180 Gram Double Vinyl! Head-Clearing Heavy Blues On Their Lone Album! Includes 4 Previously Unreleased Tracks! Pressed at RTI!
Pearl Jam + Alice In Chains + Screaming Trees = Mad Season! The Lone Album from the Iconic Seattle Supergroup!
Mad Season consists of vocalist Layne Staley (Alice In Chains), guitarist Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), drummer/percussionist Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees) and bassist John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts, Lamont Cranston Band). In 1994, the four Seattle-based musicians decided to embark on a side-project that took them into new and different musical territory. They made one seminal album in the history of Seattle rock. That album, Above was released in 1995 and immediately struck a resonate chord with the public that sent the album into gold status within a few weeks. It is the only complete album of Layne Staley's introspective and mystical lyrics, which were highlighted by additional vocals from Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and Seattle-based saxophonist/percussionist Skerik.
Mad Season was essentially Seattle's version of an extremely heavy blues band, anchored by the deep swinging rhythm section of Barrett's drums and Baker's bass lines, with Layne's haunting melodies and Mike's stadium-size guitar riffs soaring over the top. This unusual chemistry made the band absolutely unique in an era of post-grunge. In the almost 20 years since the original release of Above, new generations of music listeners have discovered the dark and lasting beauty of Mad Season.
In 1996, work began on a second Mad Season album with Mike, Barrett and Baker writing and recording the basic tracks for 15 new songs. Unfortunately, because of declining health, Layne wasn't able to make any of the recording sessions and the album was shelved. Fate subsequently took each musician in a different direction: Mike back to Pearl Jam and Barrett back to Screaming Trees. Tragically, both Baker (1999) and Layne (2002) passed away.
This collection features songs from the unfinished second album with newly recorded vocals including "Locomotive" -- (Mark Lanegan takes the place of Staley on vocals)!
"The short-lived mid-Nineties grunge outfit Mad Season was as much therapy session as jam session: Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready met bassist John Baker Saunders in rehab, and recruited Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley in the hope that teaming with sober musicians might end Staley's heroin addiction. They played desultory, head-clearing heavy blues on their lone album... It's hard hearing Staley growl lines like, 'My pain is self-chosen/At least I believe it to be.' In a few years, both he and Saunders would be dead." - Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone
"[S]urviving Mad Season members... team with Lanegan to commemorate and revive one of the more unique projects from the waning days of the grunge era. Listening to the remastered Above, more than anything, pays reminder to just how distinctive a sound emerged from this pooling of eclectic musical personalities: the much older Saunders bluesman bass lines, Martins tribal-flavored percussion, Staleys tortured vocals and phrasings, and guitarist McCreadys arena-rock bluster. It all somehow coalesced into this darkly beautiful grunge blues that holds sway... The chugging, hellhounds-on-my-trail 'Locomotive' pits Lanegan growling menacingly against Martins pounding, while leaving room for McCreadys most unleashed soloing since 'November Hotel'. 'Black Book of Fear' (co-written with Peter Buck) and 'Slip Away' allow Lanegan to adopt a calmer, reflective croon over warm arrangements that hint that Mad Season was poised to move away from Aboves sludgier blues numbers." - Matt Melis, Consequence Of Sound
Features:
180 Gram Double Vinyl
Includes 4 Previously Unreleased Tracks
Certified Gold Album
Pressed at RTI
Gatefold Jacket
Musicians:
Layne Staley, vocals, rhythm guitar
John Baker Saunders, bass
Barrett Martin, drums, percussion, double bass, cello, marimba, vibraphone
Mike McCready, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Skerik, additional personnel, saxophone
Mark Lanegan, additional personnel, vocals
Selections:
LP1 - Side 1:
1. Wake Up
2. X-Ray Mind
3. River Of Deceit
LP1 - Side 2:
1. I'm Above
2. Artificial Red
3. Lifeless Dead
4. I Don't Know Anything
LP2 - Side 3:
1. Long Gone Day
2. November Hotel
3. All Alone
4. Interlude (previously unreleased)
5. Locomotive (previously unreleased)
LP2 - Side 4:
1. Black Book Of Fear (previously unreleased)
2. Slip Away (previously unreleased)
3. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier (remix)
Pearl Jam + Alice In Chains + Screaming Trees = Mad Season! The Lone Album from the Iconic Seattle Supergroup!
Mad Season consists of vocalist Layne Staley (Alice In Chains), guitarist Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), drummer/percussionist Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees) and bassist John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts, Lamont Cranston Band). In 1994, the four Seattle-based musicians decided to embark on a side-project that took them into new and different musical territory. They made one seminal album in the history of Seattle rock. That album, Above was released in 1995 and immediately struck a resonate chord with the public that sent the album into gold status within a few weeks. It is the only complete album of Layne Staley's introspective and mystical lyrics, which were highlighted by additional vocals from Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and Seattle-based saxophonist/percussionist Skerik.
Mad Season was essentially Seattle's version of an extremely heavy blues band, anchored by the deep swinging rhythm section of Barrett's drums and Baker's bass lines, with Layne's haunting melodies and Mike's stadium-size guitar riffs soaring over the top. This unusual chemistry made the band absolutely unique in an era of post-grunge. In the almost 20 years since the original release of Above, new generations of music listeners have discovered the dark and lasting beauty of Mad Season.
In 1996, work began on a second Mad Season album with Mike, Barrett and Baker writing and recording the basic tracks for 15 new songs. Unfortunately, because of declining health, Layne wasn't able to make any of the recording sessions and the album was shelved. Fate subsequently took each musician in a different direction: Mike back to Pearl Jam and Barrett back to Screaming Trees. Tragically, both Baker (1999) and Layne (2002) passed away.
This collection features songs from the unfinished second album with newly recorded vocals including "Locomotive" -- (Mark Lanegan takes the place of Staley on vocals)!
"The short-lived mid-Nineties grunge outfit Mad Season was as much therapy session as jam session: Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready met bassist John Baker Saunders in rehab, and recruited Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley in the hope that teaming with sober musicians might end Staley's heroin addiction. They played desultory, head-clearing heavy blues on their lone album... It's hard hearing Staley growl lines like, 'My pain is self-chosen/At least I believe it to be.' In a few years, both he and Saunders would be dead." - Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone
"[S]urviving Mad Season members... team with Lanegan to commemorate and revive one of the more unique projects from the waning days of the grunge era. Listening to the remastered Above, more than anything, pays reminder to just how distinctive a sound emerged from this pooling of eclectic musical personalities: the much older Saunders bluesman bass lines, Martins tribal-flavored percussion, Staleys tortured vocals and phrasings, and guitarist McCreadys arena-rock bluster. It all somehow coalesced into this darkly beautiful grunge blues that holds sway... The chugging, hellhounds-on-my-trail 'Locomotive' pits Lanegan growling menacingly against Martins pounding, while leaving room for McCreadys most unleashed soloing since 'November Hotel'. 'Black Book of Fear' (co-written with Peter Buck) and 'Slip Away' allow Lanegan to adopt a calmer, reflective croon over warm arrangements that hint that Mad Season was poised to move away from Aboves sludgier blues numbers." - Matt Melis, Consequence Of Sound
Features:
180 Gram Double Vinyl
Includes 4 Previously Unreleased Tracks
Certified Gold Album
Pressed at RTI
Gatefold Jacket
Musicians:
Layne Staley, vocals, rhythm guitar
John Baker Saunders, bass
Barrett Martin, drums, percussion, double bass, cello, marimba, vibraphone
Mike McCready, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Skerik, additional personnel, saxophone
Mark Lanegan, additional personnel, vocals
Selections:
LP1 - Side 1:
1. Wake Up
2. X-Ray Mind
3. River Of Deceit
LP1 - Side 2:
1. I'm Above
2. Artificial Red
3. Lifeless Dead
4. I Don't Know Anything
LP2 - Side 3:
1. Long Gone Day
2. November Hotel
3. All Alone
4. Interlude (previously unreleased)
5. Locomotive (previously unreleased)
LP2 - Side 4:
1. Black Book Of Fear (previously unreleased)
2. Slip Away (previously unreleased)
3. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier (remix)
