I Alone

MTV used to be relevant. It used to turn people on and take them out of the suburbs. Aside from the sounds of a typewriter opening MTV News, there would actually be clips of music and an attached motion picture called a music video. And a demographic I fondly remember being a part of, the sixteen year old boy demographic, couldn't get enough.

When I first saw the 'I Alone' video by Live, it was like falling in love. Some kids wanted to smell like teen spirit, but I was into Live. The aggression was met with a little bit of melody, feedback, and distortion. Plus the video was weird as hell. Live's 'Throwing Copper' was my Sgt. Pepper. It was THE album that I would play over and over and over. It was mysterious, dark, a little bit religious, and like any good band turning on a sixteen year old, I was motivated to (poorly) learn every song I could of theirs on the guitar using their MTV Unplugged set as my visual teacher. Mastering the opening bended note to 'Selling the Drama' was better than learning any f*&cking thing about the periodic table. I delved into their back catalogue, checked them out live (explaining that to your friends was painful..."Yes, I saw Live live") at Merriweather Post in Columbia, MD and snagged tickets to a small show at the 9:30 Club in DC, and proudly wore the t-shirt to high school.

MTV needs to be reborn. But with so many other outlets out there, so many websites and channels, there will never be a center of cool again. Will there?

I Alone
Live
Throwing Copper
1994