chain gang

Rip It Up, Issue 199, 1 March 1994, Page 10

chain gang

Jar of Flies is the name of the new EP by Seattle's Alice in Chains. It's a musical bouquet of everything that Alice in Chains, are [in]famous for: thoughtful songs written with conviction, perfectly sung harmonies courtesy of guitarist/ songwriter Jerry Cantrell (who was head of his high school choir) and more than a sprinkling of singer Layne Stayley's personal suffering. Lashings of it in fact. For Alice in Chains fans that are used to the heavyalternativerockoftheirfull length albums Facelift and last year's Dirt, this EP will be something of a startle - this is not your typical Alice in Chains record. It's quieter, more melodic, it has harmonicas and weird atmospheric guitar effects and even a jazzed up swing piss take song. There is, in fact, not a huge power chord to be heardand it makes you feel... well, melanchony actually, which is a good thang! I have known a few people to dismiss this band as being 'corporate rockers' and 'posuers', and so they may or may not be. I don't actually know what a corporate rocker is, I think it means that you're successful or something. People may have come to some conclusions about the band because of the bands that they have toured with. They toured with Van Halen,Van Halen bought Alice in Chains new clothes ('grunge' clothes apparently) and new Doc Martens (!) which therefore makes them a shitty arena band too. And all the stories about Layne's heroin addiction (the boring drugs & rock & roll metaphor — snore) which are probably true but hardly a new development linked to rock & roll, is it. After waiting for several hours past the time that I was told to expect a phone call from "one of the members of Alice in Chains" I was phoned by a Columbia records man to tell me that they hadn't forgetten about me and that I would be speaking to the new bass player Mike Inez in five minutes, so I quickly change all my general questions to be based around the likes of Mike. Five minutes later Mr Columbia phones again to tell me that I would actually be speaking to Layne — "everybody wants Layne, and you've got him". "Ermgood" I say hesitantly, I now have less than five minutes to prepare my Layne questions which are considerably harder than Mike questions, as far as I'm concerned. Research time is over in approximately two

minutes and Layne is on the phone. He is quiet, , he is tired, very tired. Mr Columbia warned me that it was Layne's last interview and I would have to "squeeze an interview from him". Well I squeezed but not a lot came out, actually. It's 6 o'clock in the evening and Layne's in L.A (before earthquake)"just doin' press". He's been doing it all day. "You must be horribly bored by now," I

suggest cheerfully. "Oh no," he replies wearily, "It's alright." • I slump down in my chair, horribly discouraged. I consider shouting down the phone "So are you still shooting up?" just to liven things up a bit. I slap myself mentally for even thinking such a thing. I calm down and instead ask what the real reason was for them not playing NZ last year. "Well our drummer cut his arm and he was allergic to penicillin and they were pumping him full of it for three days." Oh. Layne says he hates the touring lifestyle but "doesn't mind the touring bit" and it takes him ages to adjust to a normal lifestyle after returing from being on tour. "We've been home for two months and I still haven't unpacked my bags." Layne is fully enthusiastic about doing music and says if the whole Alice in Chains thing collapsed tomorrow he would start another band (most musos say they would write or work in a pet store or become a milk man) and the highlight of his musical career has been the ability to be able to have a home studio (he laughs somewhat apologetically). Layne says (deadpan) that his major musical influence is Ozzy Osbourne/ Black Sabbath and the Alice in Chains current line-up has Mike Inez playing bass, who came from Ozzy Osbourne's band. Their last bass player Mike Satrr left "Cos he was tired, he didn't wanna go but he did." Right. Alice in Chains are from that now infamous place called Seattle (yes yawn) but this means diddlyshitto Alice in Chains cos they were never involved with the Seattle scene thing anyway, although they did have a band part in the movie Singles that was meant to personify the grunge feeling or something. Alice in Chains were too metal for the Sub Poppers and not dumb enough for the real metallers, so floated in the midst until the whole Seattle thing died when they suddenly became quite famous. Layne answers questions with a quiet'yeah' or a slightly more excited 'yeah' which really doesn't make for good question/ answer repartee. The only time during this interview when Layne sounded anywhere near enthralled was when I asked about Lollapalooza. Layne said excitedly "it was great, really fun" and when I said that I was finished interviewing him and apologised for my lack of insightful questions he went extremley polite and likeable on me, cooing things in my ear like "no, it's okay, really" and "you have a nice night". I put down the phone, relieved but unfulfilled and had a nice night. ‘ <

SHILREY CHARLES