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During
the 1980s, rock had become completely segregated and predictable;
the opposite of the late '60s/early '70s, when such musically
and ethnically varied artists as Jimi Hendrix, Sly & the
Family Stone, and Santana ruled the Earth. But bands such
as New York's Living Colour helped break down the doors by
the end of the '80s, leading to a much more open-minded musical
landscape that would eventually pave the way for future bands
(Rage Against the Machine, Sevendust, 311, etc.). The group
(singer Corey Glover, guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Muzz
Skillings, and drummer Will Calhoun) first formed in the mid-'80s,
with Reid being the only member with real prior band experience;
he was a member of Ronald Shannon Jackson's experimental jazz
outfit, and had recorded with Defunkt, Public Enemy, as well
as issuing a solo album with Bill Frisell, 1984's Smash &
Scatteration.
It
took the fledgling band a few years for their sound to gel,
as they honed their act at N.Y.C.'s famed CBGB's. But the
group found an unlikely supporter in Mick Jagger, who took
the band under his wing, produced a demo for the quartet,
and helped them secure a record deal with Epic (just prior,
Glover had to take a brief leave of absence from the band,
as he landed a role in Oliver Stone's Vietnam War epic movie,
Platoon). Living Colour's debut album, Vivid, was issued in
the summer of 1988, yet it would take a few months for momentum
to build. By the winter, the band's striking video for their
anthem "Cult of Personality" was all over MTV, pushing
Vivid to the upper reaches of the charts and to platinum certification.
Living Colour also took home their first of several Grammy
Awards, as "Cult" won Best Hard Rock Performance
at the 1989 ceremony, and the band supported the release with
a string of dates opening stadiums for the Rolling Stones'
first U.S. tour in eight years that autumn.
Starting
with Vivid and continuing on future albums, the band showed
that rock could still convey a message (as evidenced by such
tracks as "Open Letter to a Landlord," "Funny
Vibe," among others). The quartet regrouped a year later
for their sophomore effort, Time's Up, an album that performed
respectfully on the charts but failed to live up to the expectations
of their smash debut. An appearance at the inaugural Lollapalooza
tour in the summer of 1991 kept the group in the public's
eye, as did an EP of outtakes, Biscuits. Skillings left the
group shortly thereafter (replaced by studio vet Doug Wimbish),
as their darkest and most challenging release yet, Stain,
was issued in 1993. Although it failed to sell as well as
its predecessors, it retained the band's large and dedicated
following, as Living Colour appeared to be entering an interesting
and groundbreaking new musical phase of their career. The
band began writing the following year for what would be their
fourth full-length, but an inability to settle on a single
musical direction caused friction between the members, leading
to Living Colour's demise in early 1995.
In
the wake of Living Colour's split, all of its former members
pursued other projects. Reid issued a solo album, 1996's Mistaken
Identity (as well as guesting on other artist's recordings),
while Glover attempted to launch a career as a solo artist,
issuing the overlooked Hymns in 1998 and finding time to appear
as a VJ on VH1 and acting in the 1996 movie Loose Women. Calhoun
and Wimbish remained together and launched a new outfit, the
drum'n'bass-inspired Jungle Funk, who issued a self-titled
debut release in 1997 (Wimbish also issued a solo album, Trippy
Notes for Bass, in 1999). With Living Colour out of commission
for several years by the early 21st century, Calhoun and Wimbish
teamed up once more with Glover in a new outfit, Headfake,
playing often in the New York City area. A few days before
Christmas in 2000, Headfake played a show at CBGB's, and were
joined on stage by Reid, which led to rumors of an impending
Living Colour reunion. The rumors proved to be true, as Living
Colour launched their first tour together in six years during
the summer of 2001. Two years later, Living Colour returned
with a deal with Sanctuary and their most experimental release
to date. CollideØscope was slated for an October release
date.
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allmusic.com
Sanctuary Records Press Release
When the four members of Living Colour went separate ways
in 1995, drummer Will Calhoun grabbed his passport and went
globetrotting. Over the course of the five years that followed,
Calhoun's journeys took him everywhere from Russia (as a member
of jazz great Wayne Shorter's touring band) to Australia (where
he studied tribal music while living with an Aborigine family
in the Outback) to Morocco, where he went to explore the trancelike
sounds of Gnawan music. Though his destinations were diverse,
the question was always the same: When is Living Colour getting
back together? "It seemed like I was being asked almost everywhere
I went," says Calhoun. "It was amazing to learn that the music
we created had traveled so far around the world. I had everyone
from [Montreux Jazz Festival founder] Claude Nobs to Mick
Jagger pull me aside and tell me we needed to regroup. It
really made me think about the art and energy of Living Colour
and the impact that we made. As an artist, you have to respect
that." That Living Colour's legacy has broken through obstacles
of language, distance and culture comes as little surprise.
Formed by guitarist/Black Rock Coalition founder Vernon Reid
in 1984, the quartet revised a Black music tradition that
extends from Chuck Berry and Little Richard to Jimi Hendrix
and Parliament-Funkadelic. Over the course of their career,
they released three critically acclaimed albums (Vivid, Time's
Up and Stain), which sold over 4 million copies combined,
earned a pair of Grammy Awards, two MTV Music Video Awards
and tore up stages around the world. They were perhaps the
only band that could have opened for the Rolling Stones and
played the first, groundbreaking Lollapalooza Tour. Deciding
that he didn't want to be "sitting around with regret at age
60," Calhoun phoned Reid in December of 2000 and invited him
to sit in with Headfake, a drum & bass side project featuring
former Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish and on occasion,
vocalist Corey Glover. The guitarist agreed, and a gig was
booked at the band's old stomping ground of CBGB's under the
winking banner of "Headfake and Surprise Musical Guest." The
faithful turned out by the hundreds and the band didn't disappoint.
On the same small stage where they had been discovered more
than a dozen years earlier, a revitalized Living Colour blazed
through searing renditions of "Cult of Personality" (from
1998's Grammy-winning, multi-platinum album Vivid), "Love
Rears Its Ugly Head," "Time's Up" and "Type." In a review
of the show, MTV reported that "the foursome tore into [their
set] with the fervor of newcomers." "It was such an incredible
feeling to look across the stage and see Corey standing next
to Vernon and Will playing behind them," recalls Wimbish.
"You could see that they were having a great time. After all
those years, it was good to be able to share a moment like
that once again." In fact, it felt so good they decided to
do it again and played a string of sold-out nationwide club
dates, while also hitting South America and the European festival
circuit. "It felt a little weird at first," says Reid. "But
we started becoming a band again. And based on the reaction
we were getting at the shows, it was clear that our audience
still cares. Hell, people were coming up to me after gigs
and saying we've reaffirmed their faith in music. That's pretty
powerful." Inspired by fan reaction and eager to redefine
its focus, the quartet began to write. Fully aware that their
long absence required one helluva re-entry vehicle, they took
time to craft the material carefully. "We spent a year and
a half writing and recording four albums worth of material,"
laughs Calhoun. "It was a long, drawn-out process, but I think
we needed to go through it to make the right record." The
much-anticipated result is CollideØscope (Mayan Records /
Sanctuary), an electrifying testament to the range and depth
of Living Colour's artistry. The band's first studio album
in ten years sees them staying true to their roots, while
keeping their grooves current and hearts open. The songs are
edgy, inventive and uncompromising and rank among the influential
band's best ever. "We felt the record really had to say something,"
says Glover. "Over the years, we've seen a lot of things go
down that aren't being addressed and someone needs to talk
about that. We had an obligation then and we have an obligation
now to speak the truth, and we're never going to be afraid
of that." Looking at the world outside his window, Glover
sees an America filled with disillusion, injustice and fear.
It's a vista of ruin, its streets littered with broken and
abandoned promises and he channels the collective hurt into
songs of monolithic power. Like many of us, the seismic repercussions
of the September 11th terrorist attacks have forced him to
reevaluate his perceptions of good and evil ("Song Without
Sin") while avoiding a life of fear ("A ? of When" and "Operation
Mind Control"). As Glover tells it, the latter two are flip
sides of the same paranoia."'A ? of When' refers to 'the high
alerts,' he says. "We have been told us time and again, 'it
may not happen today, tomorrow, or the day after that, but
it'll happen soon and it'll be very severe.' We're being kept
in this state of suspended fear. It's been said that you can
run a lot of things by people in a state of confusion. That
leads to 'Operation Mind Control,' which is about those that
go along with it all. It's a gleeful sing-along of paranoia,
saying, 'hey, this is fun-let's dance for the surveillance
cameras'." The album's emotional linchpin is the achingly
beautiful "Flying," a heart-wrenching tale about a young couple
whose tragic end comes sudden and without warning. In a single
moment, their dreams are both realized and erased, and no
one takes notice of their passing. "It's a story about a guy
who goes to work at the Trade Center on September 11 and decides
that today is the day that he's finally going to ask out Carmen,
a co-worker," says Glover. "Ironically, they do wind up together,
but it's certainly not the way he imagined it. It's the idea
of taking this huge, tragic event and boiling it down to its
smallest essence, which is that it was about people. There
were so many people there that day, going to work, punching
time clocks. Who knows how many of them got to realize their
dreams on that final day?" As the album spins on, Glover talks
pointedly and poignantly about consumerism ("Choices Mash
Up; A) Happy Shopper"), anxiety ("Holy Roller") and global
environment ("Sacred Ground") against a stunning backdrop
of hypnotic grooves, honeyed melodies and speaker-shattering
guitars. Living Colour does a lot of things brilliantly-and
they do most of them on CollideØscope, offering an adventurous
earful of soulful, raucous rock ("Lost Halo"), reggae/dub
("Nightmare City") and electro-dynamics ("In Your Name").
Among the album's many highlights is the band's blistering
version of the AC/DC classic "Back in Black." "It's a song
we've wanted to do for a long time, but it takes an interesting
twist with us," laughs Glover. "There are references to having
nine lives and lynching with lines like, 'they've got to catch
me if they want me to hang.' That definitely takes on new
meaning when I sing them." "On one hand, the idea of Living
Colour doing 'Back in Black' is a no-brainer," adds Reid.
"But there's an unintended irony that comes into play because
of the lyrics. I've heard the song millions of times over
the years and the only thing I remember hearing clearly is
the chorus. But it turns out there are certain lines in the
verses that give our rendition real resonance." Produced by
the band and mixed by Andy Stackpole, CollideØscope also features
a devastating cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows."
"We originally planned to do it for a project that never materialized,
but it fit perfectly on this record" says Reid. "This song
and 'A ? of When' are flipsides of the same coin. On the former,
you have fear and loathing, while the latter speaks about
the endless coming and going of life and that everything happens
for a reason. It's a classic song." CollideØscope may have
taken a year and a half to make, but it arrives just in time
and was definitely worth the wait. In an era when there's
a cookie-cutter sameness to so many of today's acts, the return
of Living Colour recalls a time when bands were praised for
their uniqueness and willingness to take music to the edge.
"As an artist, you want to make the right moves and step up
the ladder," says Calhoun. "But what does that mean for your
integrity and artistry? If going up the ladder means becoming
more conservative and corporate, then you can have the ladder.
We don't want it. We'll just keep doing our own thing."
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