The Living Live On
The Seattle punk band The Living are having their debut album released this week...a full 39 years after they recorded it. Years and years before Seattle was on the map for grunge and alt-rock, the city had quite a punk scene in the early 80s. The Living featured vocalist John Conte, bassist Todd Fleischman, drummer Greg Gilmore and 17-year old guitarist Duff McKagan. The band’s 1982 recording The Living: 1982 is finally being released on Loosegroove Records, the label run by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard and Brad’s Regan Hagar.
album cover
Duff McKagan has always been a fascinating musical figure in that he has had one foot in the alt-rock world from his Seattle roots in the early 80s and one foot in the metal world from the L.A. Sunset scene a few years later when he co-founded Guns N’ Roses. Prior to The Living, McKagan had already been in Seattle bands like Vains and Fastbacks. When he formed The Living, he penned several original songs for the band. During the short time they were together, they managed to open for bands like Husker Du and D.O.A. When you listen to The Living: 1982, you can hear a serious Germs and Clash influence. It is a burst of raw energetic fast punk rock, that even non-punk fans would appreciate and bop along to. The band recorded over the course of two sessions a few weeks apart. Gilmore says “For me, joining that band was the beginning of my whole life in Seattle, professionally and otherwise.”
The Living performing live in 1982
The band parted ways around 1982. Both McKagan and Gilmore, then, joined 10 Minute Warning. In 1984, both of them left Seattle for Los Angeles. McKagan joined GNR and is now one of the most famous bassist of all-time. For a great profile of McKagan check out the 2016 documentary It’s So Easy and Other Lies (read my interview with the doc director Christopher Duddy here). Gilmore moved back to Seattle and joined the now-legendary Seattle band Mother Love Bone (read my review of their 2016 compilation On Earth As It Is - The Complete Works). After the death of MLB singer Andrew Wood, they broke up. MLB’s guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament went on to form Pearl Jam. MLB have actually had partial reunions in 2010 and 2018.
The Living burst out of the basement in 1982
A few years ago, Gilmore met with his old bandmate Gossard and mentioned the recordings of The Living he had and wanted to release in some way (after a few years of talks with other labels that didn’t go anywhere). Gossard fully supported the recordings finally getting released. Gilmore says “I sent [Stone] some files, he loved it. He hooked us up with Mark Arm at Sub Pop.” After not hearing back from Sub Pop, Gossard reached out to Gilmore and said he and Hagar were interested. In 2020, Gossard and Hagar (who incidentally was the drummer for MLB before Gilmore) revived their indie label Loosegroove Records, which they ran in the 90s. Gossard says “It doesn’t matter what year this music was recorded cause it is undeniable...but the fact that Duff, Greg, Todd, and John created these fully realized songs in 1982 gives credence to the idea that this band, The Living, are ground zero for the Seattle sound.” Gilmore says “It turns out of all the options, Loosegroove is the best of all of them. Working with Stone and Regan is really great!” What’s cool about this release is that there’s actually been very little information or recordings out there about The Living prior to this release. Gilmore says “For me I always just loved the recordings. It was a great memory and a great moment, from a personal perspective. But I had not thought of what it might mean in the grand scheme, what its historical significance might be. But now I see it could be important to some people in that way.” Singer John Conte says “It is historic because we are very central to a lot of what happened after we disbanded. It is a chance to have the story finally added and noted to Seattle history. l have never been so honored in all my life. This thing has come full circle and to be so well taken care of by LooseGroove Records. Together we are setting the record (the event) straight and letting the story be told.”
The Living (look how young Duff, on far, left is!)
When asked if he still stays in touch with his bandmates Conte says “Yes we have always remained in contact but it was more like when there were important shows to attend or a causal call just checking in.”
The Living
With this release, could there be a reunion of The Living? Conte says “There sure should be. I understand Duff has to finish a GnR tour. I know the demand has already started and I know that people really want it to happen. I think it would be tons of fun. I think it would be good for Seattle Rock History. All I know is that the demand is quite high so I guess we have to wait and see.”
For info on The Living: 1982: https://orcd.co/theliving1982
Thanks to MadInk PR and Loosegroove Records for their assistance with this story.