Live (band)

LIVE (IPA pronunciation: , rhymes with “five”)"Interview with Ed Kowalczyk in 1999." Toazted.com. is an American alternative rock band from York, Pennsylvania, USA.

History

The band is comprised of Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals & guitar), Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums). Since approximately 1999, LIVE has toured with Ed's younger brother, Adam Kowalczyk as a rhythm guitarist, and, previously, British keyboardist Michael “Railo” Railton.

The original name of the band was First Aid, formed in the early 1980's. Several name changes followed, including Paisley Blues, Club Fungus, Action Front, Body Odor Boys, and finally Public Affection, under which they released the highly collectible cassette-only The Death of a Dictionary on August 17th, 1989.

After a series of unsuccessful attempts at cracking the music business, the group signed with Radioactive Records and recruited Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads to produce Mental Jewelry, an album based on the writings of J. Krishnamurti, an Indian teacher, which was released on the last day of 1991.

LIVE established a following and returned in April 1994 with the hugely popular album Throwing Copper, again produced by Harrison and recorded at Pachyderm Recording Studio, which was pushed by the success of singles “Selling the Drama”, “I Alone”, “All Over You”, “White, Discussion” and the immensely popular “Lightning Crashes”. Although it was a slow starter, Throwing Copper eventually reached #1 in the US roughly a year after its release, and was certified eight times platinum, making LIVE a massive success. Many fans consider this to be their best album, as evidenced by the fact that it is the band's best-selling album.

Following that, the band released Secret Samadhi in February 1997, a darker and heavier album which, despite its virtues, shrunk Live's fanbase considerably, although it debuted at #1 and went double platinum. “Lakini's Juice”, “Freaks”, “Turn My Head” and “Rattlesnake” were all successful singles from the album.

Retracing their steps, LIVE delivered The Distance to Here in October 1999, which recalled Throwing Copper's immediacy and commerciality. “The Dolphin's Cry”, “Run to the Water” and “They Stood Up for Love” were all popular releases from The Distance to Here, which reached #4 in the US, going platinum.

In September 2001, the confident and eclectic V (originally scheduled to be titled “Ecstatic Fanatic”) was issued to mixed reviews, preceded by “Simple Creed” as the first single. However, with the events of 9/11—which occurred a week before V 's release—the melancholic “Overcome” began receiving significant airplay, superseding “Simple Creed” and becoming V's selling point. Unfortunately, LIVE's commercial stock—compounded by their petering radio airplay—had fallen further since The Distance to Here, with V merely reaching #22 at home, failing to reach gold status.

Birds of Pray appeared in May 2003, bolstered by the unexpected success of “Heaven”, LIVE's first US Hot 100-placing since “The Dolphin's Cry.” Reaching #28, Birds of Pray ultimately outsold V, although it too received mixed reviews and failed to reach gold status.

In November 2004, LIVE released The Best of Live, a career-spanning compilation that included “We Deal in Dreams”, a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, and a cover of Johnny Cash's “I Walk the Line”, as well as Birds of Pray's “Run Away”, re-imagined with Shelby Lynne on co-lead vocals.

In 2005, LIVE signed with Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Epic label, and released a new album entitled Songs from Black Mountain in June 2006, preceded by “The River” as lead single. Thus far, while the album has achieved international success, it has proven LIVE's lowest-seller yet domestically, only reaching #52 in the US before quickly disappearing from the charts.

While LIVE remains moderately popular in the United States, the band has gained significant popularity abroad, particularly in Europe (Ed Kowalczyk: “Holland is the center of the LIVE universe”), Australia and New Zealand.

The group made news in January 2006 as three band members (Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and touring rhythm guitar Adam Kowalczyk) and two members of the band's road crew were on a United Airlines flight when smoke filled the cabin, requiring the pilot to make an emergency landing.

On season 5 of American Idol, finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing LIVE's rendition of Johnny Cash's “I Walk the Line” and calling it his own. This angered some LIVE fans, but one week later Daughtry acknowledged it was not his own rendition, even saying LIVE was one of his favorite bands. In May 2006, LIVE appeared on The Howard Stern Show and addressed this issue. Ed Kowalczyk gave Daughtry a personal phone call. “He's since apologized profusely to me,” said Ed. “He's actually a great singer and a great guy.”

In an interview, Chris Daughtry said this to EW:

“It wasn't my doing. You say a lot of things in the ^* interview, and when editing gets involved, things get cut out for time constraints. I did mention in my interview that I'm doing a different version from a band I totally respect. The lead singer of LIVE, Ed Kowalczyk, called me to say, ‘Man, don't listen to that.’ We've been talking a lot since. It's really cool for me, because that's the band that inspired me to get into music. Ed Kowalczyk is my favorite singer. It was really cool to get that kind of respect.”

On May 24, 2006, the band and Chris Daughtry performed “Mystery” on the season finale of American Idol, and on June 7, a new version of “Mystery” was released on the Friends of LIVE website featuring Chris Daughtry on guest vocals.

Discography

Albums

Image:Live-Mental_Jewelry_(album_cover).jpg|

Mental Jewelry
December 31, 1991
US #73
1,000,000
Image:Livecopper.jpg|Throwing Copper
April 26, 1994
US #1; UK #37
6,000,000
Image:Live-Secret_Samadhi_(album_cover).jpg|Secret Samadhi
February 18, 1997
US #1; UK #31
2,000,000
Image:Livedistance.jpg|The Distance to Here
October 5, 1999
US #4; UK #56
1,200,000
Image:Livev.jpg|V
September 18, 2001
US #5
250,000
Image:Livebirds.jpg|Birds of Pray
May 20, 2003
US #28
300,000
Image:Live-Awake.jpg| The Best of Live
November 2, 2004
US #65
200,000
Image:LiveBMCover.jpeg|Songs from Black Mountain
June 6, 2006
US #52
20,000

EP's

Four Songs (September 24, 1991)

Singles

Year	Song	US	US Mod. Rock	US Main. Rock	UK	Album
1992	Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)	-	9	-	-	Mental Jewelry
1992	Pain Lies on the Riverside	-	24	-	-	Mental Jewelry
1994	Selling the Drama	43	1	4	30	Throwing Copper
1994	I Alone	-	6	6	-	Throwing Copper
1995	Lightning Crashes	-	1	1	33	Throwing Copper
1995	All Over You	-	2	4	-	Throwing Copper
1995	White, Discussion	-	15	12	-	Throwing Copper
1997	Lakini's Juice	-	1	2	29	Secret Samadhi
1997	Freaks	-	13	5	-	Secret Samadhi
1997	Turn My Head	-	3	3	-	Secret Samadhi
1997	Rattlesnake	-	18	15	-	Secret Samadhi
1999	The Dolphin's Cry	78	3	2	-	The Distance to Here
2000	Run to the Water	-	14	17	-	The Distance to Here
2000	They Stood Up For Love	-	31	24	-	The Distance to Here
2001	Simple Creed	-	18	11	-	V
2001	Overcome	-	30	-	-	V
2001	Forever May Not Be Long Enough (International)	-	-	-	-	V
2001	Like a Soldier (International)	-	-	-	-	V
2003	Heaven	59	33	33	-	Birds of Pray
2003	Sweet Release (International)	-	-	-	-	Birds of Pray
2004	Run Away	-	-	-	-	The Best of Live
2004	We Deal in Dreams	-	-	-	-	Awake: The Best of LIVE
2006	The River	-	-	-	-	Songs from Black Mountain
2006	Mystery	-	-	-	-	Songs from Black Mountain
2006	Wings (International)	-	-	-	-	Songs from Black Mountain

Videography

Appeared on MTV Unplugged, which includes a cover of Vic Chesnutt's “Supernatural” (|1995)

References

External links

Rock music groups | American musical groups | Alternative musical groups | Central Pennsylvania music groups | Pennsylvania musical groups

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