When considering of basic grunge music, the recipe that almost all bands appeared to observe was detuned riffs performed on battered devices, and cranked by means of an amp/fuzz pedal combo. However there have been actually exceptions, the obvious being the pair of acoustic EP’s that Alice in Chains issued when grunge’s recognition was at its peak — 1992’s Sap, and particularly, 1994’s Jar of Flies.
With a quick break close to the tip of their unending tour in help of their dark-rock masterpiece Grime, the band seemingly “cleansed the pallet” with the rather more restrained and mellow Jar of Flies. However this proved to be a chaotic interval for the band, as drug abuse ran rampant, ensuing within the ousting of unique bassist Mike Starr in the midst of the tour for Grime, with Ozzy bassist Mike Inez signing on as his substitute. (Starr would finally succumb to an overdose in 2011, on the age of 44.) In the meantime, singer Layne Staley’s battle with dependancy had already been documented within the lyrics to a number of tunes on Grime (“Junkhead,” “God Smack,” and so on.).
However as guitarist Jerry Cantrell recalled within the ebook Grunge Is Useless: The Oral Historical past of Seattle Rock Music, the writing of Jar of Flies was not mapped out a lot forward of time. “Between Grime to the canine file [aka 1995’s Alice in Chains], we had been going to do one other EP. I believe it was after we had deliberate on having a trip. Earlier than the holiday, the blokes had been like, ‘We wish it to be extra of a band factor — so don’t write a bunch of shit to herald.’ I’m like, ‘OK, that’s cool, no drawback’.”
He added, “I went on trip and didn’t play my guitar in any respect. We booked per week and got here in off of trip. Everyone will get in, and so they’re like, ‘OK, what have you ever acquired?’ Walked in with nothing, and walked out seven days later with that file – just about from scratch. I believe I may need had ‘Don’t Comply with’ from the Grime tour in Europe, after we had been simply burned – you’ll be able to really feel that within the lyrics. The whole lot you hear on that file was written, recorded, and produced in per week.”
Drummer Sean Kinney additionally recounted fond recollections of the EP, and what it did for the group’s morale on the time. “That was a extremely huge turning level – it made sense, as a result of issues had been trying fairly bleak. That was a pleasant pick-me-up. It was like, ‘Cool, we’re shifting ahead and we’re shifting on. We’re nonetheless right here and shit’s getting higher’.”
The group assembled on the similar recording studio that that they had laid down tracks for Sap, Seattle’s London Bridge, on September seventh, 1993 (precisely one month from their last date on Lollapalooza), and as Cantrell defined, remained there for less than per week — wrapping on the 14th, earlier than quickly resuming the tour in help of Grime.
However in contrast to its acoustic predecessor that was produced by the band and Rick Parashar, Jar of Flies solely listed the band when it got here to the manufacturing credit score. Songwriting-wise, Staley dealt with a lot of the lyrics, whereas Cantrell dealt with a lot of the music, though Inez is credited with co-penning 4 of the seven tracks — which a lot have served as a little bit of a “trial by fireplace” for his or her latest member.
An EP assembled in such a fast method could have left some questioning if Jar of Flies was a throwaway, nevertheless it actually is the sound of a band decompressing from all that occurred to them up to now 12 months. And the album opener, “Rotten Apple”, units the tone completely, with a repetitive, Software-like bass line, some nifty discuss box-effected guitar work, sparse percussion, and Layne saying right away, “Innocence is over.” The tune additionally proved to be the EP’s longest, stretching to just about seven minutes in size.
“Nutshell” is constructed extra upon the strum of an acoustic guitar (with Layne’s haunting vocal stylings being showcased), whereas “I Keep Away” makes good use of symphonic strings for added dramatic impact. Up subsequent is the EP’s best-known tune, “No Excuses”, which turned out to be a rock radio hit (hitting #1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart — the band’s first-ever chart-topping tune), and likewise was essentially the most upbeat sounding of the bunch, regardless of some not-so-sunny lyrics penned by Cantrell.
The gloomy instrumental, “Whale & Wasp”, rapidly erases the cheery really feel, as does “Don’t Comply with” — the tune that Cantrell talked about as being the primary one composed for the mission (with some lonesome-cowboy-sitting-around-a-campfire harmonica gildings added in for good measure). The final observe of the set, “Swing On This”, sounds as if it was created whereas performed, and gives a little bit of lighthearted reduction to the entire prior seriousness.
Chart-wise, Jar of Flies (which apparently, in Japan was issued below the title of One other Facet of Alice, for causes unknown) was an enormous success — hitting #1 on the Billboard 200, and serving to make Alice in Chains the third grunge band to achieve the highest spot (Nirvana had already accomplished so twice with Nevermind and In Utero, Pearl Jam had most just lately achieved this feat with Vs., and Soundgarden would additionally be part of the “numero uno” membership quickly, with Superunknown).
And as that they had accomplished up to now, Alice in Chains would proceed to observe their rock-acoustic-rock-acoustic album cycle with their subsequent two releases — 1995’s self-titled full-length, and 1996’s MTV Unplugged (the latter of which included renditions of two Jar of Flies tracks, the set-opening “Nutshell”, plus “No Excuses”).
Sadly, Jar of Flies didn’t get Alice in Chains again on observe behind the scenes. The band would by no means mount one other substantial tour with Staley within the lineup, as a consequence of his drug dependancy (which by the late ‘90s, would render him primarily a hermit in his Seattle condo, and in the end, result in his demise by way of overdose on April 5, 2002, at age 34).
Nevertheless, within the EP’s wake, a number of bands clearly studied the “acoustic Alice” sound, and scored hits with compositions that seemed like copies from the Jar of Flies periods. Living proof, Days of the New’s “Contact, Peel and Stand”, Staind’s “It’s Been Awhile”, Godsmack’s “Touché”, Puddle of Mudd’s “Blurry”, and Seether’s “Damaged”, amongst others.
Since its unique launch on January 25, 1994, Jar of Flies stays a gripping pay attention — which is sort of an accomplishment, because it was accomplished so largely acoustically and on the spot.