Living Colour - Stain
Speaking of black metal, Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of Living Colour's Stain. I'm admittedly not a huge fan of the band, as their records are wildly disjointed. They have a soul singer for a vocalist (Corey Glover), Ornette Coleman-meets-Eddie Van Halen for a guitarist (Vernon Reid), and an avant-funk rhythm section (Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish/Muzz Skillings), with songs that range from reggae and afro-pop to full-on metal.But Stain is by far my favorite Living Colour record. It's their heaviest, darkest, and most focused work. This was perhaps partially due to the departure of Skillings, the bassist on the sunnier first two records (the Living Colour most people know). Wimbish replaced him with an assault of slapping and harmonics; when he and Calhoun launched into phrases, they sounded like exploding shells. Reid had probably been listening to thrash; check out the Megadeth-esque riff at 2:15 in "Go Away" and the frantic riffing in "This Little Pig." Glover, too, was pissed off and alienated - see titles like "Go Away," "Mind Your Own Business," and "Auslander."
Yet things aren't all black, so to speak. Despite its lyrics ("All I have to feel is my loneliness / Nothing in the attic except an empty chest"), "Nothingness" has lush, '80s-esque synths. "WTFF" could have been a Public Enemy instrumental. As an ode to bisexuality, "Bi" beat Blur's "Girls & Boys" by a year: "My lover told me, well, that she's bi / I wanted to scream, there were tears in my eyes / She said, baby, baby, don't you cry / 'Cause the one I am with, you've been seeing on the side." Some very straight white boys and I covered "Bi" at a high school battle of the bands. You had to have been there.
Amazon has Stain digitally and extremely cheap physically.
Labels: anniversaries, clee, rock, usa
6 Comments:
I didn't know what to make of this record when I picked it up back in '93. Time has certainly enhanced it, especially Reid's guitar work - he plays some amazing shit here.
Plus, it didn't have any gagging atrocities like "Solace of You" or "Open Letter to a Landlord."
Good call - I had almost completely forgotten about this record.
I keep thinking I should reinvestigate these guys. I liked the idea of the first album, and one or two songs, but it wasn't until Time's Up that they blossomed for me. There was some seriously fucked-up guitar noise on that second album, and then they did that Biscuits EP of covers and live tracks that was even more fractured and weird. I bought this album when it came out, but remember it being more overtly metal than I wanted to hear from them at the time. I was looking for more angular art-funk-rawk like the EP, and instead I got almost Helmet-esque slamming. But one of these days I'll pick up all four again.
Wow, I still dig this band (and thought for sure I was the only one), and have the first three CD's (They're even on my iPod!). Even though some of the verse parts annoy me today, "Ausländer" is still my favorite track off this album 'cause the chorus fucking RULES. One of their best choruses EVER.
Oh, and "Solace of You" is a great fuckin' song. I still get that shit stuck in my head all the time. Another great chorus...
I'm probably the only one that owns and loves Collidescope (2005?) and Corey's solo album Hymns.
The most crazy and spot on observation I've heard all year is that half of DEP's Ire Works could easily be Living Colour's lost BSides.
I'll stick up for "Solace of You," too. It's like solo Paul Simon, but not so colonial. Living Colour wrote some awesome songs, but for me their albums don't hang together well.
What I've heard of Collideoscope sounded interesting (and not as bad as I expected), though again more all over the place than I'd like. And what I've heard of Corey's solo stuff - incredible voice, just not my stylistic cup of tea.
In my review of "Ire Works," I actually compared one song to Living Colour:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/48606-ire-works
yes, yes, YES! Love "Stain" and think it is SO underappreciated. Though I disagree with you about their other material being disjointed. LC was such a deep band.
@ post-felix: I liked Collideoscope too.
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