Mad Season is the time when some hallucinogenic mushrooms grow in Surrey, England. The inhabitants of that place begin to wander at the peak of this season like crazy trying to harvest these really appreciated mushrooms for them. Pearl Jam mixed their first album in this place and Mike McCready never forgot this term because it reminded him part of his past, full of memories of alcohol and drugs abuse. However, by 1994, Mike was already rehabilitated. His sobriety process was carried out at the Centre for Addiction Treatment "Hazelden" of Minneapolis. There, was another guy recovering called John Baker Saunders, who came from Chicago and had a great Blues background. They were roommates at Hazelden and it was precisely there that the minds of these two great musicians converged. The Blues talks and their passion for this genre lit the fire on McCready to start a Heavy Blues band. “Come back to Seattle with me — I’ll make sure you have a place to stay. We’ll start this band, stay busy, and support each other.” Mike told Baker and that's how they got back together. Barrett Martin, drummer for Skin Yard and Screaming Trees was contacted by Mike to take over the rhythm section together with the aforementioned Baker and as Screaming Trees was not with compromises in the horizon, he gladly accepted.
Above
Above is the perfect example of a great synergy of 5 great musicians, but beyond that, the album of the ink cover and black and white strokes is the reflection of the totally honest and naked thoughts of an outstanding human being, it´s the book we all wanted to read, written by its protagonist. Above is the autobiography, the great musical gift and spiritual legacy of the greatest: Layne Staley
But there was an important space that needed to be filled, they needed for this Blues band a heartbreaking and above all, a very soulful voice. It was then that McCready thought only in one name: Layne Staley. Layne was confined at his home and had his friend, Johnny Bacolas as his roommate. Layne himself had asked Johnny to move in with him, and Johnny thought being 24/7 next to Layne he could be helpful in the terrible disease Layne had, despite all his attempts in rehab. Layne was exhausted of Alice in Chains and the life on the road, in perhaps the most successful years of our beloved band. The last major setback was the cancellation of the tour with Metallica at the last minute, causing in him a sense of isolation of the crazy rockstar lifestyle and decided he wanted to spend his days in a much more restful style, dedicating more time to their other great passions that were reading, the visual arts and poetry.
However, Layne didn´t count on a call that would change his mind. Johnny Bacolas refers to this call: “Layne never answered the phone, and we’d never answer the door if someone just knocked. You’d have to let us know you’re coming. Mike called and spoke to me, and he’s like, “Dude, wanted to come and hang out and say hi to you guys. I just got out of rehab, and I had this idea for this band.” I would talk to Layne, and say, “Hey, man, McCready is calling — he’s a good guy and he wants to talk to you. He’s sober.” I’m the one who let him in the house, and he played Layne these songs”.
It was that way that Layne joined the band and began to make several rehearsals that went pretty good. During the process of creation of Above, Layne would come back to Hazelden a couple of times motivated by the insistence of McCready who really wanted to help in a rehabilitation process. However, none of these attempts were successful because Layne would come back to Seattle two or three days later. Nonetheless McCready nonetheless continued to support him and went to layne´s place with Baker to hang out a while taking some jars of coffee. Layne would wake up and go to talk to them and suddenly almost without realizing McCready was playing some ideas he shared with both.
Those jamming sessions and creation found to be rather eclectic and and allowed them to have some fairly well developed songs sketches and decided to present three secret shows in the famous "Crocodile Café" songs they when didn´t even use the Mad Season name, They were using the name ”Gacy Bunch”, a combination of a 70's sitcom called "The Brady Bunch" and John Wayne Gacy, one of the biggest serial murderers that American history can tell.
These shows were important in order to test how the songs worked live on the audience, specially thinking that Mad Season was not the typical band of the Seattle grunge explosion. Layne´s behavior made an impression on the owner of the place, Stephanie Dorgan: “I had the opportunity to see Layne Staley with Mad Season playing here. I don´t like the rumors, you know, the drug use or the tale that he is uncooperative. I´m just very disappointed with all that, because when Mad Season played a gig here, Staley was very polite. Many bands play here every night. They all are great people and it.s impossible for me to remember them individually, but Layne Staley is just the sweetest guy I ever met. The people who work here did their best for him and the rest of the band. Then, after the show everybody said that Layne doesn.t care much for the fact of being a famous rock star, adding that he just was so gentle”
Among the songs they showed in the "Crocodile Café" shows were I Do not know Anything, River of Deceit, November Hotel, Artificial Red, Wake up, All Alone and unnamed, known since that time as Jesusathon.
On New year´s eve 1994-95 they played a gig at RKCNDY and premiered a new song a song called "I'm Above". For this show and that particular song , Mark Lanegan was supposed to make an appearance in order to sing a duet with Layne, but the myth tells that the guards didn´t allow him in, because they didn´t think he was was going to sing with the band. The premiere of I'm Above then, had to be sung just by Layne.
Finally, the last presentation before recording the album took place at the house of Eddie Vedder, where they played Lifeless Dead and I Do not know anything on the radio broadcast known as "Self-Pollution Radio" where any other radio stations hang from the transmission which ensured a much wider coverage.
This, plus the shows that they had already made, make the band quite known and decided to change its name to "Mad Season". This way, the band was consolidated enough to record the album.Brett Eliason, the legendary Pearl Jam´s albums producer, was in charge of recording, producing and mixing the first and only Mad Season album, sharing responsibilities with the band.
Layne was asked to give life to the lyrics and the album art, assuring him total freedom, something that had never happened in his career with Alice In Chains, and he did it brilliantly. Layne was going through a period of introspection and self-knowledge that brought out all his spirituality in this album (See accompanying notes written by Barrett Martin to complement this information).
The recording sessions were carried out with relative ease, although Layne continued living with his terrible disease and it cost him to get into the recording rythm. But he was perhaps happier than ever in artistic terms, he was free and felt totally proud of what he was doing. Johnny Bacolas about this: “He would come in the house at four in the morning, turn the stereo on, and hit the speakers which were in my bedroom — just to wake me up so I could hear the new tracks that he had laid down. He always wanted that pat on the back or “Hey, great job” thing. I would come out of my room all sleepy or dreary, listen to it, and say, “Fuck, this sounds killer!” And he would just be on cloud nine. That’s what made him happy — creating music.”
The album was ready in about a month and a half and in 14 March 1995 these ten wonderful songs saw the light, they were very different indeed from the reigning rock style of the bands of that time.
The atmosphere of the álbum starts in a calm way, with smooth and deep bass lines by Baker, accompanied with soft touches on the xylophone by "Nalgas sin Carne" a Jazz-oriented musician of the Seattle scene. They begin to create a scene with an amazing duality, stealthy but disturbing atmosphere at the same time, while Mike leaves the road open with his stylish guitar, to allow Layne to start telling us a little bit about him. Wake up tells of a relationship that does´n make sense and must resign to be better with himself (Wake up young man, it's time to wake up / Your love affair has got to go). Somehow Layne feels trapped, he knows there is something unhealthy about this relationship, and he talks to himself to get some courage and to raise his self-esteem (You're not a crack up / Dizzy and weakened by the haze / Moving onward / So an infection not a phase). It is difficult to determine whether Layne refers to a woman (Demri) or the drugs (heroin) in this relationship. Layne´s naked voice, without any tricks, makes the atmosphere brooding until the song begins to rise in intensity with piercing screams by Layne, powerful drums by Martin and the anthology guitar solo by McCready ... to suddenly come back to the dense calm. This beginning is a true wonder.
Tribal drums, guitars with psychedelic effects, transport us to the late 60s and early 70s. X-Ray Mind is a rather unusual song. Layne´s voices are duplicated emulating one of the main features of the Alice in Chains sound, however, have a rather notorious intentional dissociation in relation to the tempo of the music. It´s not until the chorus that becomes a more conventional classic rock song. The lyrics also challenge conventional songwriting structures. A clear example is the first stanza where half of this is filled by just one question. (Do the laughs die when / One such as I run / And allow myself / Time for own true needs?) . The song speaks about a turbulent love relationship, where the criticisms are evident. An innovative song in many ways.
River of Deceit It´s a truly beautiful and hopeful song in every way. McCready's guitar lives itself, has a its own soul and depth of Baker with his bass makes this ballad, full of soul and emotion. Layne recognizes of the suffering because of his illness, inspired by recent reading of the book "The Prophet" (My pain is self chosen / At least, so The Prophet says), He let us know the weight of the mistakes he made (A head full of lies is the weight, tied to my waist) and finally he released himself in the river, at least that desire is expressed in the following lyrics (I could either drown / Or pull off my skin and swim to shore / Now I can grow a beautiful shell for all to see). Pure beauty.
Mark Lanegan does vocals on “I´m Above”, together with Layne. A song that is simple and direct rock, with lyrics that shows the anger towards a woman (Demri again?) (So you rely on my faith in your kind / Or rather continue to pretend that I'm blind / You say I made your life a living hell / And yet still let me pay you when I fell). The last stanza ends with a phrase that says it all (I desire peace where I live).
Artificial Red is pure Blues; the band masterfully presents its credentials while Layne speaks of the "house of ill repute." "Is this is the place to search for love?" Layne is lost somehow, once he has broken up with his former love.
Again love- torment theme shows up. The initial riff McCready is huge.
Lifelees Dead is more like the work of Layne in Alice in Chains in musical terms, overlapped voices and heartbreaking screams to express a feeling of extreme pain where the "demon" that chases Layne makes his appearance once again (She was gone and so he wept / Then a demon came to him/ "You must know I'm gonna win") And unfortunately, it was just like that.
I Don´t know anything it´s a sabbathic song with a heavy riff played by Layne showing his great skills as a guitarist. The lyrics speak of questions that we all, human beings have in general, in moments of reflection (I don´t know anything / Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? / why the fighting and the coming down, Am I sane? / I don´t Know). Overlapped voices again in this song, where the performance of Martin is truly remarkable, producing sounds that emulate a factory of metallic products in operation.
Then we find the song that in my personal opinion, it´s the album´s gem. In Long Gone Day every factor combines to make Mad Season a unique band. The music explodes into full diversity, with a mix of dissimilar instruments such as Baker´s contrabass, xylophone and saxophone of “Nalgas sin Carne”, and the velvety voice of Mark Lanegan's plus Layne´s vibrato make this piece a song with hints of jazz-fusion. It´s an evocation of a nostalgic memory, of a time in which everything was fine (See you all from time to time / Isn't it so strange / How far away we all are now / Am I the only one who remembers that summer? / Oh, I remember / Everyday each time the place was saved / The music that we made / The wind has carried all of that away). At the end, Layne, begs God to give those days back to him (I fear again, like then, I've lost my way / and shout to shout to God to bring my sunny day).
Krisha Augerot, assistant for Kelly Curtis, Pearl Jam´s manager was one of the few people who participated in that memorable summer for Layne:“ In the liner notes, he said something about, “I’ll always remember that summer,” which was the summer — whatever year it was — where we all went to the beach and went to barbeques. That really fresh, youthful time that we all had before it was all about drugs. He mentioned a few names in there — I think he mentions my name, Demri, and another girl named Fabiola, who was really good friends with the two of them. I know that meant a lot to him — that whole time period.”
November Hotel is an instrumental song that starts with tribal rhythms by Barrett Martin. There are also bongos and kettledrums simulating a shaman ritual, McCready's guitar starts with soft notes until it explodes with a magnificent wah effect. The song develops in a steady crescendo that seems to lead to a wild, wet and full of rain landscape. McCready is the master and lord in this piece that drives us into a deep and cathartic trance, where the guitar plays a prominent role, full of feeling and soul into an uncontrol-controlled. It lasts 7 minutes but for the listener turns into a really short song.
The end of the album is a beautiful piece of music that somehow reminds us of "Release" by Pearl Jam. Layne's voice is purity, clarity and calm. All Alone is a perfect ending to an album of remarkable features. Satisfaction, peace, tranquility is the taste that remains at the the end of this song.
Above is a unique album for its time, and even more, unique for today. Beyond the music in it, what finally remains is the spiritual vibe, honest and sometimes vulnerable to the ideas embodied here. Also, the album shows us the soul of the man, without make up or masks, only the talent of a voice that penetrates every fiber, sometimes in painful way, sometimes in a calmer way. In the history of rock there are albums that are good, there are great albums and there are masterpieces. But a Piece of art, beyond any particular genre or tendency, is perhaps a step too difficult to climb for many. Not for Layne Staley, who is not with us anymore in this earth, but he gave each of us a little of his own blood in this great work. Thanks to this album, Layne lives inside of each of us.
Article and translation by:Schulz
