Weekly Wrap-Up

This is my first Media Wrap-Up. But I actually have something to discuss.

Earlier this week, I was listening to Alice in Chains' album, Sap. Sap is a short, sweet album, with a terrible hidden track at the end. I try to listen to it...but I just can't. However, the 4 'real' songs on there are spectacular. Three of the songs feature Ann Wilson from the band 'Heart'. Well, use her as back-up vocals, but I think it's the only album of theirs that they use a female vocalist at all. But the other song, "Right Turn," is my favorite on there. "Right Turn" is credited to "Alice Mudgarden." I had remembered that they had called themselves that because not only was it Alice in Chains, but also Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. But then I couldn't remember who the 'Mud' was from, so I Googled it. Turns out it was Mark Arm of Mudhoney. But that's not the point.

The point is, while I was on Alice Mudgarden's Wikipedia page, God bless Wikipedia because under 'related topics' it had "List of grunge supergroups." Um, yes please! Alice Mudgarden, who had all of the one song, was one of them. The other two, with (slightly) more success were Temple of Dog and Mad Season. Temple of Dog consisted of guys from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Green River and Mother Love Bone (never heard of the last two). But of much more interest to me was Mad Season, comprised of Layne Staley (the AIC frontman), a guy from Pearl Jam (not Eddie Vedder), and two more guys from two more bands I'd never heard of. But Layne Staley!! I absolutely love his voice. Love, love, love it. It's beautiful. I'm really sad he's dead, and that while he was living he had too many substance abuse problems to sing more.

Mad Season had one album, called Above. I listened to it on lala.com, and have put it at the top of my list of albums to buy. It's fantastic. I love AIC's harmony...but there was something about Staley's voice on its own that was almost haunting.

They also have a live recording of their first (and maybe only) concert. It's listed on Amazon for a hundred bucks. I don't need it that badly.