ROX-TV revisits MAD SEASON and the 1995 release of “ABOVE”
I’d like to welcome the ROX-TV website readers back for a special edition on the 1995 release of “ABOVE” from the group Mad Season. Before I get started there are a few things I’d like to say about the group and the music. I was introduced to this group sometime around 2003 or so. At the time, I was locked in with a very serious battle with alcoholism. By 2006 I would have to check into rehab for the first time, and eventually would get hospitalized some twenty seven times or so before finally getting “better” with medical marijuana in 2013. Although my struggles have never really ended, things remained relatively stable and manageable for the better part of the last eight years.
Back in 2003, I was just starting out on a pretty decent stretch of road into the dark forest of addiction. For the most part, being addicted to anything sucks, and the words really don’t do the condition any justice. I’m not really here today to preach about sobriety or anything like that, instead I’m opting to talk about dark days and the music that served as the soundtrack at the time. This article isn’t an endorsement to destructive behavior and it isn’t a celebration either, it’s merely just “what was”.
In my life, music has always been important, sometimes only playing second fiddle to loved ones and oxygen. No matter where I’ve been in life, no matter how high or low, I’ve taken the art form with me. The cool thing about intertwining time with music is that it is very easy to travel backwards and remember whole blocks of my life with relative ease. I’ve always incorporated music into everything that I did, so the songs literally are mini-time machines that don’t require 1.21 Giga Watts.
Today for the most part, I think people have at least heard of Layne Staley and Alice in Chains. Anyone who was alive during the “grunge” years like myself, who was digging on the Seattle sound, would not have been able to miss the group. AIC was formed in 1987 by Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, and was joined by Mike Starr and Layne Staley. Mike Starr would later be replaced by Mike Inez in 1993. Alice in Chains rose to prominence on the scene that also included Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden.
In many ways, although the genre was different, I believe that Detroit was similar to Seattle in the 1990’s. Instead of grunge, we had our own underground rap scene which included ESHAM, Insane Clown Posse, Kid Rock (the pre-Devil without a cause version), House of Krazees, NATAS, and even a few groups from Flint Town like Project Born, Dayton Family, and Top Authority. There are countless others, but these were the guys pushing the envelope, at least in my opinion.
So anyways, AIC was amazing and really took off after the August 1990 release of “Facelift”. This was a real nice piece of work with absolutely stunning songs which included “Man in the box”, “Bleed the freak”, “Sea of Sorrow”, and “We die young”. Layne often times sang songs that described his own personal struggles with addiction and the truck load of bullshit that seems to follow that lifestyle. One of the things that made AIC so unique was the “two vocal” harmonies that he shared with Jerry Cantrell, who Layne urged to sing. The chemistry and sound worked, making them one of my favorite bands to listen to from that time.
So what happened? Fucking heroin my friends, it ruins everything. Maybe not all at once, but eventually the terrible flower kills the greats (and even the unknowns I suppose). Can I deny the warmth of a Vicodin on a cold night? No. There is a reason why people who start to go down that road seldomly turn around. The shit works too fucking good and hence, for people who struggle with good time feelings, such as myself, its a slippery slope with an extra layer of ice. Most of the people who tap dance with opiates will eventually pay heavy costs. Luckily for me, I was always a drunk, so I seldom mixed medication with booze (unless it was ambian), because that was historically a fatal cocktail.
Alice in Chains released the album Dirt in September of 1992 and it did really good, charting on the Billboard Top 200 (6th). Just like “Facelift”, “Dirt” was a masterpiece in real time. The album had five songs released as singles including “Would”, “Them bones”, “Angry Chair”, “Rooster”, and “Down in a hole”. I can not begin to explain how genius this music was and how real the lyrics and videos felt when they appeared on MTV and played on the air waves. The songs were dripping with pain, sadness, and alluded to a very dark thing that Layne had been working on. Heroin days.
Now, I’m sure there are experts in the matter regarding the music and the back stories, who could speak for days or even months on the subject. I don’t really have that kind of time or space, so I’m keeping things pretty generalized. But for lovers of good music with dark subject matter, which the undergound doesn’t seem to have a problem with, I would implore the more adventurous to investigate further. I’m a fan of the rap underground and have been for about twenty nine years, but I respect all good music (things I think are important) and don’t mind dabbling when I see fit. You don’t have to stop doing or listening to what you want, and no one is saying one is better than the other. All I’m trying to do today is expand minds and the jurisdictional boundaries of the soul. Sure, the subject matter is black as the darkest night and dripping with self abuse, but it’s something I respond to and I’m sure I’m not alone.
In 1994 the band released an EP called “Jar of Flies” which happens to feature some of my favorite material from the band. Released in January of 1994, it became the first EP in history to debut at the number one spot. I think that is an interesting fact and also a foretelling sign, in regards to how music is released today. There are artists performing these days that just release “songs” without albums at all. Perhaps AIC was ahead of its time on this one, showing that it was quality or quantity as far as what made something great. This EP was definitely great, if it was anything at all. Another interesting fact was during this time, after returning home from the Lollapalooza tour (Perry Farrell’s ground breaking tour festival) found themselves evicted. No one had remembered to pay the rent.
The group checked into the London Bridge Studio and never slowed down. Although the band had no material completed for the EP, they hit the studio, with sessions going on from 14 to 18 hours a day. In break neck speed, the group finished the EP in about 7 days. Most of the tracks were recorded after one or two takes. (Let that be a lesson to people everywhere, sometimes when something is good, its ok to leave it as is. The worst thing you can do is tinker with shit that doesn’t need tinkering). “No excuses” and “I stay away” were the singles used to promote the EP. “Rotten Apple”, “Don’t Follow” and “Nutshell” are my favorites though and I lost many nights to the bottle and those tracks. These songs were my precursor to the Mad Season album. Those songs really hit the tone for where I was in my own addiction trouble. Anyone who listens to “Rotten Apple” that has suffered through vice, will immediately identify and embrace the song. It’s basically a religion for me, and “Rotten Apple” is the sacrament.
After the hugely successful album “Dirt”, AIC seemed to be a winning streak, even if the band members were breakdancing on a razor blade. In November of 1995, Alice in Chains released their third studio album “Alice in Chains” which featured an odd picture of a three legged dog on the cover. This time the boys from Seattle hit a fucking homerun and the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts. It was the first AIC full length album to feature Mike Inez and also the last album to feature lead vocalist Layne Staley.
Just like “Dirt” and “Facelift”, this album had some real heat on it and several songs were released as singles including “Grind”, “Heaven beside you”, and “Again”. The songs “Grind” and “Again” were eventually nominated for Grammy Awards and the album would sell more than three million records worldwide. The subject matter on the album is awash in drug addiction, death, isolation, anger, and sadness. It’s a tough lineup, but something that I was starting to really relate to by 2003, 2004, and 2005.
I was starting to lose my shit by 2004 and my alcohol problems were starting to grow bigger in classic “addiction” status. I was out of control, drinking seven days a week, for months on end, in one form or another. I began to slowly sink into sickness every morning, that could only be relieved by my next case of beer. Where I had once been vibrant at work, I slowly began to fade, and eventually was only a shell of my former self by 2009. I started living on the edge and doing things that placed myself in danger, sometimes on a daily basis. I was out of control (at least most of the time) and maintaining “normal” things in my life became almost impossible. I was entering the MAD SEASON literally and figuratively.
As for Layne, recording for “Alice in Chains” was extremely difficult because of his heroin addiction. Things were getting harder for him and the end was starting to form on the horizon. The band’s manager Susan Silver said “It was a really painful session because it took so long. It was horrifying to see Layne in that condition. Yet, when he was cognizant, he was the sweetest, bright eyed guy, you’d ever want to meet. To be in a meeting with him and have him fall asleep in front of you was gut wrenching“ (Excerpt from Bill Adam’s Ground Control Magazine in 2015).
By 2006, I was collapsing in on myself and the music of Alice in Chains was the soundtrack. It wasn’t the only thing I listened to, but as I became more depressed and forever sinking into the pit of doom, the music resonated with what I thought might very well be the final curtain. I had basically surrendered to the fact that I would probably die, either at work, in a car accident, and accidental overdose of alcohol and pain medication, or some other terrible ending. I really believed that was what was in store for me, and instead of getting out of the way of the death spiral, I just stood in place, awaiting the final impact.
I’m not sure why, but that death blow never came and in a strange moment of clarity, I found the will to fight for a few more years on this earth. I got moving and checked into Rehab for the first time. Although it was a pointless and unproductive trip, it was at least the start of my raging against the dying of the light. I would battle my own demons, rather unsuccessfully for the next eight years and waltz on the edge of destruction for some time. It was amid this fatal romance with my own death, that MAD SEASON arrived in full force. Like I said a minute ago, Alice in Chains had been supplying me with a steady marching band of music to die to. But by 1995, Layne was pretty close to becoming a non-functioning drug addict. The worst thing that can happen to someone suffering from fatal excess, is to give them the resources to do “it” properly. It’s probably why I lasted for as long as I have, I just never had the money to “do it right”. But Layne did and that’s pretty much what happened.
Although the group AIC never officially disbanded, from 1996 and beyond, things were pretty much derailed permanently because of Layne’s problems. He became a recluse, following the death of his ex-fiancée Demri Parrott on October 29th, 1996. He would eventually die in 2002 from severe drug addiction. Alice in Chains sold over thirty million records worldwide, charted 18 top ten songs, produced five number one hits, and received eleven Grammy nominations.
But wait a minute, this was about the Mad Season. That is correct sir….but there is no way to tell the story of Mad Season without talking about Alice in Chains, and besides, I like talking about them. It helps keep their memory alive, or at least in the context that I “remember” the band and the music. Layne was replaced and although the guy that did the replacing sounds amazing (William DuVall), it just isn’t the same. I don’t have time to drift into those waters, I will just say that I’m still a fan of the “new” stuff, but it can never replace or outshine the original context of the band.
I know there are people out there they can “sound” exactly like other people and that is well and good, but the magic is lost somewhere in there. It’s kind of like the AC/DC situation with original bad boy front man Bon Scott, who died from acute alcohol poisoning in 1980, a few months before I was born. A new singer with the “same kind of vibe” as Scott was chosen, and his name was Brian Johnson. It worked, but for purists….it obviously presents ethical challenges.
Back in 1994, Layne Staley entered into a side project with rock musicians from the Seattle scene. Included in this “super group” were Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees, Layne from AIC, and John Baker Saunders. Mad Season released one album called “Above” which dropped in March of 1995. The first single off the album was “River of Deceit” and it did well on the radio. The album hit “gold” status by June.
The group formed in a rather odd way, when Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready checked into drug and alcohol rehab at the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota (during production for Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy) and met John Baker Saunders. When they got out of rehab later in 1994, they formed a side band with Barrett Martin. The three musicians slowly began to figure out a path forward and wrote “Wake up” and “River of Deceit”. Mike McCready (also a member of the Temple of the Dog) brought in friend Layne Staley, with hopes that being around “sober” people would help Layne fight off his addiction demons.
The group only had a couple of half finished songs and little else to go on, but booked a live show at the Crocodile Café (Seattle) on October 12th, 1994. The show was a success. During the show, the song “artificial red” metalized and was later used ono “Above”. The group booked two more shows at the venue, under the name “The Gacy Bunch”. Obviously this was a play on serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the super shitty but wildly popular crap series “The Brady Bunch”. The group played on Pearl Jam’s satellite radio broadcast called “Self Pollution” on January 8th, 1995.
With the bands rise in popularity among fans, they decided to record the album “Above” and also changed their name from “The Gacy Bunch” to “Mad Season”. The term Mad Season is an English term that refers to the time of year that Psilocybin Mushrooms are in full bloom. This was a time of the year that Mike McCready referred to as “the seasons of drinking and drug abuse”.
With a name like Mad Season and the obvious salute to the “crazy times”, this group and the music they made were bound to seep into my addiction years and they did. Sadly, I lost many nights to the wonderfully sick music of Mad Season, with Layne belting out tracks that were practically a perfect fit for an unexpected overdose death or funeral. I would often sit in the dark, drowning my soul with drink, playing these songs over and over.
They seemed to capture a lot of the feelings and sentiments I was having in my own life, whether it was the romantic fatalism or the lonely death of excess. I can’t really explain it, but to have a band playing music and singing about what I was going through, somehow gave me a friend in all of that darkness, even if it represented the end for me. At least I had the music, in those darkest days. Between the years 2006 and 2013, I would be hospitalized twenty seven times for rehab and emergency room visits for alcoholism. I’m not sure how I managed to survive it all, but I did.
By 2013 I was pretty much at the end of the sad little journey and only credit my survival to medical marijuana. Without it, I would have went out down, like a ship in the night, many years ago. I spent the next eight years rebuilding my life and today, I am living my dream of writing about the bands and music that I care about. I had no expectations for survival, sometimes for years, but I made it out. I want people reading this right now to know that if you are struggling with booze, drugs, or mental illness, fucking hold on. The shit will get better if you just HANG ON long enough. I know its easier said than done, but I did it, so I know it’s possible. My life isn’t perfect and I still struggle from time to time, but I’m alive and semi-productive (two things that I didn’t think were possible in 2006).
“Above” was released March 14, 1995 and would eventually hit gold in June of that year. The group gave live performances throughout the spring of 1995, but the group went on hiatus, so members could return back to their bands respectively. For Layne Staley, he would never perform with the Mad Season or Alice in Chains, after his last appearance with AIC in July of 1996.
The music of Mad Season will never leave me. Even when I hear the music today, I get goose bumps and chills. I can feel the cold breath of death, breathing on my neck….remembering a time when I almost vanished for good. Check out this group. Respect history and what came before, or people won’t respect or remember what we are doing today.
Signing Off,
Mike Shepard
ROX-TV Head Writer
shepard2909@hotmail.com
kidvicious810 IG
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