The Living will transcend and be reincarnated on April 16th via Stone Gossard’s (Pearl Jam) label-Loosegroove. This release is getting a lot of attention namely because the band contained a 17-year-old Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses fame. Digging into the punk rock vault a bit deeper the band also contained drummer Greg Gilmore who went on to play in Mother Love Bone.
Gossard is quoted as acknowledging that this release is “ground zero in the formation of grunge".
With the history of Seattle bands, I am sure it was not lost on The Living that The Kingsmen hailed from the city of rain. Although probably more in tune to the dial of the day with bands like U-Men and Portlands Wipers which apparently is just above 2.5 hours away.
The kids just wanna rock and roll and being full of piss and vinegar they managed to rip off a blistering hot as a heated penny on Halloween night set of blasting exploding mind bomb packages. When pondering the history of choice this leaves you scratching your dermatitis herpetiformis of what could have been or what might have been. What if this release didn’t sit in a dusty cardboard box under Gilmore’s bed for forty years would Duff go on to be in Guns N’ Roses or does anybody really care or for that matter would it upset the time space-time continuum? We can not turn back the hands of time as much as you want to believe the Twilight Zone was correct.
However, The Living certainly does play a part in the putative puzzle of the formation of the Gods of Grunge and the grittier side of what is now considered Hair Metal or Cock Rock.
They certainly are of that time period but not dated. You will hear the proverbial whoooooaaaa oooooooohhh’s much like The Misfits or Youth Brigade or find similar vocal patterning in at least one song not unfamiliar to Minor Threat.
The band tends to sound kindred to Toxic Reasons and Zero Boys which would have been their punk peers at that timeline. Not full force jackhammering your cerebellum at 100 beats per minute but bridging a gap between punk and where hardcore was going.
The intent is not to account for a tedious megillah of what might have been the fact is The Living are now given a new lease on life ready to venture off and take flight like the noble creature known as the Turkey Vulture. Often mistaken and misunderstood a Turkey Vulture feeds off dead herbivores and is relatively harmless but has an eerie presence. The Living might not be pretty boys dancing in spandex with multiple silk scarves but are circling the carcasses ready to clean up the bloated corpse of rock and roll one tendon or ligament at a time.
Take a bite of Seattles mid-point timeline before the industry blew up and the world gave us another label ingrained in our psyche.
