Any fans in the audience? I love them and am constantly bemused/amused/taken aback by a band like this where the lead singer is basically openly singing about heroin addiction.
Shit, their entire “Dirt” CD was basically about being strung out, and their lack of diligence on their later output reflected that.
But there’s something about Layne’s vocals that reels me in (plus I LOVE Jerry Cantrell). I cannot describe it. Amidst my quasi-terminal liver condition due to alcoholism, I connect to this music, but it’s very, very dark.
I do no know why I like it so much, but I do. “Would” tops my favorite song of all time list. This is when they were just getting big but Layne was already singing about his
addiction.
I am surprised that his best mate Jerry Cantrell didn’t make a bigger effort to intervene, but what do I know?
Huge fan and yeah, the lyrics are a troublesome meditation. I was never inside Staley’s head or his relationship with Cantrell so I don’t think it’s my place to judge the folks involved. Clearly Layne Staley was a mess.
The whole Dirt album is great music but yes, dark. Blows open with Them Bones. Not sure if ending on Would is a bit of optimism at the end but it doesn’t matter anymore any way.
Cantrell is an excellent guitarist. The most like a classic old school player in a 70’s band, updated to grunge. Thayil had a new spacier approach, Pearl Jam is more Neil Young than Zeppelin or Bad Company, and Cobain had no interest in swagger. Cantrell rocked.
One of my absolute top bands, especially when I was in high school. My friend skipped out of school on November 7, 1995, to go to Best Buy and get their self-titled album.
I remember staying up late at night listening to it.
Any thoughts on the two new albums they have released? I think they are actually pretty good and William Duvall has been in the band just about as long as Layne Staley at this point. He does a good job, including doing a very solid job on the classic material.
Layne was probably my biggest music death, bigger than Kurt Cobain or anyone else. It was less powerful at the time because he had circled the drain for so many years. There are not even any photographs of him from the last several years of his life.
I’m a big fan as well. Jerry Cantrell has a knack for writing catchy, melodic songs with a dark, sludgy tone and it works very well.
Just my opinion, but “Dirt” is my least favorite album. Their first record is still my favorite. From the opening riff of “We Die Young” straight into “Man In The Box” (still love that groove!) and my favorite, “Sea Of Sorrow.”
Also really enjoyed their '95 self titled album (the last with Layne) because of “Grind” and “Heaven Beside You.”
Alice in Chains is outstanding. Unfortunately heroin is a cruel muse.
They were lumped in with the “grunge” scene because of the timing and where they were from, but they were as original and innovative a metal band as there has ever been. Complex vocal harmonies in metal?! It’s not that it had never been done before, but I’d never heard it, and it was brilliant, and they continued to get stronger with every release, and they had no fear of changing things up for a different sound (Jar of Flies is amazing).
I first heard the band when my sons started playing their Unplugged album and quickly got into their whole catalog. Very dark stuff indeed, but the authenticity of the music was unmistakable. Staley clearly had a rapidly approaching expiration date, which was sad, but, like AE Poe, it was his demons that drove his art and that type of relationship is never longlasting.
Mad Season’s “River Of Deceit” is one of my very favorite songs, especially as it applies to Lane’s troubles and my own with substance abuse (heroin for him, booze for me).
Funnily, the lyrics in that song go “…a head full of lies is the weight, tied to my waist” and I used to think it said “…a handful of lies is the way, back to my ways”.
I guess they kinda mean the same thing. It’s all about denial and deception to continue using.
And my sensibilities aren’t even that closely similar to his. Some of his big influences like Kiss, Elton John, and Back In Black era AC/DC I’m not so keen on.
Also, the guy who produced AIC’s last 2 records and is working on their upcoming one is not our (a number of us fans’) cup of tea.
I don’t know how he does it, everything he’s ever come out with I’ve found at minimum interesting and emotionally stirring.
What AIC did in the '90s after Facelift was transcendent, IME just so much more vivid and riveting than any other band with that level of popularity that’d get radio airplay.
Staley used to be my favorite singer for several years and my deep affinity for his voice is something I outgrew to an extent.
From what I’ve heard he had been in and out of rehab over a dozen times (and felt defeated after his fiancee overdosed), which may be why it appears some did not do more to reach out.
Dirt is definitely on my top 10 desert island album list. Oppressively dark and brooding, to be sure. I was fortunate enough to see AIC play at First Avenue in Minneapolis in 1992 during their Dirt tour. It was a mind-blowing experience.
I’ve always kind of considered Dirt to be a concept album structured to illustrate the descent into the abyss of addiction, with “Down in a Hole” being the point of hitting rock bottom, and “Would?” showing that despite the acknowledgment and acceptance of addiction, he is powerless to stop the cycle (“into the flood again/same old trip that was back then…”). At least that’s how I’ve interpreted it.
Every song on this album is fantastic, and even today the originality of the music and the honest brutality of the lyrics has kept it from sounding stale. Rooster feels a little out of place, kind of like Money on Dark Side of the Moon. In later releases of Dirt, they put “Down in a Hole” earlier in the album which kills the flow for me a bit.
I enjoy AIC’s other albums, particularly Sap and Jar of Flies, but Dirt is really something special.
Have been an AIC fan from the beginning. I even was lucky enough to attend a show back in 89 at my alma mater. There is even a video of the whole show:
It was amazing how music-scene oriented that time was. The grunge from Seattle spilled over little Pullman. We regularly had all those bands playing in the little venues in town. And it seemed everyone (myself included) was in a “band”.
Yep, they are on my list of favorites and probably near the top. I wore laser grooves in that Dirt CD and really dig “Would”. I appreciate the power and timing those guys played with. There’s a lot of goodness to be found in the AIC library.
Jar of Flies is where my heart is… specifically, “Nutshell”.
