September 2009

Marco Benevento – Now They’re Writing Music

Phish bassist Mike Gordon and his solo band kicked off their September tour at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last night with a show that included a number of songs

We’ve been fans of David Schultz’s work on Earvolution since he started the site, so we’re honored to welcome him to the Hidden Track team.

In the late Eighties, at the height of the MTV era, Living Colour emerged from New York City and with songs like Cult Of Personality, Which Way To America? and Open Letter (To A Landlord) added their articulate voice to the populist response to the Republican politics of the Reagan/Bush era.

On the strength of Vivid and Time’s Up, Living Colour found themselves in heavy rotation on MTV, on the cover of Rolling Stone and opening up stadium shows for The Rolling Stones on their Steel Wheels tour. Shortly after the 1993 release of Stain, Living Colour abruptly disappeared until lead singer Corey Glover, guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun made their reunion official with a free concert in Central Park in the summer of 2001.

In Reid, Wimbish and Calhoun, Living Colour boasts a lineup in which each can lay a credible claim to being the best at what they do. It takes a charismatic personality to front this group and, in that, Corey Glover has never faltered. One of the more distinctive voices in modern rock, Glover also shines on the stage. He appeared in Oliver Stone’s Oscar winning Platoon and recently spent the last couple years playing Judas in a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar.

On September 15, Living Colour will release The Chair in the Doorway on Megaforce Records. It will be their fifth studio album and first since 2003’s Collideoscope. Just before Living Colour embarked on their first United States tour in five years, Glover sat for an interview at the band’s rehearsal studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Schultz: Is Living Colour’s recent reemergence more of a reunion or a return?

Glover: It’s more like a return. Even before Collideoscope came out, we’ve been on the road and constantly playing. Every summer, we’ve been in Europe or South America. It was always an idea to keep playing and that was the impetus to keep us going. The Chair In The Doorway was actually made on the road. We did the first half of the record in Sono Studios in the Czech Republic, just outside of Prague.

READ ON for more of David’s chat with Corey Glover…