alice in chains c/d

+9

It's interesting to hear how much they remind me of the Byrds on their early releases.

i love "sap" and "jar of flies", i still listen to them pretty often. i like some songs off of "dirt" and "facelift" and the self titled, "dirt" being by far the most consistent. i was disappointed by the unplugged though. i saw them live in 93 at lollapalooza, they killed it.

well the new aic record seems to be going ahead. i'll be pretty curious about it if i'm at all able to disassociate it from the true alice name

No no no no no, AIC without Staley is a terrible idea.

I expect someone will do a really obvious 'fixed' on that post.

It worked for INXS. Uh.

Bad idea.

Awful idea.

And the press release!

Los Angeles, CA- Legendary rock band ALICE IN CHAINS has signed an exclusive worldwide deal with EMI's Virgin Records and are gearing up for the release of their first new studio album in more than 10 years. The band and producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters) began recording last October at Studio 606 in Northridge, CA and recently finished mixing at Henson Studios in Hollywood. The highly anticipated album is scheduled for release this September.

Guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez reunited in 2005 at a benefit for victims of the tsunami in Indonesia. They began touring with new guitarist/vocalist William DuVall the following year.

"It's been a meaningful journey and a hell of a story," says Cantrell. "We're very excited to have a home at Virgin/EMI and are looking forward to writing new chapters in the book of Alice."

"We're in a good place," adds Kinney. "We've made a record that we're really proud of, we've got a team in place that's passionate about the music and we're excited for the fans to hear the new songs."
"Alice In Chains has had a big hand in the evolution of music and I still can't believe we get to work with them," says Rob Stevenson, President of Virgin Records. "This music is going to remind people what we've all been missing."
"There is a tremendous sense of excitement and dedication within EMI around the world as we head into this album release," Added Jeff Kempler, EMI's COO of New Music for North America and the UK,"Alice In Chains' place in rock history is undeniable and when people hear this remarkable new work it will be clear how timeless, potent and visionary this band is."
Alice In Chains were among the headliners at the recent Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, OH. Next up is a July 18 show with Kid Rock at Comerica Park in Detroit, to be followed by festival shows with Metallica overseas, including an August 1 date at Marlay Park in Dublin and an August 2 show at the Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth. Earlier this year, the quartet took a break from recording to perform a string of shows in Australia with Nine Inch Nails.

Over the course of their remarkable career, Alice In Chains has garnered multiple Grammy nominations, sold more than 17 million albums worldwide and achieved 11 top 10 hit singles.

I idly note that Staley isn't mentioned once.

Also, Layne Staley is still dead.

disgusting using the name Alice In Chains

new single, "a looking in view."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnU19MHwt7w

whole lotta dud. pretty forgettable.

i never really paid attn to dudes outside the radio staples but the gf turned me on to their records and goddamn if they're not the best grunge thing this side of nirvana

^^^ utterly, utterly piercing

Not great - some nice crunchy guitars, and it is unmistakably AIC, but it needs a way catchier chorus.

yeah i think it was a mistake to release a 7-minute long number for their "comeback" single.

i really don't like Nick Raskulinecz's production style at all.

those two sentences are unrelated...

new song is kinda boring but not terrible. is this really going to be a single? can't imagine people will care too much.

i can't the vocals on AIC songs

Can't resist?

the new song is really unmemorable

oops, can't *stand*

Man there was no reason for that to be seven minutes long by anyone's standards

hah im already fighting with ppl about this over on doomed forever

Just listening to Sap for the first time in years. It's disarmingly lovely.

it is. Much superior to jar of flies.

Agreed. There's something a bit ponderous about JoF.

i still have my sap import cd that i traipsed around glasgow looking for in 1992. (found it in 23rd precinct when it still had the rock bit downstairs)

so the new one huh. thoughts?

getting ridiculously good reviews across the board. pretty excited to hear it. the non-layne issue doesnt bother me a bit; jerry wrote most of the songs in the first place and the death of a band member shouldn't mean the others have to give up their livelihood to appease the lamer fans

yeah, the press is solid so far. my thoughts on the single that was posted upthread are a little mixed. while it exhibits some classic AIC elements and the odd thumping riff for good measure, it seems like a bit of a pastiche. we have a whole lot of different sections thrown into the mix that don't work particularly well together and it really seems that they've laboured and laboured to get those harmonies sounding like vintage-era AIC. end result is that they sound over-studied, whereas on previous outings they were both natural and key to the band's sound. this repetition of choruses and unimaginative song structuring is also erring dangerously close to the stuff on JC's solo albums. mind you, these are early days and i'll have a more concerted opinion once i've heard the album in full.

When Baroness start doing Alice in Chains harmonies on "Steel That Sleeps the Eye" it breaks the overall feel of the album, and it's the one downer on the otherwise wicked ace Blue Record. But it does make me curious as to how much of Dirt I'd like after more than a decade of ignoring it.

I have weird reservations about the new album that aren't really very logical. We saw them live last year, and I was okay with that. Lead dude sounded great, cool to see Jerry and the boys still playing, I enjoyed the show a lot. But an album just makes it too...official. I listened to a couple of tracks and it just feels wrong. Maybe I'm being too much of a chick about it. But I don't feel right about an Alice In Chains ALBUM with no Layne.

its not AIC in my eyes and never will me. the arguments about maiden,ac/dc etc dont hold up as they didnt split up saying they couldnt go on then reform 10 years later as the guitarists solo career had failed. He shouldnt be using the name after all this time. Its purely about money and is disgusting.

and feeling that way does not make fans lame no matter how many times someone says it.

I went through all this bunk with INXS, though that was much worse, new singer every six months, everyone from Terrence Trent D'arby to Jon Stevens. I get that the band wants to play, but c'mon. To be fair, the INXS thing was far far worse in execution because it was flat out bad and 100% ill-advised. The new AIC singer is good, I'll give him that, and I don't feel comfortable accusing Jerry and the guys of doing this solely for cash. They created the music too, and Jerry was always a driving force creatively, musically, and his harmony is part of that AIC sound. I respect them wanting to continue...I just don't like it. I feel the same way about AC/DC. They've been successful with Brian and I respect them for finding away to continue. I just love Bon and don't feel right about Brian...and I don't know if I ever will.

they shouldnt be using the name. They didnt replace layne at the time because they knew noone could and the fans wouldnt accept it. So why do it now*?
*for the money

Just read that Elton John plays piano on the title track!

I do like the droney main riff on Check My Brain. Not a bad chorus either.

it's not a horrible album and there are definitely some glimpses of what made AIC a truly great band. surprising really as i was beginning to suspect that JC had lost the plot together. i guess the best thing i can say about it is that i'm likely to spend some time listening to it in the coming weeks. and that's far more than i was anticipating.

'your decision' is a surprisingly good slower number, which is nice news given how wary i was of anything that might approach the "ballad"-realm here. hell, 'when the sun rose again' reminds me of the halcyon days of sap. 'check my brain' is also ripe. love that dirty, atonal riff that runs through it as chap mentioned. otherwise, 'last of my kind' and 'acid bubble' have nice moments amidst the requisite passages of dirge. basically i'm grateful to hear anything as innocuous as a decent riff on these tracks.

'lesson learned' reveals itself to have the best chorus here after a fairly tepid verse. i actually kind of have that one stuck in my head.

I've been listening to the streams of the new one someone's put on YouTube. Mostly seems kind of dull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31a6HQUrAz0

Forgot how much I used to love their unplugged album.

RIP bassist Mike Starr

sad...his appearance on Celebrity Rehab was pretty harrowing and it's a real bummer that the band's drug problems went beyond Layne

Oh ffs. :(.

RIP

I wish there was something better. AIC were just a band I didn't follow, but they were of my time, and I saw them when they were a club opening act (for Iggy) and it sucks. A reminder that redemption doesn't always come.

I think that backing vocalist comment from upthread was me (from when I was BJO). Think my overall view is and has always been that I liked Jerry's voice, but I preferred him vocally serving more as a harmonic complement to Layne than being an outright lead singer. His voice is pleasant, but I liked it better when he was singing the moodier pieces on Sap and JoF then when he took two lead tracks on s/t.

He's obviously a driving force in the band, I just used to get salty when publications would slight Layne to praise Cantrell, I mean obviously the latter wrote or co-wrote almost all of their material, but without Layne's vocals, they wouldn't have achieved what they did (same if they never had Jerry). they were a power duo, albeit one where Jerry had to pick up a lot of slack when Layne was out of commission for long periods.

in conclusion Alice in Chains rules. "What the Hell Have I?" best song

Hair metal Lane takes on the PMRC!!! very cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yslRsWmgAA

It's so weird to me to realize that the DuVall version of the band has, at this point, existed for three years longer than the Staley version and released just as many full-length albums.

I really wish more of the cock-rockier era of AiC survived. obviously there's Facelift, but there's also several tracks in the Music Bank boxed set like "Social Parasite", that were really mega-cool. it wasn't what they did best, but an interesting origin story, especially since most bands in that scene were more of a rebellion AGAINST hair metal.

I wish they'd repress Sap/Jar Of Flies on vinyl, those records are ASTONISHING. The Everly Brothers of smack. The hamronies of this group were insane.

I keep meaning to check out the DuVall records. Jerry Cantrell's a fantastic songwriter, and I've heard DuVall is great. But in my head Alice In Chains is Layne's story, and it ends when he ends.

Harmonies. Hamronies sounds like some kind of delicious American junk food.

"Rotten Apple" is incredible

Here's a another incredible relic of the God's Party Animals era of AiC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXe8WecFvBk

Totally forgot about "I Can't Have You Blues"

Also Jerry Cantrell shower footage!

The DuVall era stuff is fine? I don't hate it, Cantrell gives enough reason to listen, but obviously just nowhere near the alchemy that Staley brought to it.

Sap and Jar of Flies are incredible, absolutely.

totally agree on the amazing vocal harmonies. I recently re-purchased this Japanese disc that has Jar Of Flies and Sap on one cd

the harmonies were great live too, going by the few live recordings they have