Live (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Live

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Img_capt = Live playing live in Washington DC 10 May 2008. Left to right: Dahlheimer, E. Kowalczyk, Taylor, Gracey (in background), and touring guitarist A. Kowalczyk
Background = group_or_band
Origin = York, Pennsylvania
Genre = Alternative rock
Post-grunge
Hard rock [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0jxsa9wgr23k All Music Guide, Songs From Black Mountain Review] "All Music Guide"]
Years_active = 1988–present
Label = Sony BMG, Epic, Radioactive
URL = [http://www.friendsoflive.com/ www.friendsoflive.com]
Current_members = Ed Kowalczyk
Chad Taylor
Patrick Dahlheimer
Chad Gracey
Past_members =

Live (pronEng|ˈlaɪv, rhymes with "five") [" [http://www.toazted.com/interview/54/Live.html Interview with Ed Kowalczyk in 1999] ." "Toazted.com".] (also typeset as LIVE) is an American alternative rock / post-grunge [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hpfuxqq5ldde All Music Guide, Live Profile] [All Music Guide"] band from York, Pennsylvania, comprising Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals and guitar), Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums and percussion). Live has also toured with Ed's younger brother Adam Kowalczyk as a rhythm guitarist, as well as with British keyboardist Michael "Railo" Railton, and Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon.

Live climbed from modest modern rock success to the mainstream spotlight worldwide on the strength of their 1994 breakthrough album, "Throwing Copper", which has sold 8 million copies in the US. ["http://www.friendsoflive.com/band.php".] Climbing to #1 on the 52nd week on the chart, it is the third album to reach the top after spending a year or longer on the chart (The first two were, "Fleetwood Mac" in 1976, peaking on the 58th week, and Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" in 1989, which holds the record at 64 weeks).

The band is most known for their hit singles Selling the Drama, Lightning Crashes (which stayed at the top of Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks for 12 consecutive weeks) [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=19678&model.vnuAlbumId=804726|Artist Chart History at Billboard] ] , I Alone, Lakini's Juice, The Dolphin's Cry, Simple Creed, and Heaven. To date, the band have sold almost 20 million copies worldwide.

History

Early history

Kowalczyk, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey first came together for a middle-school talent show in the Pennsylvania blue-collar town of York. The group remained together throughout high school, going through a handful of band names (such as First Aid, Club Fungus, Paisley Blues, Action Front, and Body Odor Boys) and new-wave covers before settling on the moniker Public Affection and recording a self-released cassette of originals, "The Death of a Dictionary", in 1989. Soon after in 1990, Public Affection released an EP of demos produced by Jay Healy titled "Divided Mind, Divided Planet" through their "Black Coffee" mailing list. Frequent trips into New York City to play at CBGB helped net the band a deal with Radioactive Records in 1991. With the new name Live, the band entered the studio with former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison that year and began recording the EP "Four Songs" (1991). The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" went to #9 on the Modern Rock chart, and paved the way for the band's Harrison-produced full-length debut, 1991's "Mental Jewelry" (#73). The album lyrics, penned by Kowalczyk, were heavily inspired by Indian speaker Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Mainstream success

Fueled by light touring (including billing at Woodstock '94 and Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour) and a string of hit singles ("I Alone", "All Over You" and the #1 Modern Rock hits "Selling the Drama" and "Lightning Crashes"), Live's next album, "Throwing Copper", gave the band the breakthrough it desired. The steady success of the singles propelled the album to #1 on the Billboard 200 on May 6, 1995, more than a year after the album was released. To date, it is their best-selling album and often most highly regarded album by fans and critics. The band was invited to appear on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" where they performed their hits "I Alone" and "Selling the Drama."

The momentum continued long enough to help 1997's "Secret Samadhi" (co-produced by the band and Jay Healy) debut at #1. Deriving its name from a state of Hindu meditation, the album spawned four Modern Rock singles, but failed to match its predecessor's success, with sales topping off at 2 million. The band performed "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer" from this album on "Saturday Night Live".

Harrison came back on board as co-producer for 1999's "The Distance to Here", which debuted at #4 and featured the hit single "The Dolphin's Cry."

In 2000, Live embarked on a co-headlining tour with alternative rock band Counting Crows. Frequently, Crows' lead singer Adam Duritz joined the stage for Live's performance of "The Dolphin's Cry," and Kowalczyk sang a verse of "Hanginaround" with the Crows.

Post 9/11

On September 18, 2001, the more experimental "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. Live's commercial stock—compounded by their petering radio airplay—had fallen further since "The Distance to Here", with "V" reaching #22 at home, and failing to reach gold status. That same year, Live contributed a live performance version of their song "I Alone" to the charity album "Live in the X Lounge IV".

"Overcome" was used at the end of the final episode of season 2 of The Shield.

In May 2003, the band released "Birds of Pray", which was bolstered by the unexpected success of "Heaven," Live's first U.S. Hot 100-placing single since "The Dolphin's Cry."

In November 2004, Live released ', 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 Prays "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, the album has achieved much international success and critical acclaim. However, due to poor promotion from Epic records in their native United States of America, it has proven Live's lowest-seller domestically, reaching #52 before disappearing from the charts. The album topped out at #3 on the Billboard independent chart.

While Live remains only moderately popular in terms of record sales in the United States, much of their current sales come from Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

American Idol incident

On season five 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. 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.cite web
first= Jason
last= Kaplan
coauthors= Thomas Panasci
title= The Rundown
date= 2006-05-10
publisher=HowardStern.com
url =http://www.howardstern.com/rundown.hs?month=May&day=10&year=2006
accessdate = 2008-01-12
quote =Following the band's performance of "Selling the Drama," Howard brought up an "American Idol" contestant, Chris Daughtry, performed Live's version of "I Walk the Line" on the show recently, yet the group wasn't given credit for it. Lead singer Ed replied that Daughtry actually apologized for not acknowledging the band, so he didn't have a problem with it. Ed went on to say that, although making it in the music industry takes more than mere singing ability, he wouldn’t be surprised if Chris ends up becoming successful in the years to come.] cite news
first=Mark | last=Mercer | coauthors= | title=Live Performs Live In Howard's Studio. 05/10/06. 9:10am | date=2006-05-10 | publisher=Mark's Friggin | url =http://www.marksfriggin.com/news02/9-16.htm | work =Howard Stern Show News Archives | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-12 | quote = Howard heard that Ed was a huge fan of American Idol but Ed said he was just joking about that when he did the pre-interview. Howard said that one of the kids on American Idol covered "Walk the Line" and did Live's arrangement of the song and got credit for it. Ed said he spoke to the guy, Chris Daughtry, and he apologized for it so he's fine with it now.]

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

Recent times

On September 14, 2007, the band released their first album since 1989 on their own Action Front Records label, "", featuring two brand new songs: "Beautiful Invisible" and "Radiant Sea".Live also recorded their first "live" DVD in Holland during two shows in Paradiso on June 30 and July 1. They spent the rest of the summer of 2008 headlining a US tour with Blues Traveler and Collective Soul, and will be heading to Europe later this fall for extensive touring. ["http://www.friendsoflive.com/tourdates.php"]

Discography

Videography

*Appeared on "MTV Unplugged", which includes a cover of Vic Chesnutt's "Supernatural" (1995)

References

External links

* [http://www.friendsoflive.com/ Friends of Live (official website)]
*
** myspace|bigmindeddie|Ed Kowalczyk
** myspace|livedahlheimer|Patrick Dahlheimer
** myspace|adamkowalczyk|Adam Kowalczyk
* [http://www.fansoflive.com/ Fans of Live (Live fansite)]
* [http://www.livediscography.com/ Live Collector's Resource] Discography for official Live releases
* [http://www.drummersdigest.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=140&Itemid=25 Interview with Chad Gracey on Drummer's Digest]