JesseDezz said:

Well, classic rock stations are much cooler in NYC I'm sure. That's one of things I miss most about living in a big city.

BlaqueKnight said:

Lejon Witherspoon is 7D's vocalist and he makes no bones about being a "Corey Glover acolyte".

Anxiety said:

Damn right. Most people just flat out DON'T CARE about good music. THey want to see hot people dancing or playing the music, and THAT'S what gets them into the music. And if it's not someone they want to fuck, they want to see someone who's a reflection of them.

On the flip side, there ARE people who do care about music and don't care who's making it. THey're just a vast minority unfortunately.

And as someone else said, Living Color can make a living. They can tour Europe, Japan, and beyond and make good money playing. They've got a following and they won't have to whore themselves out like the more exposed artists. WHen you see a very exposed artist these days, you have to wonder what they had to trade to get that exposure.

It's like a lot of those '80's guitarists, like Ritchie Kotzen, Nuno Bettencourt, Paul Gilbert and Marty Freidman. Those guys are like freakin' gods over in Japan. They may not be in the spotlight over here, but they can still make a pretty good living elsewhere for audiences who appreciate what they have to offer.

Was just reading a guitar mag interview with Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert about the current G3 tour. Satriani stated that he could tour nonstop if he wanted to, as he has already toured places like Bulgaria, Turkey and India. With the advent of the internet, niche artists can maintain an audience/continue to tour/make a living. As Petrucci stated, you probably won't hear Dream Theater on the radio, but they have a core audience that buys the records and comes out to the shows.

I don't feel sorry for Living Colour and I don't think Living Colour feels sorry for Living Colour. When one is actually "doing it",i.e., touring/living the life of a professional musician, one really doesn't have the time to sit and pontificate about whether they're making it or not. They're too busy living it. And fortunate to be making a living doing something they love...

JesseDezz said:

well, its not that I think that Living Colour is sitting around all sad and blue but its just not right how Black rock artists get ignored among the rock press/media. Its criminal, IMO and I dont care what anyone says, race DOES play a facotr.

LoveAlive said:

Race is surely a factor no matter how much people try to deny it. White soul acts have always found more success among black audiences/press than black rock artists have found among white audiences/press. That's just reality.

bellanoche said:

I agree 200 percent!

I agree with some of the folks who were saying that if you can do what you love for a living, then you are successful. Do LC or Fishbone get the "major" rewards that some of their counterparts get? Absolutely not. Life aint fair. But they are very well respected and seem to be able to do things on their terms so that's an achievement in itself. I always have and always will support their efforts.
BTW, I just bought LC's new DVD "Live at the World Cafe". And I know it's criminally too short, but I'll take any LC I can get on DVD.

Bfunkthe1 said:

It's only shortened because a DVD featuring COLLIDE-o-SCOPE songs is in the works. This was a 3rd party authorized release, but the producers were held from using the newer material.

LoveAlive said:

Race is still a factor in many aspects of everyday life. That's nothing new. Musicians still gotta play - I'm sure Living Colour and others are more than cognizant of the unfairness of radio/the biz in general (hence Vernon Reid and the Black Rock Coalition) but they're still gonna do what they do. Play. Especially if that's how one makes one's living.

*My old band and I played a gig at a club where we were the only persons of color. As we entered, we heard the N-word coming from more than a few lips, but we still had a gig to play. They were still playing the jukebox LOUDLY while we were trying to get a quick soundcheck. Once we plugged in and started playing along to a Bob Seger song that was playing, people started to take notice and actually turned the music off to let us get ourselves set up.

The gig went well - we played three sets - and we got paid, packed up and left. When I went back in the club to retrieve something, however, it had again reverted back to Klan Central, so to speak...That whole gig was an entirely uncomfortable situation, but we still had a job to do.

The state of popular music has always been unfair toward artists of color, going back to the days of Pat Boone doing wholly sanitized versions of Little Richard songs. So, this f***ed up state of things isn't new at all.

PFunkjazz said:

Thanks for info. Any idea when it will be available? Also will it be the same show with "Collide" songs only? I did notice the set list was absent of "Collide" songs. I happen to really dig newer material overall more than the "classics".

Afronomical said:

Me!!!! I love them!

Bfunkthe1 said:

It will be a totally different show and will have classics as well new tunes and even things heard only in concert like solo interludes, covers and works-in-progress. Expect it by late summer or end of the year, but I've been waiting for a long while.

PFunkjazz said:

Man you just made my day!
Someone around here (prolly you ?) said they were finishing up a new album as well. I truly hope all this will see the light of day. I know things change very fast when it comes to the "independants" putting stuff out when they plan to.

Bfunkthe1 said:

That may be 2008, but it's got a working title "Chair In The Doorway ) an allusion to procrastination and unfinished projects). I'm seeing Vernon this weekend and I'll confirm everything.

Here's a combined Living Colour/Yohimbe Brothers/Vernon Reid schedule with a lot of European stops

Jun 5 2007 10:00P Zebulon w/ Yohimbe Brothers Brooklyn, New York
Jun 9 2007 8:00P Temple Bar w/ Yohimbe Brothers Santa Monica, California
Jun 10 2007 3:00P Grand Performances Street Festival w/ Yohimbe Brothers Los Angeles, California
Jun 24 2007 4:00P School Of Rock Festival Asbury Park, New Jersey
Jul 6 2007 9:30P Lent Festival w/ Living Colour
Jul 7 2007 8:00P Porgy & Bess w/ Living Colour Wien
Jul 9 2007 8:00P Transilvania w/ Living Colour Milano
Jul 11 2007 8:00P Bluesiana Music Club w/ Living Colour
Jul 13 2007 8:00P Montruex Jazz Festival w/ Living Colour Montreux
Jul 14 2007 8:00P Plato w/ Living Colour Helmond
Jul 15 2007 8:00P Jazz Cafe w/ Living Colour London, London and South East
Jul 16 2007 8:00P Spirit of 66 w/ Living Colour Verviers
Jul 20 2007 8:00P Waerdse Tempel - Grote Zaal w/ Living Colour Heerhugowaard
Jul 21 2007 8:00P Colos Saal w/ Living Colour Aschaffenburg
Aug 11 2007 3:00P Wim-BASH @ Sully's Pub w/ Living Colour Hartford, Connecticut


Sound like a warm-up to recording sessions and a smallclub showcase at the end.

Thanks "Jazz".
Great news. So is Cory done with Jesus Christ Superstar? Next time they come to Chicago (or therebouts) I gotta go. Keep up all the info.

Bfunkthe1 said:

Yeah, the last booked gig is June 8 in Vienna, Virginia
[Edited 6/3/07 10:23am]

JesseDezz said:

That sucks... Glad that you were able to finish the gig and get through that. You're right of course, race plays a huge role still... like BK said, all the more reason to appreciate LC for being able to spread their music and influence others, despite the adversity...
[Edited 6/3/07 10:27am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Interesting. 4 some reason Fishbone has always reminded me of the Busboys. The music never quite drew me in.
[Edited 6/3/07 10:53am]

I forgot to mention Bad Brains in my list of black rock acts who never made it mainstream.

I don't disagree that these bands were all blessed to make a living doing what they love to do, they are definitely in the minority of society there. However, I still recognize the fact that their success was tempered by racism. They're all a lot better than many white acts who received far more exposure and acclaim. I think that was the genesis of this entire thread. It's not so much a pity thing as it is an acknowledgment of the obvious role that racism played in their careers.

bellanoche said:

I was just reading about Bad Brains on this page:http://www.roctober.com/r...punk1.html

I hadn't heard of Bad Brains before. Those black punk bands really had guts playing for those all white audiences.

"Vivid" was the only thing to go dual platinum from them, hit dual in 1994. Now flash forward to 2007..

In the same way I don't hear RATT being played on the radio in the hear and now. I don't expect it because basicly people throw Living Color in with the hard rock bands from late 80's early 90's. They owned that time and place..now they are nostalgia.

If bands pushed a lot more albums like G-n-R, Motley, REM you may still get some airplay but really not that much more plays.

It's sad in America IMO, because people are often not loyal to the musicians they love. Often people jump from fad to fad.

(sarcasm)
You know I haven't heard much Blur, EMF or Oasis! on the radio lately. America must hate the english!!! LOL!!

BlaqueKnight said:

Yeah the lead singer of Sevendust does sound alot like Corey. Especially on the song "Denial".

novabrkr said:

truth.

LoveAlive said:

It really was their fault in a sense.

They followed up their critical darling with a "fuck you" record. Fuck you, we do what we wanna do, this our shit, were no gimmick, we are some real brothers type shit. Now I wouldn't call Times Up a vanity project, but it certainly wasn't an attempt at continuing or building on the mainstream and critical success of Vivid. Maybe if they would have done that type of album 3 or 4 albums in, they would have built up enough of a core audience to sustain a commercial failure like Prince. Even Prince took his hits, TTD certainly took his, on the second album they went all Black power and Elvis is Dead. You gotta be on the commercial grind like LK.

More White kids were probably buying PE records at the time, again, it's hard to do be a Black rocker. You will never find a large fan base in your community, and your white fan base might be fickle and look for what they feel is a more authentic Black experience with rap. I was quite young at the time, but I only knew one other Black kid into Living Colour, everyone else was White and they were Gun's N Roses/Metallica type fans.

I agree with realm, Living Colour woulda died when rock died (94/95), they broke up around that time anyway, but they decided not to be commercial imo.

coolcat said:

Thanks for the link that was very detailed. Yeah, they were definitely trailblazers. Glad to see you were interested enough to research them.

lilgish said:

Not true.

If they were good or not so good, people can debate that til the end of time, All depends upon what you one likes. Fact is some people actually believe Prince plays garbage. Doesn't take away from the fact that people will jump onto bandwagons and ride waves. Did sellout shows like Prince does now after playing the SB?

Ask people that play guitar how good Vernon Reid is! He is a guitar God, up with Vai, Nuno..but maybe not Buckethead! lol. But what does the general public know about playing guitar? They would rate the latest American Idol as better musicians than Bowie, Prince, or the Stones.

Truth is Vernon Reid has more talent in his pinky than 99.9% of guitar players.

realm said:

so how are nova's statements false? he mentioned nothing about vernon reid's abilities.



I dunno know how you worked out those percentages, but there's plenty of guitar players better than vernon.