Smells Like Alternative

The current Velvet Revolver/Alice in Chains tour isn’t the first time that the members of VR have been tied up with a Seattle band. It’s a long and interesting road…

On September 29, 1992 AIC releases Dirt and STP with Core.
In 1995 Weiland’s side project The Magnificent Bastards covered “How Do You Sleep?” and the Layne Staley/Mike McCready project Mad Season covered “I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier” on Working Class Hero: A Tribute To John Lennon.
In July of 1996 AIC replaces STP as the opening band for Kiss, due to Scott Weiland’s drug problems.
On November 6, 2001 Jerry Cantrell performs …read more

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Don’t let the grim title fool you, Dead Children Playing: A Picture Book is actually a book consisting of artwork from Stanley Donwood.  
Who is this Stanley Donwood?
Good question. He’s the man behind the artwork for Radiohead’s albums. He’s been collaborating with the band since 1995. His work has been used for albums such as The Bends, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief and Thom Yorke’s solo album Eraser. Donwood is joined by Dr. Tchock, who is rumored to actually be Thom Yorke’s alias.
Dead Children Playing, however, will focus on  the work of Donwood and Dr. Tchock from around 1999 …read more

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I’m in a wedding this weekend, so Pearl Jam’s “Around The Bend” has been stuck in my head.
“Around The Bend” is the last track from Pearl Jam’s fantastic, yet somewhat forgotten 1996 album, No Code. It’s a catchy song, because it’s not very Pearl Jam like. It has kind of a tropical sound to it and is all too relaxing. The band usually saves this song for special shows, like at the Bridge School Benefit. I was lucky enough to see them do it in Philly back in 2005, and it sounded great. It’s probably one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs. 
Apparently, …read more

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So last week I wrote an FYI post about Alice in Chains and another B5 blogger, Jennifer who writes some great stuff at Hippie Sounds, reminded me of Mad Season’s Above.
Mad Season was a Seattle supergroup consisting of AIC frontman Layne Staley, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin and bassist John Baker Sanunders from the Walkabouts. McCready put the band together in 1994; but it wasn’t until October 1994 that the band became complete with the addition of friend Layne Staley and called themselves the Gacy Bunch and eventually Mad Season.
The band released only …read more

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The very unique Tori Amos will be rather busy this fall, as she hits around 50 dates for her North American tour.
The tour kicks off in Albany, NY on October 9 and will run until December 16 in Los Angeles. The tour will be in support of her 9th studio album, American Doll Posse, which came out last May. American Doll Posse features different alter-egos of Amos, each personality even has a blog on her MySpace page, which Amos will probably take on the road. So, it should be an interesting show.
Amos recently wrapped up some dates in Europe …read more

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Seattle’s darkest and perhaps most underrated band, Alice in Chains, will be hitting the road with Velvet Revolver this summer and fall. Word is that they are also planning to record a new album.

The band formed back in 1987, when guitarist Jerry Cantrell met singer Layne Staley . The band was soon rounded out by Cantrell’s friend, bassist Mike Starr, and drummer Sean Kinney who was dating Starr’s sister.
Before settling on Alice in Chains, which was originally a band that Staley was in, however, it was spelled Alice N’ Chainz; AIC used the names Diamond Lie and F*ck.
The band’s first …read more

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Seems that Pearl Jam is once again battling a major corporation, this time for censorship concerns. The battle began on Sunday when portions of “Daughter” went out during a live stream from Lollapalooza. The stream was presented by AT&T, the company also sponsored  Lollapalooza and received the honor of having the main stage dubbed the AT&T Stage, where Pearl Jam performed.
The censored portion of “Daughter” took place at the end of the song when the band played incorporated Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”, but added the lines “George Bush leave this world alone” and “George Bush find yourself another …read more

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Seems that Pearl Jam is once again battling a major corporation, this time for censorship concerns. The battle began on Sunday when portions of “Daughter” went out during a live stream from Lollapalooza. The stream was presented by AT&T, the company also sponsored  Lollapalooza and received the honor of having the main stage dubbed the AT&T Stage, where Pearl Jam performed.
The censored portion of “Daughter” took place at the end of the song when the band played incorporated Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”, but added the lines “George Bush leave this world alone” and “George Bush find yourself another …read more

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Have you heard the rocking new track from the Foo Fighters? If not, you should, it’s quite good.
“The Pretender” is the first single leaked from the Foos upcoming 6th album Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, which comes out September 25. The track was leaked last week and has been floating around since.
“The Pretender” starts off a bit slow, maybe even a bit like a Beatles song, before punching you in the face with the heavy Foo sound that we all love. It even sounds like CCR during the break, which is fine by me. Anyways, the song is good enough to …read more

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This was STP’s third, and in my opinion, their best album from 1996. While Core was a decent debut and Purple remains a classic; Tiny Music established STP as one of the best bands from the 90’s. The album was, and still is, incomparable to the rest of STP’s catalog.
Scott traded in his rougher pipes for a smoother set and proved that he had one of the best voices around. The DeLeo brothers beautifully blended some jazzy riffs with some 60’s style psychedelia. And, let’s not forget the underrated Eric Kretz holding it down with his sweet drumming. All …read more

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