alice in chains c/d

No to STP, yes to Hole and L7. If your debut record didn't come out before Nevermind was released, you're out, unless you were comprised of members of other grunge bands (so yes to Brad and Mad Season).

Like basically this should be Green River > Down on the Upside.

And god no Smashing Pumpkins. It's a grunge poll, not an alternative poll.

I just got a box set of Mudhoney's mid '90s albums (when they were signed to Warners) and they're surprisingly good. If people really do the homework (LISTEN TO TAD YOU MOTHERFUCKERS), this could be an interesting poll.

i am already triggered by whats grunge/whats not lol DIDNT WE SORT THIS OUT 30 YEARS AGO

It's not that hard! Just leave the second wave grunge for the MTV Alternative Nation poll.

Listening to the Mad Season album for the first time makes me realise how SOULFUL a lot of grunge could be

This was the secret unlocked by the Afghan Whigs, by way of Ohio.

And Screaming Trees, too; not really much metal in either of those bands.

Yes to Mother Love Bone then?

yup

Nice. I suspect Man of Golden Words would be fairly high on my ballot.

we probably have another 3 years until my turn for the grunge poll comes around anyway but as this is the year Nevermind turns 30, it deffo should run this year imo.

I have metal poll in the near future but spottie is more than welcome to run the grunge poll instead of me if he would like to

Gonna be a bunch of crossover, I assume.

grunge poll! grunge poll!

oh snap sorry neechy i havent checked the list in a long time just figured it wasnt on there and i remember a long time ago volunteering to do one. But I'd love if you did it and i could design the images and help with the rollout for it? people feel strongly about the bands that need to be included and those that dont id be open to whatever.

im sure we can come up with something. Who knows when it will be our turn though.

there's been several new ballot poll threads(and new D/Ns for me) since i asked to be put on the list. iirc my request first time was missed by whoever was in charge (wmc?)

anyway it matters little. I'll be happy to co-run it with you or you can do it solo. Im fine either way.

Queensryche and Faster Pussycat will NOT be included though! lol

taking the grunge poll chat here:

ILM Ballot Polls for 2020 and beyond -- the ordering, timing, "I would have voted if I'd known about it," etc

Love them but I hate Rooster. It's so redneck.

― Sandy, Monday, March 3, 2014 3:12 AM bookmarkflaglink

this isn't an insult

aic were one of my first indications that there are rednecks everywhere and i celebrate them for it. always resonated a lot more with them than with someone like kurt cobain who shat on rural people every chance he could get. i remember a documentary where you could see jerry putting in a massive dip and i was just like, these are my guys

also re: upthread, calling jerry a background singer is so completely unhinged

it’s hard to remember but AIC came up on the tail end of mainstream hard rock metal’s popularity and iirc they were on one of the final big Monsters of Rock tours, so they def had one foot in that genre and obv had a kinship with a lot of folks whose life’s soundtrack was that music. When Dirt dropped it felt like such a true lived-in statement and very uncompromising, as much as I liked a lot of the other grunge acts (and I really did esp Pearl Jam tbh) I never got any sense of reportage from IRL shit like I did with AIC. which isn’t to say the other bands weren’t going thru IRL shit (obviously history shows they were) but Staley and co just really didn’t pull their punches. Gotta find my copy of this and replace it if I can’t.

I am glad I was able to catch them in both acoustic (short set at a benefit gig in 1992) and electric (near top of bill at Lolla 93, sadly missed a show right at UCI the previous fall) modes during the Dirt run. Still remember Angelo from Fishbone (and maybe one other bandmember) coming out for "Them Bones" at Lolla and Maynard from Tool joining on "Rooster," and both times it made it all the more intense, but I do wish I could remember their "Would?" from that show more vividly.

i think as a teen i just thought they sounded slightly heavier than the other big modern rock acts of the day, but it's wild how heavy they sound to me now. the intro to "them bones" is heavy as shit. i also love how maximalist they got around the self-titled, especially on something like "grind," SO many guitar and vocal tracks

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