Jar of Flies
Alice in Chains
1993: Columbia CK 57628
Alice in Chains were one of the only “grunge” groups I could ever take seriously, and in fact I find it’s hard to be flip about them.
When (after finally buying a copy) I got around to listening to the reasons I got this album—“I Stay Away” and “No Excuses”—I was even more convinced than before that I should’ve bought it…with the same uneasy reactive feeling that I have to The Doors.
I resisted (for many years) adding any Doors stuff to my collection because although it is elemental as an influence it’s a little too evocative for general listening. I hear Doors tracks and my life slides into a pit of nihilist passivity. It’s good stuff for listening to and reinforcing a sense that all is futile, that there’s nothing worth living for. To me. So I’d avoided having any on hand until recently.
And that was also my take on Alice in Chains. Unlike ALL other Seattle bands of the “grunge” phase, this is one from which I’ve heard true musical/lyrical brilliance, albeit in unexpected ways. Not a bad thing. And years ago I worked with someone (a delightfully unassuming subsuburban lady, nothing at all like what you’d associate with AIC) who knew the band and helped me in turn to have a decent perspective on them and their work. As with Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, frankly I don’t care if drugs were a necessary element to Layne Staley’s sound as long as he could produce it.
Layne died recently and I thought it was kind of sad and yet kind of surprising, as Perry Farrell is still alive. Then again, I heard Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” the other day at a smoky diner here in Seattle and thought two things: 1. “Yeah…now that’s how this song sounds best,” and 2. “I had totally forgotten this song existed after Alice In Chains got rooted in my audial consciousness and booted it out.”
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.