Apr 14, 2013 at 11:18 PM Post #41,284 of 146,773
Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgettin'
 

 
Apr 14, 2013 at 11:40 PM Post #41,285 of 146,773
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Mad Season - Above (first time I've heard the whole album)
 

 
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Mad Season: Above (Deluxe Edition)

 
By J.C. Maçek III 5 April 2013

 
 

A beautiful epitaph for a short-lived supergroup

The tapestry of rock ‘n’ roll is often woven with tragedy and evolving stories cut short. Mad Season, Seattle’s version of a rock supergroup, formed in 1994, was comprised from members of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, The Screaming Trees and The Walkabouts. The band released only one album, 1995’s hitAbove, and one live VHS release called Live at the Moore before a temporary hiatus which became their ultimate unfortunate demise. Vocalist Layne Staley semi-retired due to substance abuse issues so Mark Lanegan (drummer Barrett Martin’s Screaming Trees bandmate who co-wrote and sang lead and backing vocals on many Above songs) became the band’s new lead singer. Sadly the project derailed with the fatal heroin overdose of bassist John Baker Saunders in 1999. Staley died three years later under depressingly similar circumstances.

On 2 April 2013, Columbia/ Legacy released a new, deluxe, remastered version of Above containing not just the original LP but the entire audio set from Live at the Moore, bonus tracks that include three songs from Mark Lanegan’s tenure as lead singer and the first commercially available release of Live at the Moore on DVD. The overall package will be a treat for fans and, surprisingly, may set the band in a new light almost 20 years after their debut.

Mad Season hit the stage and the charts in the shadow of the suddenly popular “Grunge” movement, seeming like a side project of two of the genre’s current greats in Alice in Chain’s singer Staley and Pearl Jam’s guitarist Mike McCready. While “Grunge” is certainly an ingredient in the Mad Season formula,Above is a much more complex and experimental album that still defies a single standardized label. McCready picks out blues inspired solo riffs and Sabbathy aggressive chords, often on top of each other. Staley’s vocals eschew the usual straightforward mumbling growl of normal grunge for a haunting assortment of diverse notes that evoke Robert Plant’s Led Zeppelin cries as much as Alice in Chains’s album tracks.

Mad Season actually benefits from the separation from (and, thus, lack of comparison to) the rest of the grunge family tree. With their lack of fear to indulge in and experiment with unconventional musical elements (note the xylophone and saxophone accompanying Staley and Lanegan’s duet on “Long Gone Day”), Mad Season were labeled by critics as all over the map and unfocused (amid generally positive reviews). In hindsight, Mad Season give the impression of having been ahead of their time and less tied to the top forty of their day. Sure, had their actual debut been in 2013 instead of 1995 the band would feel like a throwback, but the question is, a throwback to when? The grunge era of the mid-1990s or the artistic and experimental mid-‘70s?

As a requiem for the band, Above also takes on a different tone. In light of Staley’s grim end, his haunting, echoing cries of “Down, oh Down. My pain is self-chosen.” on “River of Deceit” and his raspy pleading of “Is this the way I spend my days; In recovery of a fatal disease?” on “Artificial Red” sound like a sorrowful prophecy of his death by heroin and cocaine. The production (by the band with Brett Eliason) adds a ghostly reverberation to Staley’s voice as if he is calling out this dire self-examination from down a long, empty hallway.

At the same time, the live discs (both audio and video) do just as fine a job of showcasing the energetic passion Mad Season had for their music and gratitude for their fans. This is especially showcased in the long, sprawling 1970s style jam session the band undertakes with their guest musicians during the song “November Hotel” (one of very few tracks to feature Staley on rhythm guitar). The band flows into different keys and tempos as one distorted, yet solidly linked unit as comfortable on their harmonious melodies as they are on their murky, walls of sound and their Who-like smashing of their amps, not for gratuitous spectacle, but for the effect on the sound itself. The DVD disc contains four more songs from the Moore show, shakily filmed from the audience as well as a similar-quality second concert Live at RKCNDY (both worth seeing and hearing for that in-the-raw impact) and three of the band’s music videos.

The three Lanegan-centric bonus tracks are worthy inclusions (far more than just curiosities). However, these fail to stand up to the unique experimentation of Above more closely resembling the traditional (and then all popular) grunge sound. That said, these were only three tracks from a band who was still trying new things at the time their existence was cut short. That is the true sorrow of this band. Like so many tales of rock woe, Mad Season could have done more and gone higher than Above if given the chance. This deluxe edition is the closest we’re likely to get to a “Complete” Mad Season, and this composite album is, indeed, a worthy representation of a proficient and passionate band cut short before their time. Above’s Deluxe Edition is not simply all we have of Mad Season, but is in many ways a “Best Of” compilation. It is really too bad that this collection also had to stand as the band’s epitaph.
 
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This is a brilliant piece of work. And I am by no means a grunge fan.
 
I can hear just about every band of signifigance in the past 50 years in this, and it's done seamlessly without drawing attention to itself. I am left with just listening to incredible new compositions which contain phrasing which just pulls you out of your seat.
 
Great Pick Guys
 
 
OH Yea  This is the greatest thread ever!
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 1:10 AM Post #41,287 of 146,773
THIN LIZZY (1971) Decca vinyl dub 24/96 Flac


LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Street Survivors (1977) Silver Label LP vinyl dub 24/96 Flac


DOKKEN - Beast from the East (1988) German Elektra 960 823 / EKT 55 Double 12" vinyl dub 24/96 Flac
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 2:05 AM Post #41,288 of 146,773
"Overgrown" - James Blake, a really interesting album.
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 6:45 AM Post #41,290 of 146,773

 
Apr 15, 2013 at 7:25 AM Post #41,292 of 146,773
Quote:
 
 
This is a brilliant piece of work. And I am by no means a grunge fan.
 
I can hear just about every band of signifigance in the past 50 years in this, and it's done seamlessly without drawing attention to itself. I am left with just listening to incredible new compositions which contain phrasing which just pulls you out of your seat.
 
Great Pick Guys
 
 
OH Yea  This is the greatest thread ever!

 
Definitely one of my favorite albums from that era. River of Deceit FTW!
 
Back on topic...
 

 
Apr 15, 2013 at 7:44 AM Post #41,293 of 146,773
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Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
(1973, Warner Bros) German pressing; MANUFACTURED IN GERMANY in the deadwax
 

 

Great album! I have that same pressing on the shelf here.
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 8:03 AM Post #41,294 of 146,773
        
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 12:25 PM Post #41,295 of 146,773

http://miyuki.bandcamp.com/album/the-androids-dream-ep
 
Just finished a few rounds of this. What an EP, what an EP. Color me impressed. I highly recommend this to people who enjoy artists like Burial and Soular Order. More atmospheric but also richly detailed and incredibly well crafted.
 

http://music.musicofthemoon.com/album/moon-ep
 
Currently listening to this. I can hardly believe how much great music I've discovered on Bandcamp over the past few days.
 
Edit
I don't own a turntable, but for the first time in my life I'm tempted to buy this on LP purely for the cover art alone. Just look at that artwork, man. Gorgeous.
 
Edit 2
Ok, so I just ordered the vinyl. I don't know what came over me but I'm going to blame Head-Fi just for the heck of it. I wonder if I should actually get a turntable now…
 

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