I'm surprised I never made this thread.

The second best Grunge band behind Nirvana. Layne Staley has one of those great voices that haunts and entrances you into the world painted by Cantrell and Staley's lyrics (Cantrell is the main songwriter).

Unfortunately a lot of their anti-drug messages were overlooked by fans who did drugs. And it was a tragedy of sorts. Layne Staley did heroin, and by the mid-90's he was heavily damaged. In fact, he was frail and had trouble singing as well in their 1996 Unplugged performance, which oddly added to the haunting feeling of their music. After 1996 he became an extreme recluse, mainly due to the death of his girlfriend by drugs.

Layne Staley's death was grossly ignored on a large scale by the media. He died April 5th, 2002, precisely 8 years to the day Kurt Cobain's murder. He was found two weeks after taking a speedball (heroin + cocaine) and was so decomposed, dental records were needed to I.D. A horrible end to one of the bands of the 90's.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject of their music. The band is great, and their music wonderful. I highly recommend them. I wish Mann used the song "Man in the Box" in Collateral instead of just putting it on the web site.

These are just a few songs I love. I'd love to hear anyone thought's on "Would?" and the Unplugged version of "Down in a Hole."

Bleed The Freak, Would?, Down in a Hole, Nutshell, Dirt, Man in the Box, Rain When I Die, Heaven Beside You, Angry Chair, Got Me Wrong, These Bones, Grind, We Die Young, The Killer is Me (Unplugged), Rooster, Over Now (Unplugged).

"I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them. I didn't want fans to think heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen."

3rd best band in the 90s next to Radiohead and Nirvana.

A couple of friends of mine are big fans of them, I never cared for them. His voice just irritated me like fingernails on a chalk board.

I did see them in concert once they were the opening act, I forget who the headlining act was though.

And while my friends were impressed I wasn't it seemed like they had no interest in giving the fans the type of concert they paid for. Especially the lead singer it seemed to me he was bored out of his mind and didn't even want to be there.

All fans noticed this, due to his heroin addiction. On their Unplugged show, he looked horrible and even had to start a song over, although it added a more haunting feeling to the songs.

Alice in Chains is pretty good, my favorite song from them is Grind. But, is it weird that I dont like Nirvana?hmm..

Vercetti,

If you like AIC, I highly recommend the Mad Season album (titled "Above") -- a side project consisting of Layne, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, and others.

Also, on Pearl Jam's "Lost Dogs" album, there is a secret song at the end of the album titled "4/20/02" about Layne. The lyrics really say it all.

As for "Would?" -- simply a great song (off the amazing Singles soundtrack) about Andrew Wood (of Mother Love Bone).

I'm aware of those. As for "Would?", it's mainly from their album Dirt.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Singles OST was released a couple months before Dirt. But you're probably right in that most now know it from their own album.

I go by main studio albums when referring to a song, unless it's only available on an alternate album, like "Get Born Again."

I don't know. I guess I am a bit of a fan--I've liked what I've heard, but I still need to branch out further into their work. The one song of their's that really sticks with me is "Brother".