Contrary to what MTV circa 2004 and your average alterna station may convey to you-Black folks do rock as hard a anyone. It sort of unsettling to me that bands like Korn and the Chili Peppers blare on rock radio when if you're not Lenny Kravitz and you have an ounce of melanin, you ain't goin' nowhere, buddy.

Thankfully, it's not always been that way. From 1988-93 or so, Living Colour was one of the premiere rock bands around, scoring Grammys, hit albums and loads of critical acclaim. With virtuoso guitarist Vernon Reid at the helm, the foursome gleefully thrashes through a sonic stew that rocks hard all the time but also manages to stir in influences ranging as wide as speed metal, techno and calypso. "Stain", their third proper studio album, was released in 1993, and finds the band at it's most adventurous. It's certainly uncommercial, with way wilder guitar than anything that was sneaking onto rock radio in 1993, and pointed political and personal lyrics that have an element of truth that you just don't find in your everyday song.

Living Colour is:
Vernon Reid (guitars)
Corey Glover (vocals)
Doug Wimbish (bass)
Will Calhoun (drums)

"Stain" gets off to a furious start. "Go Away" begins the album with an assaultive thud. New addition Wimbish lets loose with some furious-fingered bass, time signatures change at whim, and Glover touches on apathy and the paying off of guilty consciences ("I see the starving children on TV/I feel it has nothing to do with me/I gave my 20 dollars to Live Aid..."). In the grunge infested, early-mid 90's, apathy was a preferred topic, and the band builds on it with the next two tracks. "Ignorance Is Bliss" finds Glover snarling at someone who walks through life with their eyes closed, and on first (only?) single "Leave It Alone", Corey just hrows his hands up and walks away. The track's easily digestible riff and sing-along chorus make it easily the most "pop-friendly" track on the album, although it's still a major stretch to think of this being played amongst Kris Kross and Boyz II Men on the radio in '93.

The album's first showstopper is "Bi". Over a crunchy riff, Glover places tongue firmly in cheek and sings what may be the first song recorded about bisexuality. Poor Corey finds himself faced with the reality that his girlfriend's swinging both ways, when she floors him with the shocker than she and he are both seeing the same woman on the side. It's done with a wink and a nod, and the song's chorus-"everybody wants you when you're bi"-should've been made into a T-shirt or button or something.

Showstopper #2 is "Nothingness". This haunting ballad was written by drummer Calhoun after the death of his father. Glover whispers the emotional lyrics above a bed of chirping crickets and Reid's powerful guitar work, which (thanks to effects and overdubs) sounds like a virtual orchestra. Glover's often been maligned for oversinging, but he puts just the right amount of melancholy on this track.

Veering off into the political, "This Little Pig" is what Body Count's "Cop Killer" should've been. The two songs definitely share the same musical landscape (although LC's guys definitely win in the chops department). It's definitely anti-police brutality (the song's opening features a tape of a news recording saying "56 times in 81 seconds", the amount of times Rodney King was hit by the LAPD officers that brutalized him). Instead of the sledgehammer that Ice-T and crew used, this song uses...a slightly softer sledgehammer. It's obvious that the events of then-recent days were heavy on the minds of the band members, and that's again made clear on "Wall", the album's closer. If you listen to the song's opening words ("We hate each other 'cause of race & religion/We hate each other 'cause of class & position"), it's very easy to place this song in our current climate and still feel that it's topical. It's a sobering end to a pretty heavy (in a musical and lyrical sense) record.

Not to say "Stain" is totally without fault. "Hemp" is a spoken-word piece that just breaks up the flow of the record, while "WTFF" is a bit of early electronica that's more interesting for the title (which is an acronym for "what the f*ck factor?") than it is for the actual music.There's a bit of unnecessary experimentalism here, particularly on the segues between songs and in the intros. "Wall", for instance, is a great song, but do we really need the extended hushed intro or the melange of samples and electronic sounds that appear at the song's end?

Part of the magic that Living Colour had is that they came from a time where it was as important to listen to the lyrics as it was to rock out to the songs themselves. I don't know that the band's ever even done a traditional love song in their careers-certainly not of the "Cherry Pie"/"Talk Dirty To Me" variety that they were surrounded by. I guess you could call 'em the thinking man's hard rock band. They definitely have an experimental vibe without flying too far off the handle, and the fact of the matter is, regardless of anything, Vernon Reid is a f*cking amazing guitarist.

Unfortunately, "Stain" was Living Colour's last call at the bar for quite some time. The band imploded during sessions for their fourth album, and didn't reunite for almost another decade. Glover tried his hand as a VH-1 jock before recording a prince-ly solo album called "Hymns". Reid has actively touted his Black Rock Coalition and has released a couple of experimental albums on his own. Wimbish and Calhoun are successful session musicians who are now a part of Mos Def's side project Black Jack Johnson. The foursome reunited a while back and recorded a decent album called "Colleidoscope". The jury's out whether they'll record again, but any way you slice it, Living Colour's balls-out riffs, their excellent musical chops and emotional lyrics make "Stain" an album that will leave an indelible marking on your record collection.





Living Colour's "Stain"


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Repeat: "Bi", "Nothingness", "Wall", "Leave It Alone"


Skip: "Hemp", "WTFF"


Great Music to Play While: Wondering what is up with that woman on the cover and the medeival torture device she's wearing on her head.

Recommended: Yes