Following Kurt Cobain’s Death, Live’s Throwing Copper Birthed the Post-Grunge Movement
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The post Following Kurt Cobain’s Death, Live’s Throwing Copper Birthed the Post-Grunge Movement appeared first on Consequence.
As part of Consequence’s Post-Grunge Week, we’re taking a look at one of the genre’s starting points: Live’s terrific 1994 album, Throwing Copper. Read the review, then check out our picks for the 50 Greatest Post-Grunge Songs.
Live released their standout third album, Throwing Copper, on April 26th, 1994, as a heavy shadow lay over the rock world. Kurt Cobain had died a few weeks before. Rock felt wounded, and audiences were ready to embrace a lighter take on grunge.
Live were not fashioning themselves as the saviors of grunge, and they likely didn’t predict that their new album would reach people the way it did. Yet, there’s such a widescreen, ambitious air to Throwing Copper that when it did arrive it could easily knock people to their knees. It’s a mid ’90s statement that encapsulated the past and future of rock, marking the beginning of the post-grunge movement that would soon dominate the charts.
Perhaps the largest signifiers of “post-grunge” are the influence of Nirvana and Alice in Chains on the vocals, along with similar touchstones from fellow Seattle prophets Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Eddie Vedder, and Chris Cornell, respectively. Each had a signature vocal style. One could say they’re inimitable, and yet, that didn’t stop a bevy of rock singers emulating their pierced, curdled tone.
Live’s Ed Kowalczyk was likely not attempting to mirror some of the genre’s forbearers by the time the band holed up with Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison to record Throwing Copper. But his crackling tenor absolutely evokes Layne Staley, cutting through deeper guitars and frenetic action like a buzzsaw. Kowalczyk has his own style, and his existential lyrics arrive from a different place than the original grunge scribes. Still, whether conscious or not, Kowalczyk’s vowel-forward cadence and tempered grit, especially on the gorgeous, anthemic single “I Alone” or the raging opening track “The Dam at Otter Creek” belongs to the lineage of grunge.
But beyond the vocals, Live imbued their harder sound with moments of sun-kissed beauty, the soft warmth often coming from Kowalczyk and Chad Taylor’s guitars. The iconic “Lightning Crashes” is the album’s most serene and sentimental moment, and the guitar tone that guides the song undoubtedly became an influential vehicle for post-grunge ballads. The tossing and turning of back-half cut “Pillar of Davidson” evokes a kind of heartland rock, albeit with more power and darkness baked within its open-hearted approach. Unlike Nirvana or Alice in Chains, Live sounded less indebted to the punk and metal of the ’80s. When they accelerate, it’s not to conjure a frenzy; it’s in service of a greater release.
This potent mixture of grunge’ vaguely-threatening energy with a softer, more accessible exterior is what makes up the post-grunge appeal. Jerry Harrison producing the album — his second for Live — helped root these songs on planet Earth while letting their anthemic sound soar off into sky. Toggling between a feedback-ridden, distorted presentation and clarity is a tough task, and by doing it so deftly, Harrison had his part in shaping an influential sound.
Together, artist and producer combine each puzzle piece flawlessly on the underrated “Iris,” which features a rollicking, tom-heavy drum beat from Chad Gracey, as well as a furious, aching performance from Kowalczyk. The song starts and stops, inhales and exhales. A serene bridge halts the song’s momentum, but when the band comes flooding back in at full force, it sounds like a completely different song.
Immediately following “Iris” is the miraculous “Lightning Crashes” — which we ranked as the 3rd greatest post-grunge track of all time. “Lightning Crashes” is deeply restrained until the song’s final minute, which turns its meditative sentimentality into cathartic desperation. The song has become a beloved document of the early post-grunge era, right up there with Bush’s similarly weepy “Glycerine,” and 30 years later, it hasn’t lost its evocative touch.
Many still associate “Lightning Crashes” with its heavily-syndicated music video, which features an old woman dying as a new mother gives birth. Kowalczyk explained that the video was more about the “transference of life,” but regardless of the band’s intention, there’s a tidal wave of emotion imbued into the visual, forcing the listener to really sit with the song’s gravity. With a slow-burning, honeyed guitar line and an emphatic performance from Kowalczyk, “Lightning Crashes” is both tied to the ’90s and timeless; its potency has yet to dissolve, and yet, when listening, you can’t help but place it in this fraught era of rock, mystifying and humongous and intimate all at once.
It’s not all crashing lightning, however — Throwing Copper is sequentially muddled, leading to the final track with pair of six-minute odysseys that rob the album of some energy. Still, Throwing Copper remains a triumph for Live and for the post-grunge genre they helped solidify. In 1994, rock was bigger than ever, and the storylines around grunge remained as muddy as the genre’s sound. But Live came in and showed that endings can be beginnings, too.
Following Kurt Cobain’s Death, Live’s Throwing Copper Birthed the Post-Grunge Movement
Paolo Ragusa
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