| AIC is a rock band that formed in 1987 in Seattle, WA. Their style/genre is Grunge/Metal/Alternative/Hard Rock. The band is: Layne Staley - vox; Jerry Cantrell - guitar; Mike Starr(87-92)/Mike Inez(92-) - bass; Sean Kinney - drums. Their hard sound appealed to metalheads and their dark lyrics appealed to grunge fans. The were the right mix at the right time when Dirt hit. (although Facelift is still probably my favorite album)
Alice in Chains is a long, torrid, troubled, story. Staley started a band called Alice N Chains in highschool, but it wasn't until he met Cantrell in 1987 that Alice In Chains really started to form. Staley and Cantrell had some fundamental differences. This created a dichotomy of the band that both propelled them and created tremendous tension. Throughout their existence there have been rumors of breakups and even temporary real ones. Fans never knew if another album was coming out or not. They would say they are working on one, then something would happen. After the album Dirt I was on the Angry Chair mailing list (fan-based AIC mailing list) and it seemed like one week there would be rumors of a band breakup and the next there would be statements that they weren't breaking up. They had problems on tour, they had problems in the stuido, they had problems all over the place. But damn they made some good music. At one point Cantrell did a solo album, Boggy Depot, because he couldn't get Staley to work. While it was titled a solo album pretty much everybody from AIC except Staley helped with the album (including producers and such).
Layne Staley also had a side project called Mad Season (originally called Gracy Bunch). Mad Season included Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin and John Baker Saunders. For a short time Cantrell also played with this band. Staley basically disappeared being replaced in Mad Season before the band's second album.
- Albums:
- Unplugged (live) -- Sony Records (1996)
- s/t -- Columbia Records (1995)
- Dirt -- Columbia Records (1992)
- Facelift -- Columbia Records (1990)
- EPs/Singles:
- Bank Heist -- Columbia Records (1999)
- Fear the Voices -- Columbia Records (1999)
- Heaven Beside You, Pt. 1 -- Sony International (1998)
- Heaven Beside You, Pt. 2 -- Sony International (1998)
- I Stay Away -- Sony Records (1995)
- Jar of Flies -- Columbia Records (1994)
- SAP -- Columbia Records (1992)
- Angry Chair -- Sony Records (1992)
- Man in a Box -- Sony Records (1991)
- We Die Young -- Columbia Records (1990)
The also appeared on the soundtracks to Last Action Hero, Singles, Clerks.
www.aliceinchains.com | 
