’), little has been heard from Living Colour as a collective unit...that is until now! After an eight-year absence from the scene, the members (Guitarist Vernon Reid, drummer Will Calhoun, vocalist Corey Glover and bassist Doug Wimbish) have regrouped for their first recording in ten years. As expected, ‘Collideoscope’ is true to Living Colour’s original design, and essentially picks up from where ‘Stain’ left us all those years ago. The opener ‘Song Without Sin’ is without doubt one of the thickest and heaviest tracks the four piece have laid down to date, but still retains Glover’s gloriously soulful vocal tapestry amongst the din. ‘A? Of When’ could well have been lifted from ‘Time’s Up’ with Reid’s trademark looped riff, while the deliberate muddiness within ‘Operation Mind Control’ and ‘Choices Mash Up/Happy Shopper’ show the experimentation with sound has not been diminished over time within the groups collective thinking. There’s a slight eighties Bowie feel (‘Ashes To Ashes’) to the soulful laid back groove of ‘Flying’, but the opposite extreme is presented soon after with the sample laden industrial crunching anti-war sentiment of ‘In Your Name’. Living Colour is determined not to stay within the singular framework of hard rock for any length of time, and to prove the fact, there’s shades of metal/reggae in ‘Nightmare City’, blues influences in ‘Holy Roller’ and heavy handed rock on ‘Sacred Ground’ (Which has been reworked and re-recorded from ‘Pride’). There are some moments of commercial appeal though. Both ‘Pocket Of Tears’ and ‘Lost Halo’ are mid paced rockers with an easy feel, while ‘Great Expectations’ explores some remote funk angles. Perhaps two of the albums surprising moments are the covers of AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ (The albums lead off single) and The Beatles ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. Glover’s performance of ‘Back In Black’ is especially noteworthy, with his execution of all the high notes hitting the mark every time. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ on the other hand is obviously a chance for the band to stretch out their musical expertise with an unbridled jam beyond the scope of the average musician (As the instrumental sequel ‘Nova’ proves). While many will hail the comeback of the New Jersey foursome, there’s also a word of caution the precipitates ‘Collideoscope’. This is no ‘Vivid’, but more an extension of ‘Stain’, with little regard of current trends or commercial expectations. Having said that, for fans of this groundbreaking act, this is perhaps one of the true success stories of a return to form, especially after a hiatus that lasted far too long for my liking.
For more information on Living Colour, check out - http://www.livingcolournet.com/
Justin Donnelly
Living Colour CollideoScope DVD audio
For the most part, you can purchase the Dolby 5.1 Surround sound DVD-audio from Amazon.com, CDUniverse.com and at some of your local BestBuys.
excerpt from amazon re: dvd-audio :
DVD-A is the latest way to hear multichannel, audiophile-quality albums in your home, using your DVD or DVD-Audio player. A DVD-A can hold up to seven times the data of a normal CD, which results in added features and better sound. Also, with its sampling rate higher than that of average CDs (up to 192 kHz, whereas most CDs get 44.1 kHz), you may hear a lot of details in music on a DVD-A that you'd never discover on an average CD. And, since nearly all DVD-As are engineered for multichannel/surround-sound listening (using five or six speakers), with the right equipment, you'll be able to hear your favorite music in breathtaking surround sound.
Along with the likes of fellow black-American acts Fishbone, Bad Brains and Body Count, Living Colour helped crash-tackle the rock scene of white America in the 1980s and early 90s, with seminal tunes such as "Love Rears Its Ugly Head," "Bi," "Leave It Alone" and "Cult Of Personality." So when I heard there was a new Living Colour CD being released, I assumed it would another posthumous greatest hits package. But "Collideoscope" is actually a new studio album, the band's first in a decade since 1993's "Stain." It only takes about ten seconds of opening track "Song Without Sin" to realise Living Colour are back, thanks to the distinctive mix of Glover's vocals and the chunky guitar riffs of Vernon Reid. But Living Colour have diversified their hard rock sound for this new decade by adding fresh elements to the mix. Electronic beats and sampling are the backbone of "In Your Name" (with a lyrical structure reminiscent of The Beatles classic "Come Together"), reggae and dub permeate the excellent "Nightmare City," while there's plenty of funk in "Holy Roller." And they've cleverly spliced elements of Public Image Ltd's "The Order Of Death" with the mantra-like refrain of 'The customer is always right' to come up with the rock/techno hybrid "Choices Mash Up/Happy Shopper." As with the band's past work, there is a decidedly social and political bent to many of these songs, such as on "Sacred Ground," with references to Chico Mendez and the Rainbow Warrior, and the dirty lo-fi grunge of "Operation Mind Control." But whereas on previous albums Living Colour mastered a fun and surreptitious way of delivering their social commentary, they seem more overtly serious on "Collideoscope." It shouldn't come as any great surprise that Living Colour have covered two songs here, given their last decent output was a cover of Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" for the movie soundtrack of Arnie's (sorry, Governor Schwarzenegger's) "True Lies" in 1994. The choice of the first cover song might startle some however - an electro-laced take on The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows." And while Glover's attempt at emulating Brian Johnson during their faithful rendition of the AC/DC classic "Back In Black" is substandard (and almost comical), Reid's sensational guitar solos more than compensate. Metallica take note - guitar solos still have a place in heavy rock music today! You'll find more examples of Reid's outstanding craft on "Lost Halo" and "Great Expectations." Another string in the band's bow is the ability of its rhythm section (bassist Doug Wimbash and drummer Will Calhoun) to maintain the volume and momentum while Reid takes off on his flamboyant guitar excursions. Other highlights on "Collideoscope" include "A ? Of When," with its surreal and twisted sampled introduction, the sublime "Flying," sounding like a long-lost Ben Harper gem, and the laid-back groove of "Pocket Of Tears." Living Colour could easily have played it safe by reverting back to the straight-up rock sound of their early "Time's Up" and "Vivid" albums with this comeback release, but kudos to the band for their willingness to further expand their sound.
Lee Oliver
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Living Colour burst onto the scene in with their debut album ‘Vivid’ in 1988, the world praise the hard rock acts amazing mix of jazz, funk and metal. Their follow up, 1990’s ‘Time’s Up’ proved the band’s incredible musicianship growth, and a strengthening political consciousness, while 1991’s ‘Biscuits’ and 1993’s ‘Stain’ maintain the high the band had achieved. Then, without warning, they split. Apart from a best of release a couple of years later (1995's ‘Pride’), little has been heard from Living Colour as a collective unit...that is until now! After an eight-year absence from the scene, the members (Guitarist Vernon Reid, drummer Will Calhoun, vocalist Corey Glover and bassist Doug Wimbish) have regrouped for their first recording in ten years. As expected, ‘Collideoscope’ is true to Living Colour’s original design, and essentially picks up from where ‘Stain’ left us all those years ago. The opener ‘Song Without Sin’ is without doubt one of the thickest and heaviest tracks the four piece have laid down to date, but still retains Glover’s gloriously soulful vocal tapestry amongst the din. ‘A? Of When’ could well have been lifted from ‘Time’s Up’ with Reid’s trademark looped riff, while the deliberate muddiness within ‘Operation Mind Control’ and ‘Choices Mash Up/Happy Shopper’ show the experimentation with sound has not been diminished over time within the groups collective thinking. There’s a slight eighties Bowie feel (‘Ashes To Ashes’) to the soulful laid back groove of ‘Flying’, but the opposite extreme is presented soon after with the sample laden industrial crunching anti-war sentiment of ‘In Your Name’. Living Colour is determined not to stay within the singular framework of hard rock for any length of time, and to prove the fact, there’s shades of metal/reggae in ‘Nightmare City’, blues influences in ‘Holy Roller’ and heavy handed rock on ‘Sacred Ground’ (Which has been reworked and re-recorded from ‘Pride’). There are some moments of commercial appeal though. Both ‘Pocket Of Tears’ and ‘Lost Halo’ are mid paced rockers with an easy feel, while ‘Great Expectations’ explores some remote funk angles. Perhaps two of the albums surprising moments are the covers of AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ (The albums lead off single) and The Beatles ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. Glover’s performance of ‘Back In Black’ is especially noteworthy, with his execution of all the high notes hitting the mark every time. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ on the other hand is obviously a chance for the band to stretch out their musical expertise with an unbridled jam beyond the scope of the average musician (As the instrumental sequel ‘Nova’ proves). While many will hail the comeback of the New Jersey foursome, there’s also a word of caution the precipitates ‘Collideoscope’. This is no ‘Vivid’, but more an extension of ‘Stain’, with little regard of current trends or commercial expectations. Having said that, for fans of this groundbreaking act, this is perhaps one of the true success stories of a return to form, especially after a hiatus that lasted far too long for my liking.
For more information on Living Colour, check out - http://www.livingcolournet.com/
Justin Donnelly
Living Colour CollideoScope DVD audio
For the most part, you can purchase the Dolby 5.1 Surround sound DVD-audio from Amazon.com, CDUniverse.com and at some of your local BestBuys.
excerpt from amazon re: dvd-audio :
DVD-A is the latest way to hear multichannel, audiophile-quality albums in your home, using your DVD or DVD-Audio player. A DVD-A can hold up to seven times the data of a normal CD, which results in added features and better sound. Also, with its sampling rate higher than that of average CDs (up to 192 kHz, whereas most CDs get 44.1 kHz), you may hear a lot of details in music on a DVD-A that you'd never discover on an average CD. And, since nearly all DVD-As are engineered for multichannel/surround-sound listening (using five or six speakers), with the right equipment, you'll be able to hear your favorite music in breathtaking surround sound.
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