Alice is Back!

Fourteen years is a long time to wait for an Alice in Chains album. Then again, I suspect most people never expected to hear from the band under that moniker after Layne Staley died in April 2002.

It’s hard to review this album because I’m such a fan. Alice in Chains were the understated grunge band of the 1990s. They also provided the soundtrack to my high school years.

The new album “Black Gives Way to Blue” is due out on the 29th. It’s been streaming online for some time now. It’s also leaked, so if you are predisposed to downloading from torrents, you’ll find quality versions of it at the usual locations.

But I highly suggest buying this album the minute it’s released. Play the first track, “All Secrets Known,” and tell me AIC isn’t back together, that they haven’t done the impossible by conjuring the spine-tingling, haunted “perfect fourth” harmonies of yesterday.

Skeptics might say it’s basically Jerry Cantrell’s third solo effort, only this time he has his old band behind him. While the songs are Cantrell-heavy in terms of the singing, newcomer William DuVall does a pretty decent job of filling out the harmonies.

He’s no Layne Staley. So if you’re expecting a Layne sound-a-like, you’re barking up the wrong tree. But if you’re looking for a band that hasn’t sold out, changed its sound and tried to be commercially viable by mimicking the latest auto-tuned trend (ahem…AHEM! Chris Cornell) or release the same album they’ve released for the past decade (I’m thinking of a band that starts with “P” and ends with “earl Jam”), then this is worth it.

Grunge never sounded so dangerously relevant 15 years after its day in the sun.

“Last of My Kind” harkens back to the days of “Dirt,” minus the heroin-induced lethargy. But still, you wouldn’t know the difference between the dope days and now. The riffs are heavy, the vocals disturbing, the droning distortion and bass-heavy rhythms never closer to 1994. Yet it doesn’t sound like a recycled outtake. It’s new, it’s reflective of a lost age, and it's just damn great.

“When The Sun Rose Again” sounds like it could be an outtake from SAP. It has that dark, echo-laden acoustic sound that AIC conjured with during their “Unplugged” album.

“Acid Bubble” and "Take Her Out" are everything you’ve always wanted to hear from AIC. "Acid Bubble" has the weight and sludge of a song like “Hate to Feel” and the heaviness of “Them Bones,” yet it keeps a vibrancy in its chorus. "Take Her Out" powers through with morose melody, catchy enough to be buzzing in your head, the guitar intro weaves through it with Cantrell's penchant for solos that sound simple but are expertly executed with an ease that would make most guitarists scratch their heads.

The new AIC album will be out in a matter of days. It’s a perfect example of a band that had realized its voice all along, and has somehow found a way to keep it fresh and relevant for a new generation without losing its momentum or identity.

Buy it.

When Top 40 Radio Steals From My Heroes, Things Might Get Ugly

There's a song on the radio probably everyone knows, even if you don't know it by name.

That is, of course, unless you've been living in a barn. Or working nights for a year and a half, never venturing to hipster dance clubs, spending most of your free time with a very select library of music that is either classic or snobbishly obscure.

I think I'll plead no contest to the latter option.

Anyway, I was inside a bar the other night and there was no music, just the sounds of flip-collared turds trying to hit on some very nice girls who apparently had run out of clean laundry and opted for lasciviously styled bed sheets that barely covered their butts.

I'm not complaining. Typical Springfield bar scene. Typical reason why I only go out with a select group of friends.

Tirade apart, I decide to put on some "good music," as if a majority of the people in the bar would know it if it bit them on the ass.

Song selection number one: "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" by The Pogues. If you haven't heard it, it's basically a punk version of an Irish jig.

Needless to say it went over like a lead balloon.

Song selection number two: "Straight To Hell" by The Clash. People start looking over as soon as the intro starts. They start letting loose, about to unleash their Groove Thangs.

Unbeknown to me, apparently MIA sampled that particular song for the song "Paper Planes." If you haven't heard it, it's the one with the chorus "All I wanna do is..." followed by several gunshots in rhythm with the bass drum.

I was floored.

Here's a tribute to talentless hacks who rip off truly inspired music, with the top five that infuriate me most:

1. The Clash's "Straight To Hell" used for MIA's "Paper Planes"
2. Parliament's "We Want The Funk" was used in Snoop Dogg's "What's My Name"
3. The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" was used in Will Smith's "Will 2K"
4. Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" was used in Will Smith's "Wild Wild West"
5. Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" was used in Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"

Noel leaves Oasis...again

Have you heard the news? Oasis broke up.

Again.

Seems this time Noel's walking out because of a fight in Paris with
his brother and lead singer, Liam.

But is anyone surprised?

Remember when the band broke up in 2000 because Liam got piss drunk
and made remarks about Noel's daughter? They were back together by
July of that year.

It's amusing to see how surprised everyone seems to be at the
"newsworthiness" of this break. Yeah, they're the champions of Britpop
in that they've actually stuck it out longer than any other band.
They've reinvented the same basic rock 'n roll mold every record they
put out.

Not to complain. I love hearing them ape T. Rex's "Get It On" in the
form of "Cigarettes & Alcohol" on their debut album "Definitely
Maybe."

By the way, isn't that album celebrating 15 years this week? Huh.
That's strange.

Could it be *gasp* a publicity stunt?

Even at the height of their career just as "(What's The Story) Morning
Glory" was making waves in the U.S., the Mancunian band was seemingly
breaking up and getting back together on a yearly basis back in the
mid-1990s. And it's never been one of the two brothers who has always
left the band. It seems both Gallaghers are equally ill-tempered,
abrasive and moody.

So on this one, I'm calling bullshit.

Noel has expressed interest in a solo career. That doesn't
matter. Noel-rock efforts won't stand up without his brother. Chris
and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes learned that the hard way during
their many breaks and solo efforts.

Solo albums often lead to narcissistic, self-indulgent efforts that
are undermined by the arrogance of the estranged band member eager to
prove they're better on their own.

Bands typically keep each other in check.

News flash, Noel: you're shite without Oasis, mate.

News flash, Liam: your clothing line, Pretty Green, wouldn't exist if
you never sang "Rock 'n Roll Star."

And this all seems a bit too closely timed to Blur's comeback this
summer after guitarist Graham Coxon left the band in 2002. They were
more than warmly received at every major festival they played in
Britain this summer, but they have since decided to disband so they
don't become "cynical" toward the band again, singer Damon Albarn has
said in interviews.

So let's backtrack for a moment: It's August of 1995. Blur and Oasis
are set to release new singles on the same day, Aug. 14. It's billed
as "The Battle of Britpop." Blur's "Country House" outsells Oasis'
"Roll With It" 274,000 copies to 216,000 during one week.

I think Oasis may be trying to once again prove their relevance in
contemporary pop music by breaking up. In many ways it seems they need
to prove it to themselves more so than anyone else.

Rolling Stones guitarist's death reviewed

One of the many rock stars to die at age 27, Brian Jones' death on
July 3, 1969, is being reopened and investigated once more by police,
reported NME and BBC News on Sunday.

Sussex detectives are re-examining the case after being handed
relevant new documents, reports BBC News.

Jones was found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool at his house in
East Sussex. The cause was "death by misadventure," but police are
reopening the case to determine whether he was murdered.

While BBC News and NME haven't reported much on the particulars, this
is what I'm assuming, as a self-described Rolling Stones afficionado.

Part of the reason for recent speculation may be that Jones'
girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, claimed he was alive and had a pulse when
Jones' body was pulled from the pool. By the time doctors arrived, it
was too late and he was dead. Wohlin also said in 1999 that Jones had
been murdered by a builder who had been renovating the house the
couple shared.

Some accounts suggest the builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly
confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones' driver,
Tom Keylock. Keylock has since denied the claim.

I, however, greatly doubt Jones was murdered. For one, he was kicked
out of his own group because he was too incoherent to play music
because of a debilitating drug addiction.

And as a side note, you must be on death's doorsteps if Keith Richards
kicks you out of his band because you're too high to play music.

So why wasn't he murdered?

Jones' attendance at rehearsals were erratic, at best, just before his
death. Where once he had been the band's de-facto leader, his musical
contributions became more infrequent from 1967 until 1969.

So is it so hard to believe that he took too many drugs and drowned?
Or that he had a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol and passed
out in the pool before drowning?

Or, even more grimly, that he committed suicide because he had just
been kicked out of the band he helped form, which had become one of
the biggest bands in the world?

All of these options seem more plausible than murder.