When pondering of basic grunge music, the recipe that almost all bands appeared to observe was detuned riffs performed on battered devices, and cranked by 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 top of their endless tour in assist of their dark-rock masterpiece Filth, the band seemingly “cleansed the pallet” with the way 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 authentic bassist Mike Starr in the midst of the tour for Filth, with Ozzy bassist Mike Inez signing on as his alternative. (Starr would ultimately succumb to an overdose in 2011, on the age of 44.) In the meantime, singer Layne Staley’s battle with habit had already been documented within the lyrics to a number of tunes on Filth (“Junkhead,” “God Smack,” and so on.).
However as guitarist Jerry Cantrell recalled within the ebook Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, the writing of Jar of Flies was not mapped out a lot forward of time. “Between Filth to the canine document [aka 1995’s Alice in Chains], we have been going to do one other EP. I feel it was after we had deliberate on having a trip. Earlier than the holiday, the fellows have 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. All people 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 document – just about from scratch. I feel I might need had ‘Don’t Observe’ from the Filth tour in Europe, once we have been simply burned – you’ll be able to really feel that within the lyrics. Every little thing you hear on that document was written, recorded, and produced in per week.”
Drummer Sean Kinney additionally recounted fond reminiscences of the EP, and what it did for the group’s morale on the time. “That was a extremely massive turning level – it made sense, as a result of issues have 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 identical recording studio that they’d laid down tracks for Sap, Seattle’s London Bridge, on September seventh, 1993 (precisely one month from their closing 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 assist of Filth.
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 hearth” for his or her latest member.
An EP assembled in such a speedy method might have left some questioning if Jar of Flies was a throwaway, but it surely actually is the sound of a band decompressing from all that occurred to them prior to now yr. And the album opener, “Rotten Apple”, units the tone completely, with a repetitive, Device-like bass line, some nifty speak box-effected guitar work, sparse percussion, and Layne asserting 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 in addition was essentially the most upbeat sounding of the bunch, regardless of some not-so-sunny lyrics penned by Cantrell.
The gloomy instrumental, “Whale & Wasp”, shortly erases the cheery really feel, as does “Don’t Observe” — the tune that Cantrell talked about as being the primary one composed for the undertaking (with some lonesome-cowboy-sitting-around-a-campfire harmonica elaborations added in for good measure). The final monitor of the set, “Swing On This”, sounds as if it was created whereas performed, and affords a little bit of lighthearted reduction to all the prior seriousness.
Chart-wise, Jar of Flies (which apparently, in Japan was issued below the title of One other Aspect of Alice, for causes unknown) was a large success — hitting #1 on the Billboard 200, and serving to make Alice in Chains the third grunge band to succeed in the highest spot (Nirvana had already performed so twice with Nevermind and In Utero, Pearl Jam had most just lately achieved this feat with Vs., and Soundgarden would additionally be a part of the “numero uno” membership quickly, with Superunknown).
And as they’d performed prior 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 monitor behind the scenes. The band would by no means mount one other substantial tour with Staley within the lineup, attributable to his drug habit (which by the late ‘90s, would render him primarily a hermit in his Seattle condo, and finally, result in his dying 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 appeared like copies from the Jar of Flies classes. Working example, 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 authentic launch on January 25, 1994, Jar of Flies stays a gripping hear — which is sort of an accomplishment, because it was performed so largely acoustically and on the spot.
