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Hierophant
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Joined: March 11 2005
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Topic: Alice in Chains Posted: July 25 2006 at 02:45 |
Excellent band. Grunge but not pure grunge, rocky but not straight rock, a few metalish moments and throw in a few pinches of prog - bliss.
Completely overshadowed by the success of Nirvana. AIC in my opinion wrote better songs, played MUCH better, and Layne Staley sang better than ol' kurt. One of my top "non prog" bands. Just one hell of a solid band that doesn't(didn't) get the recognition it deserves.
Edited by Hierophant - July 25 2006 at 03:15
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coffeeintheface
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Joined: May 02 2005
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Points: 397
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 03:08 |
agreed. I never understood the hype over Nirvana. I just found their
songs same-ish and boring for the most part, with a couple exceptions.
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OBQM: www.soundcloud.com/onebigquestionmark (solo project) nQuixote: www.soundcloud.com/n-quixote (ambient + various musical ideas)
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Rocktopus
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Joined: March 02 2006
Location: Norway
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 03:27 |
My favorite band of the grunge era. Alice in Chains: Dirt (and Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger and
Superunknown) we're really more dark, quite 70's sounding heavyrock
from Seattle at the same time as Nirvana's breakthrough. The stripped
down, mainly acoustic EP Sap and mini album Jar of Flies shows they're
classic songwriting brilliance.
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Over land and under ashes In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me
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aapatsos
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Joined: November 11 2005
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 05:22 |
I would not call them grunge, I prefer 'alternative'
anyway, great band, much much better than Nirvana...
excellent voice, unique heavy sound
Dirt and Jar of Flies are axcellent, even the MTV unplugged
Edited by aapatsos - July 25 2006 at 05:23
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JayDee
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 07:27 |
I enjoyed them together with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam
Would and Man in a Box are nice tunes!
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eddietrooper
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Joined: February 27 2006
Location: Spain
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 11:37 |
Excellent band, and so is Soundgarden.
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Drew
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Joined: June 20 2005
Location: California
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 11:38 |
My favorite band of that era- easily.
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johnobvious
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Joined: May 11 2006
Location: Nebraska
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 12:31 |
Not a big fan of Facelift but Dirt and the self titled are great. As far as Nirvana, Nevermind did not age well but I think In Utero is a classic.
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Biggles was in rehab last Saturday
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TheProgtologist
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Joined: May 23 2005
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 13:34 |
Besides Soundgarden AIC is one of my favorite bands to come out of Seattle.Everyone talks about how good Staley was but what about Jerry Cantrell?He wrote most of the music,he sang alot more than most people know(besides most of the harmonies he sang lead alot)and is a damn good guitarist.
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Padraic
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 13:38 |
TheProgtologist wrote:
Besides Soundgarden AIC is one of my favorite bands to come out of Seattle.Everyone talks about how good Staley was but what about Jerry Cantrell?He wrote most of the music,he sang alot more than most people know(besides most of the harmonies he sang lead alot)and is a damn good guitarist. |
Those are my two favorite Seattle-era bands as well. Wanted to reiterate what someone else had posted - while "Facelift" and "Dirt" were great albums, the EP "Jar of Flies" is the "Damnation" of AIC, if you will, really exquisite songs there. Highly recommended. Edit: Agree that Cantrell was the creative force in the band IMO. I believe I have a solo effort by him called "Boggy Depot" which wasn't bad. I enjoyed Staley but felt that Chris Cornell was the better vocalist.
Edited by NaturalScience - July 25 2006 at 13:40
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Equality 7-2521
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 13:42 |
I agree that they're far superior to Nirvana. How people listen to a band who's songs all have the same beat is beyond me.
Jerry Cantrell is realy a great guitarist, and not a strong lead vocalist really but great for adding harmonizing vocals. Jar Of Flies is fantastic, but I'd say their seminal album is their unplugged performance.
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"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "
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TheProgtologist
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Joined: May 23 2005
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Posted: July 25 2006 at 19:51 |
NaturalScience wrote:
TheProgtologist wrote:
Besides Soundgarden AIC is one of my favorite bands to come out of Seattle.Everyone talks about how good Staley was but what about Jerry Cantrell?He wrote most of the music,he sang alot more than most people know(besides most of the harmonies he sang lead alot)and is a damn good guitarist. | Those are my two favorite Seattle-era bands as well.Wanted to reiterate what someone else had posted - while "Facelift" and "Dirt" were great albums, the EP "Jar of Flies" is the "Damnation" of AIC, if you will, really exquisite songs there. Highly recommended.Edit: Agree that Cantrell was the creative force in the band IMO. I believe I have a solo effort by him called "Boggy Depot" which wasn't bad. I enjoyed Staley but felt that Chris Cornell was the better vocalist. | Boggy Depot is ok but his solo album Degradation Trip is GREAT.
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chuckyspell
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Joined: September 07 2006
Location: Brazil
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Posted: November 26 2006 at 02:00 |
Only God knows how many times I listened to Dirt and Jar of Flies back in the 90s.
And I also got a kick out of doing AIC covers (though we probably really sucked on vocals).
Hands down the best thing to listen to out of Seattle in the day.
Then follow them up with Soundgarden and STP.
The Nirvana novelty wore off pretty quickly for me.
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Witchwoodhermit
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Joined: February 23 2006
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Posted: November 26 2006 at 03:24 |
Nirvana were unique, and never had the chance to stand the test if time. Alice impressed me from the start, but somehow still left me feeling flat after a full album play. Just finished playing "Nutshell" and "No Excuses" a short while ago. Would've loved to hear more work like "Flies".
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Here I'm shadowed by a dragon fig tree's fan ringed by ants and musing over man.
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The T
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Posted: November 26 2006 at 13:37 |
You're absolutely right. Alice in Chains was by far the best band to come from Seattle (in the grunge era... years before, Queensryche emerged from that Washington State city...), their music the most original of the grunge movement. Dirt was a great album with a couple of outstanding songs like Angry Chair or Would?, and also Them Bones and Down in a Hole... I love the sadness, the inherent depression found in Staley's lyrics, in his singing, all of that well supported by excellent tunes by Cantrell, whose vocals skills are, I agree, underrated. Their next album, the one with no name but with the three-legged dog in the cover, was their best: just listen to Frogs, Over Now... And let's not forget the talent the drummer had! (right now I can't remember the name... I remem,ber Mike Inez in bass, but in drums, it was Sean something...) anyway, he played original patterns, short yet precise fills, listen to the simple yet effective drum-intro in No Excuses... great band, and they should deserve the top place among "Grungers"... as somebody said, they're not even grunge, they were a blend of everything.
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Philéas
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Joined: June 14 2006
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Points: 6419
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Posted: November 26 2006 at 14:14 |
I've heard one song and I wasn't overly thrilled, but one song is never enough. I might check them out some day.
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enteredwinter
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Joined: June 05 2006
Location: United States
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Points: 501
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Posted: November 27 2006 at 02:13 |
AIC kicked a whole lot of ass back in the day. Dirt is easily one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
Cantrell has already deservedly been praised a lot in this thread, so I think a little more needs to be said about Staley:
He was one of the greatest vocalists ever, one of those one-of-a-kind vocalists that is so unique in his sound that it is likely nobody ever has or ever will sound like him again.
Other examples of such vocalists: Maynard of Tool, Chino of the Deftones (yeah, they're not necessarily all that great, but his voice is definitely unique), and Freddie Mercury of Queen.
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TheProgtologist
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Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Baltimore,Md US
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Posted: November 27 2006 at 02:57 |
The T wrote:
You're absolutely right. Alice in Chains was by far the best band to come from Seattle (in the grunge era... years before, Queensryche emerged from that Washington State city...), their music the most original of the grunge movement. Dirt was a great album with a couple of outstanding songs like Angry Chair or Would?, and also Them Bones and Down in a Hole... I love the sadness, the inherent depression found in Staley's lyrics, in his singing, all of that well supported by excellent tunes by Cantrell, whose vocals skills are, I agree, underrated. Their next album, the one with no name but with the three-legged dog in the cover, was their best: just listen to Frogs, Over Now... And let's not forget the talent the drummer had! (right now I can't remember the name... I remem,ber Mike Inez in bass, but in drums, it was Sean something...) anyway, he played original patterns, short yet precise fills, listen to the simple yet effective drum-intro in No Excuses... great band, and they should deserve the top place among "Grungers"... as somebody said, they're not even grunge, they were a blend of everything. | AIC's drummer is Sean Kinney.
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1800iareyay
Prog Reviewer
Joined: November 18 2006
Location: United States
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Points: 2492
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Posted: November 28 2006 at 18:26 |
AIC are tied with Pearl Jam as my second favorite grunge group (Soundgarden take the cake with the astounding Chris Cornell) Nirvana were good, but no member was really talented with the exception of Kurt as a lyricist, not singer or guitarist. Jerry's songwriting was dark and his guitar playing makes him the foremost grunge guitarist, narrowly beating out Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. Layne Staley, though not good with range, was like Eddie Vedder in that the two gave some of the most emotional vocals this side of the Mississippi Delta.
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bhikkhu
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Joined: April 06 2006
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Posted: November 28 2006 at 21:23 |
I'm not familiar with all of their work, but "Jar of Flies" is a fantastic album.
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