No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 01: Alice In Chains - Dirt

Episode Date: January 22, 2018

In the very first episode, the heavier side of grunge is explored with No Filler's review of Alice in Chains second studio album "Dirt". We are also briefly distracted by a photo of Pantera from 1985 (follow the link below). https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/alice-in-chains-dirt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Okay, so with every episode, shit. So every week... What?

Oh, okay. So... Okay, I got it, bro. All right. So we try to... Yeah. So along with every episode halfway through the week, we release. Forget it, man.

And welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. In each episode, we'll dive into a little history of the artist in the album of choice with snippets from interviews and concerts, as well as music from the album itself. today we're going to be diving into Allison Chains's second studio album, Dirt. My name's Quentin, and with me is my brother Travis. How you doing, bro? This might be the first episode where I wish that I could hear more of that

intro track. Guess what? I wish you could just keep the playing. Post editing, I can make it a little bit longer. In which case, this will make no sense to our audience. Yes, it will. but what a great opening track to an album you know what i mean boom hit you you don't know what's going where you don't know where it's coming from but yeah so you're you're taking the reins on

this episode man i i missed the train the alison chain train i'm sure you did too we both okay so this will be another this will be part of the combo is that we were we okay we're we're okay we're do we begin? Because you know, we were born in the late 80s. So the reason we missed the grunge train, as it were it's because we were, you know, four or five. Am I doing math

right? Yeah, five, six, seven, eight. Yeah. Under 10, you know, we weren't old enough to to appreciate or even. I mean, yeah, we would, you know, I think my, I always remember hearing 90s grunge rock at the at the local swim,

pool, dude. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Rosemey. Because they played, Rosemey, Rexenter. They played Q of 102.

The rock station, the local rock station is the only station that they played. Yeah. So I remember hearing Bush and, you know, Nirvana, when I was swimming around with my floaties on and shit, you know.

Yeah. And let's address the fact that we mentioned in the last episode that we were going to do Bush. We were going to do Bush, 16 stone. So what happened was? Well, here's what really happened, dude. I mean, there's just no comparison between the two albums is what happened.

Right. If we're going to do a grunge rock album. Yes. Bush, for one, Bush is post grunge. Number two. Well, yeah. That album was not that great. I think it was more of a nostalgic thing for us.

Did you say Bush? Yeah, you said Bush was post grunge, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, I'll be on. Dude, I love Machine Head. There's some tracks on there that I just, I really love. but the album as a whole

it just doesn't stack up you know what I mean it's just not yeah it's just the two things are just there's not even the same you know also for me

has such a bigger impact and I just have to say with Bush and I was you know when they came out with the science of things I was at the age where I could appreciate music

and I was listening to my own music stuff that I bought myself yeah that album I really do like Okay, I'll say there's a few tracks on there that I absolutely love. Letting the cable sleep is absolutely my favorite Bush album, a push song. It's such a good song.

The thing about the science of things is that's when they were far enough out of the grunge movement to be like considered their own thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. Seems like with from what I understand with 16 Stone, like the reception of it, people back, It's bashed it for being a knockoff of Nirvana and the grunge sound. Because Bush is from the UK, you know? They came over in the UK. And Gavin Rosdale got a lot of shit for basically just doing whatever the record label told him to do.

So they're like, hey, we got this photo shoot we want you to do. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just tell me when to wear and when. Because he was a pretty boy. Not his fault. But, you know. So we didn't want to spend an intentional.

entire episode having to dive into all the negative things because you can't not. I got to hear, I got to hear more some story here. What are you saying that there was a photo shoot? No, not one particular photo shoot. I'm just saying that within the grunge scene. Oh, okay. Hold on it. So you got a lot of shit like as far as like grunge cred.

He didn't have it. Exactly. Because you know, grunge creed. Yeah. The whole grunge movement was anti-record label, anti-. mainstream, all that stuff. Yeah, okay. So before we get into the review of dirt,

we'd like to start every episode with a little segment called What You Heard, which is basically we're both going to come to the table with a track from a band that we've been listening to recently or since we last spoke. It's just another way to share more music, you know, because that's that's the whole the whole point of this podcast is to just talk about music share music and this is just another way to get a couple other bands in there aside from the band that the episode is about so Q how about you start with yours because I think my band ties into Allison Change a little bit better So.

Yeah. So I've been listening to this album called Sun Kids by this band called Space Face, all in word space face. Yeah. I'd never heard of them before. I was on, I was on the Reddits. And I just realized that I'm going to start our first episode off with that age-old war between Jif or GIF. Oh, my God. I think it's Jeff.

It's GIF, but that's okay. It's fine. Twin brothers, we don't always agree on all the things. Yeah, this podcast will certainly reveal that. I'm going to tell you about this GIF that I saw. They have this really cool pressing of this album on like multicolored, you know, tie-dye looking vinyl.

And the label has, it's set up to where when you press, you know, when it's spinning on the record player, the label kind of looks animated. I won't go into details, but it looks really cool. So I went from there, you know, jumped into the comments and someone had posted, oh, yeah, that's SunKids by Space Space. I checked it out. It's like equal parts, polyphonic spree, a little bit of tame and paula mixed in there.

Just another psychedelic rock band. But the album all the way through, it flows really well. there's just a lot of different at times is very very spacey and kind of like almost ambient at times and then you know they've got they've got some more heavy stuff as well kind of kind of like the old tame impala you know um and yeah it's just a really solid listen all the way through i've listened to it a couple times through all the way so it came out earlier this year uh well earlier in 2017 um back in April and yeah I definitely recommend you give it a listen all the way through if you can Treve so this track I'm going to share just a little clip of it this is about halfway through

the song it's a pretty lengthy number about seven and a half minutes and I'm just going to kind of fade it in at the bridge and then it kind of builds up and kind of quiets back down towards the end of it so yeah here is track number 10 off of SpaceFaces 2017 release Sun Kids. This track is called Spread Your Head. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I just wanted to keep playing that.

Yeah, I like that. So, you know, yeah, like you say, there's a lot of, there's a lot of genres in there. Yeah. I'm hearing a little bit of like MGMT, maybe a little bit. Tame Impala for sure, like you said. Tame Impala. Yeah.

Temples. You know, all those. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the 70s revival, side rock stuff. There's a lot of good, good bands out there like that right now.

Yeah. Yeah, Space Face. That's cool. Yeah. So we're about to do, I wouldn't say it 180, but my picks quite different than that. But it's going to tie into,

not directly into, directly into Allison Chains, but it's kind of in the same building, at least, as far as genre. So the track I'm going to talk about today is called Satan Winette by a band called Ordos. So they would fall under the Doom Metal umbrella, sludge rock, sludge metal, stoner metal. And sometimes Allison Chains has been classified as stoner metal. to rock. So anyway, this is, uh, it's very dark. The lyrics are, uh, very, uh, black metal almost. I mean, they're singing about Satan and, and, uh, bowing down. Do a metal then, right? Yeah. This, this track in particular. So yeah, let's just, let's just play

it and then we can kind of talk about it. Okay. So, so this, this, The vocalist, he's got a pretty wide range. And this song kind of demonstrates that. Like, the verse is kind of a little bit more clean his vocals a little bit. But then by the chorus, he's screaming and yelling. Yeah. I just sent you a picture of the album artwork. He should pull it up.

It's pretty badass. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. It's, that kind of sets the mood perfectly. But, yeah, the whole album is, is, it's kind of the album is called House of the Dead

came out this year I stumbled on it from a Spotify playlist the Spotify playlist was called a sludgy stoner retro groove that's a very specific yeah well that's the thing about

you know you can you can section out down to like sludgy stoner retro groove. I mean, there's enough games to fill a playlist that would, that would, you know, qualify as that. But, you know, the album goes from

kind of that more sludge, doom metal, to a little bit more bluesy, bluesy Sabbath-esque metal. So anyway, I feel like... Bluesy metal? Well, that's a thing. Well, Black Sabbath, you know,

especially their first album was heavily. I mean, we talked about, well, we will talk about this in the, in one of the coming episodes, but, you know,

rock and roll starts with blues, right? And metal comes from rock. So, I mean, you know. Yeah. Sabbath had a lot of blue, heavy blues riffs, and that was kind of,

you know, Black Sabbath is sort of the origin of metal, you know? And so you look at Zeppelin, you look at Sabbath. I mean, these are blues riffs, you know. So doom metal sort of goes back to that Sabbath style of like bringing blues back into metal. But it's not the blues cue that you're thinking of. You know what I mean?

Yeah, obviously, you know what I? See, that's the thing. I'm just not a metal fan at all. So this is all news to me. Yeah, which we. which we definitely talk about in this episode. So anyway, I think that's a good segue into our discussion about Alice and Chains. And first of all, what did you think of that track, Q?

Oh, I liked it. The thing with metal, and I say this about it a lot, is the only way that I can accurately describe my feelings toward it. I appreciate it and, like, I can enjoy it. well like if someone's sharing it with me but i just don't see myself ever like playing that kind of music you're not going to seek it out yeah like i'm not going to listen to that in my car or just by my you know i don't know but i liked it it was cool it's not it's it's not for everyone but yeah and i get it i understand the whole uh you know the lyrics are dark and satanic but it's

almost like in a cheeky way like they do it yeah i mean right i mean we could do a whole episode just about this but you know man yeah the the the the the history of of tying metal with uh satan worshipping and and colts and all that stuff you know goes back yeah the satanic panic of the eighties exactly so um no you know they're not satan worshippers right right right It's just in the same way that you go watch a horror movie, I feel like metal is to music, what horror movies is to, you know, Hollywood or whatever movies. It's just exploring the darker side of things, you know what I mean? Sure, sure. So, Q, something I want to mention right now is that by the time this is listened to by anybody,

We will have a website up, so we should probably tell them where they can go. That's probably a good idea. No Failurepodcast.com. We're going to have the show notes on there for each show. We're not going to really put much else on there outside from like, here are the tracks that we talked about. I also want to. You're the interviews that we referenced or the YouTube videos, you know.

Got to cite the sources. Also, one thing we were kicking around the idea of putting together weekly Spotify playlist or making just one big Spotify playlist that will have all of the tracks that we play on each episode, including the outro tracks, our bonus episode tracks, all that stuff.

And including, I would say, a track from, you know, are what you heard, picks for each week, you know, because that's a, that's, it's going to be a weekly segment, if you will. So, I mean, you know, as long as you, as long as it is on Spotify, we'll have it up on the playlist. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you can get that, those, those playlist. You'll find them on our website, no filler podcast.com. I'm sure we'll have a Twitter account as well. And we'll give out that handle once we know what it is. But hopefully it'll be no filler podcast at no filler podcast. At no filler podcast. But, you know, once the, yeah, this is kind of funny because, you know,

I haven't even built the website yet, but it will be built by the time you hear it. So I can only imagine that it's a great website. So you should go check it out. Let me tell you, brother, the little mockup image that you showed me, it looks great. Just great. Well, Q. Keep it up, brother. Keep it up. You know, Photoshop is one. thing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It'll look, it'll look somewhat similar to the mockup that I showed you. Yeah, my P-shop skills.

You don't even have Photoshop, dude. Nope, I sure don't. But you don't need it. Hopefully you can't hear this cat outside my door meowing, but if you do, you know, whatever, she's cool. Yeah. Is that one slon? Is that sloon?

No, it's penny. Neat. I don't know if she named her after Penny Lane or what, but her name is Penny. And she's the length of. All right. Let's, let's dive into the history of grunge a little bit here. Short, like, like, you know, bird's eye view of grunge music. Yes, I'm going to try.

Let's hear it. So, first, that's a cat that I can hear, brother. That's for sure. Just you jumped right into my lap and got into the microphone. So I'm going to jump to the band Green River. This is a band that has been around since the early 80s. They have been, they are arguably the first true grunge band. So grunge meaning the way that we know it, what we think about grunge.

Yeah, if you listen to, if you listen to music from them. Yeah, it's, it's interesting. It's, yeah, it's, it's like that, it's, it's post-Sabbath type metal music. Okay. But it's like the, it's like the singing isn't as harsh. I mean, you know, it's not so much metal. You can definitely hear it. Yeah, you can hear it there in their music.

You can hear the, the, the, the prologeruns of, of grunge. okay. Yeah. Of the grunge sound that we all know. Yeah. So the lead singer, his name's Mark Arm, he is generally credited as being the first person to use the term grunge to describe specifically this Seattle genre of music.

So he himself used the word to describe his own band? Yeah. Okay. To describe, he was in a band called Mr. Epp and the Calculations. Cool name. Okay. Cool. And so Seattle had a bunch of music zines, you know, magazines.

Yeah. That, you know, weekly magazines or whatever. And he described his own band in this zine called Desperate Times, describing them as pure grunge, pure noise, pure shit. Okay, that is, that sounds like grunge. Yep. So, but this was an abandon he was in before Green River. But anyways, this all ties into what I was going to talk about a little bit later.

Bruce Pavitt was the, founder of subpop, which is, everyone knows now. That's that music label that was started in Seattle. He actually popularized the term grunge as a music label or genre between 1987 and 1988, using it to describe Green River. So that's where the term grunge jumped off. You know, that was this jumping point as being actually used as to describe an actual genre of music. So let's jump to Nirvana's Nevermind.

I don't have any information on that, brother. Well, I'm just saying like, you know, here are the five albums that come to mind typically when people think about grunge, right? Nirvana's Nevermind. 10 by Pearl Jam, super unknown by Soundgarden. Dirt by Allison Change, which is what we're talking about today. And Stone Temple Pilots Corps. So all five of those bands are Seattle bands. Yeah.

Which, you know, is impressive in its own right. But what do we do? So this band, Green River, they're Seattle as well, I'm guessing, right? Yeah. Okay. So like, were they an influence on Nirvana? I'm wondering or like I always wonder I always wonder like how do how do all of these bands just you know cultivate this sound at the same time probably because they're all playing in the

same venues together I know that I know that these you know they were all friends they all knew each other and were aware of what they were doing and we actually have a clip from from Jerry Cantrell of Allison change who was kind of describing the scene at the time maybe we could just play that right now and kind of let him talk about it yeah let's do that all right yeah let's go back to the very beginning of allison chains you know because one of the things that i know this is actually not in the beginning but you know halfway through um the the columbia years of making records there i remember coming out and did some work with you guys some radio broadcast and just there was always that brotherhood in seattle i mean with you and the guys you know from different bits whether it's screaming

or Soundgarden or the Pearl Jam guys or all, and the Nirvana guys like Chris and everybody. I mean, you guys were all really great friends, and there was a real friendship there. There was not this kind of weird, you know, rivalry. Instead, you guys were just, you know, you really all took everything with a grain of salt. I thought it was such a cool thing.

You could tell everybody really loved the music and was in it for the right reasons. We weren't best looking one in the bunch, though. Pound for pound. You still have a lot of those friendships? Oh, of course, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, that's kind of, you know, that's a really great way to look at that, you know. And the reason that I think that I had the impact is just the vibe of where we were all coming from.

Like I said, I think music was really, really fucking tired, you know what I mean? And something needed to happen. So we had the lucky part of the timing. And also it was out of frustration, I think a lot of the music that came out of that because we're tired of that shit. It was being shoved down our throats a little bit, you know. And also there's a lot of things. we all found her voices at the same time.

You know, a lot of bands will throw out a couple records and then they'll finally find themselves. We were kind of lucky to throw it out on our first record, kind of hit a direction and hit a stride, and I think all the bands kind of did that. So, you know, it's a really, it's a really, it's a really unique situation that happened. Here's what I take from what he was saying there. So this was a reaction to, what did you say,

the shit that was being shoved down their throat? Right. Yeah, because, so this is, we're talking 20-somethings in the mid to late 80s, I guess, growing up. They were being, yeah, Madonna and George Michael, they were being shoved down their throat. Well, just the whole 80s pop. The super, yeah. Wave. Yeah, and so, yeah, so this was an anti-movement against all that.

So, yeah, that's, that's, I think that's always kind of what people think. about when they think of grunge is like it was so like counterculture I guess yeah there weren't you know like when you you know when you think about the 80s it's all about the outfits even the metal bands like it's all about

super clean well yeah you know and like Van Halen was considered a metal band and when you look at I can't believe that when you look at their the outfits that they would wear and like the showmanship and whatnot a neon colored spandex

yeah yeah exactly So like, here comes grunge and there's no outfits. You know, yeah, the flannel. But I mean, that was just what they're wearing or whatever, you know. There was no, there was no, there's no, there's no costumes or outfits or like. There's no showmanship. There's no showmanship. Exactly.

They're just, you know, they just show up and they do and they do their thing. There's no, there's no gimmick, I guess, you know. Yes. I think that's the main thing. There's a own gimmick, and that's kind of what made it so appealing probably to teenagers of the 90s, you know? Yeah. So, Key, before we dive into the record here, let's just kind of, maybe this is worth talking about, but as far as our musical preferences, right? Right.

I have always historically been more of a metal fan than you have, right? Yes. So this is your first listen-through of this album, right, to get ready for this episode. Yep. So the only Allison Chain song that I knew was the song that everyone else knew, and that's Rooster, which happens to be on this album. But yeah. Dude, there's a lot of other, there's a lot of Allison Chain songs that people know that you probably know. Probably, but that's what I'm saying. Like, that's the only one that I know, you know. Okay. So you're just saying, like, you're familiar with the singles.

I'm familiar with a single, Rooster. But yeah, like you're saying, I've probably heard other songs, but I couldn't be like, oh, that's Allison Chan. Man in the box. What? Man in the box? No, I heard you. Oh my goodness. You know it, dude. Everybody knows that song.

So that was their first big single. That was on their first record, facelift, which came out. So here's what, here's our, so we just talked about grunge, right? Allison chains is often lumped into the grunge sound,

probably because this record came out in Seattle in 1992, right? Yeah. Because I think now the retrospect, in retrospect, Allison Chains is more of a metal band than they are a grunge band. But, you know, they're basically the metal grunge band, right? Like if you look at the field of grunge artists, right?

I don't think anybody got as heavy as Allison Chains did, right? I mean, they were set to tour with Metallica before Lane Staley, the lead singer. So let me just, let me interject and say this, because, you know, we were having a conversation about this earlier, and it blew my mind when you... Before the mics got hot. Yeah, before the mics got hot,

we were talking about, I don't remember which song I was listening to that made me think this. I think it may have been sick, sick man. but yeah i sent you a text saying hey man this is like this to me sounds a lot like some metallica riffs yeah and then why don't you share with me when you know share with the audience what you told me

and it just blew my mind that's a lot of you that's a lot of go on tell my brother I was just saying that like I think it's probably better to say that headfield and I know Lars Ulrich specifically the drummer for Metallica let me give the full name just in case but I'm talking about James Hatfield

the lead singer guitar player from Metallica and Lars Alworth's the drummer of Metallica I would say that they were more influenced by Allison Chains in the 90s than the other way around because I can't believe that man well but that's the thing though like you not being a metal head

as it were yeah yeah there's Metallica from the 80s and then there's Metallica from the 90s you know what I mean so give me out of them names. Okay. Kill them all.

When did that come out? Kill them all. When did it come out? That's their first, okay, so that's their first album. That came out in 83. Wow. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. What Metallica? Okay. Give me singles. Singles, early 90s, singles, Metallica. Okay. Early 90s is Black Album, right?

So that's InterSand Man. You know that song. right. Yes. I know. I'm saying that. Okay. So,

okay. The reason I wanted to bring this up is because black, black album, right? Yeah. Arguably, they're, most successful album. Their most critically acclaimed album. Most wide appeal, I guess, audience appeal.

That's 91. Dirt comes out in 92. The grunt scene is happening in Seattle. Okay. Around and after black album, right? And you're saying that. And then you, And then you think it's more likely that Metallica wanted to jump on that gruntrain?

I don't know if they wanted to purposely like, I'm not saying they purposely said, hey, we need to start sounding like these Seattle dudes. But they were influenced by them. Yeah, because when you listen to Load and Reload, which came out in 96 and 97, it's two different bands, man. And knowing the, I know for a fact that Howfield and Allwork were huge fans. of dirt in particular and they were big fans of

Alice and Chains you can't ignore it you know and they sound a lot like that's what you're here for brother when you listen yeah when you listen to load and reload it's got a lot of that

blues rock I need singles brother I need singles memory remains okay okay okay fuel right oh yeah

give me fuel give me fire there you go give me that much yeah you got it you got it you got it but no but that's like I look man I love Metallica but no I can't say I love

Mattica come on knock you you don't say it but you like Metallica I appreciate him but okay and I love this fucking episode already man I love it this is our first metal

episode and I'm excited it's pretty great that you know that we're like almost opposite here on this. Yeah, and this is what's going to be nice about this podcast is that I'm sure someday we'll do an episode on AltJ or something, right? And that'll be your opportunity to show me the way. Yeah, we are, dude. To show me the way. Oh, I can't wait. But yeah, I'll be interested to dive in and, you know, listen and hear you talk about why you like it, you know.

Yeah, dude. But we're going to do, I think we're going to do And Justice for All when we do our Metallica episode. And, because that's my favorite. Metallica album. And that's right before they came out with Black album. And, you know, there's just no, there's no comparing to do. But anyway, to me, it's obvious that Metallica was influenced by Grunge. You can hear it in the music that they made post-Black album.

But, I believe you. Yeah. So anyway. I take the word on that. Yeah. So Allison Chains, I would call them a metal band. But they are, they have the grunge metal label on them because out of the grunge, like when you look at the grunge landscape as a whole, they were the heaviest.

And, you know, a lot of their riffs are metal riffs. You know what I mean? Like I said, they're a metal band. Let's just call them a metal band. Are there any grunge bands that you're familiar with that, that are in that style, like Allison chain? Stone-tipple pilots a little bit sometimes. Okay.

but not, I would see on their, on, on STP's first album, core, which, oddly enough, came out on the same day, the dirt came out. They were both released on the same day. You were dropping pearls of wisdom. But they both came out the same day. But I would say that, yeah. Like, as a whole, Allison Chains has always been heavier. And there's, and here's, you know what, I got a quote for you. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so here's here's Jerry Cantrell, guitar player from Allison Chains.

He says here, we're a lot of different things. I don't quite know what the mixture is, but there's definitely metal, blues, rock and roll, maybe a touch of punk. The metal part will never leave and I never wanted to. So, in other words, they've always been a metal band, right? If you look at this, go ahead. one of the one of the drum beats um i can't i don't have a track name for you i was just listening to the album uh you know doing chores or some shit but it was quite uh jazzy or bluesy it was he was doing

a little a little number with the ride symbol that's very jazzy on dirt which i appreciated yeah man i wish you could pull the track sorry what wasn't toward the beginning or the end it had to be towards the beginning it had to be toward the beginning it had to be toward the beginning Because what you're telling me is that you didn't listen to the whole thing. I don't remember if you did. Did you get to the last track? Probably not. I'm sorry.

You got to go back and listen because that's my favorite track. Wood. That's one of the singles. So, all right, let's talk about the album. They had five singles on this record. The track, the intro track that played this episode in was track one, them bones. Super heavy song. I like that song.

Great opening for a record. That sounds great. hits you. That's, okay, so I'll list off the singles. Them Bones, down in a hole. Rooster, which is the one that you remember, Angry Chair and Wood. Wood is probably my favorite

Allison Shane's track. It's just moody and there's just something about it. So for me, listening to this album, having only really known rooster, like being pretty familiar with it,

it. Right. Rooster sounds different from the rest of the album. Yeah. To me. Well, it's not as heavy. Well, then here's the thing about Allison Chains. Here's the thing about Allison Chains.

In between their, their albums, I shouldn't say albums, because these are all albums that I'm talking about, I guess in between their, their big albums. dirt and, you know, facelift, dirt, and then their self-titled album. They released these two records that were mostly acoustic records. Sapp in 92 and then Jar of Flies in 94. Sapp was literally a collection of songs that they had written and recorded for the B-sides of the singles. But they said, this shit's good, let's just put it on an album, you know? the only reason I'm trying to

I'm bringing that is because they have a lot of singles that are really slow and like acoustic driven like nutshell and you know rotten apple that are great tracks so I mean they've always had that side to them you know what I mean that's what I love about them

especially okay you you probably remember this track cue heaven beside you yes all right that's I do know that song okay well that's them but that's again When did that come out? 95.

Okay. That's their self-titled album. That's a great song. Yeah, really, that was probably the biggest hit on that one. But yeah, anyway, yeah, Rooster is a little bit different. Yeah, I would agree. Can I ask this? I hope you know.

What is he referring to? Rooster? Yeah. That's the nickname that Cantrell, the lead, the guitar player. that's his dad's nickname from the Vietnam War They called him they called him rooster This is a song about his dad Okay

Bet you didn't think that was what it was about did you No man I was ready for you to say Oh that's the name of his fucking crack pipe Or some shit No No seriously though I was ready for something like that Here comes the rooster

Yeah No but he did sing a lot about drugs Down in a hole You know Junk hay Oh yeah, you can hear it for sure. God smack. He was going through withdraws and the whole nine.

Yeah. So let's, hey, let's jump into a pick here, man. Okay, you're right. I think it's about time. Okay, so the first pick, track two, Damn That River. We're going to play it, and then I'm going to talk about why I picked it. So let's play. What, did I give you two clips?

You did give me two clips. You want to play them both? Yeah, just play the first one. Okay. There's not much metal going on in that song. But I think it sounds more like a metal band, if I can. Not metal as in metallic and metal, but like Guns and Roses. And maybe this is just me, but to me, that track sounds more like an arena rock track,

the guitar riff and whatnot. It's got the Alton's range vibe. His voice. Yeah, but I mean, you get to hear that the harmonizing that him and, that Staley and Cantrell, the guitar player, you know, Alice and Chains have always been kind of known for their harmonizing because, you know, it's kind of just part of their sound, the unique harmonies of the, yeah, but, you know, it's a good track. It's not one of my favorites, but I wanted to play it because I think it sounds more like

the stuff they were doing on facelift, their first album. Which in that interview clip that we played, he's saying that to them, he felt like they had already found their sound with, you know, during that first record. Yeah, but yeah. But I mean, the thing is, like, as far as it not being dark, like when you listen to them bones, the first track, you know, and we played a little bit of it.

It's just darker and heavier. This song's a little bit more upbeat, I guess. I hate to use that word. But compared, I get you there. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying.

Yeah. And compared to the next track they were going to play, which is probably my second favorite track on the album. Rain When I Die. Yes, but we have another clip. Let me hear it. Let me play it in my ears here. Shit.

We're probably going to go to this part. Yeah, I play it. I actually play it. That's good. It's got the guitar solo. And this is what I mean when I'm talking about Arena Rock. I'm talking about guns and roses. I'm talking about for some reason that's the only band I can think of when I'm when I'm using that term.

But that's because when I hear this guitar solo, for some reason I think of Slash from Guns and Roses, is the way he would play. So play this and then that'll be a good segue into the other two picks because they sound different, in my opinion, like two very different Allison change sounds.

You know what I mean? So let's hear the second clip. I can hear exactly what you're talking about. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. So it's just your, your go-to guitar solo, I guess.

Yeah. And Van Halen comes to mind too. Thank you. I was about to say that. And that's actually, Ben Halen was an influence to Jerry Cantrell. So, you know,

so there you go. So let's segue into the next club. Because I think it's humorous. We should say that he's not just like really pissed off at this river and going like, fucking damn that river. Because it's D-A-M,

not D-A-M-N. Wait. So you, was that a joke? Yes, dude. I think this song is about an argument. Sure. I know, but he's talking about literally damning that river as in like, yeah.

Yeah, blocking it. Yeah. All right. Yeah, so that's a dad joke right there, dude. Yeah, that's, yeah. I'm proud of it. Well, you know, you got to practice just in case you ever father a child. I might.

I might. I might. I mean, my face. All right. So, Q, have you ever seen, are you familiar with Pantera? I'm familiar with the name. If you look at early pictures of Pantera before the 90s, they look exactly like those hair bands, right? That you, uh, that, that comes to mind, right?

Yeah. What, twist. It's ridiculous, dude. So, like, it's just funny that all of these... Oh, my God, dude. What? I gotta send you this picture. Stupid.

What? How do I chat with you on Skype? I'm leaving this in, by the way. That's fine, man. What? How did this happen? How did you get that distracted by a picture? Look at that, dude.

You look at that picture, and you'll get just as distracted. Where are you sending it to me, man? And Skype. Oh, my God. Pull it up, dude, right now. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, we need to put this picture on the website now. Yeah, that's terrible.

That's Pantera. No, that's Pantera. It is. Before they became Pantera, yes. But this is, but that's not Pantera, dude. To me, that's like record label influence Pantera, right? The guy on the far left. This is before the 90s.

Takes it for me. Yeah, well, this is them right here, dude. Oh, shit. That's good. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so look, you see that? Now, look at this. You see that?

Yeah. And I look at this. You see that? No, look at this. You see that? You see that? Yes. That's, that's Pantera.

Sure, yeah. So what I'm saying is like, when you hear, when you listen to facelift, Allison Jane's first album, and you hear the snippets of glamor, or arena rock or whatever. I feel like that's the reason, right? Because they're coming right out of the 80s.

These guys listen to Van Halen and all of them. Miley Crew. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So anyway, that's why I wanted to play Damn That River because I think it had, you know, little snippets of leftover, like 80s. Influences. Metal rock, big glam rock, you know, whatever you want to call it.

Yeah. Is we got two clips from rain? Do we? Yes, yes, we do. Because the first, okay, so. And I say rain, but the full track name is rain when I die, track three. Yeah, so our second pick from this album is rain when I die, track three. So it's right after Damn That River, the song we played first.

What I love about this song is the intro, the, because it's about a minute 15 or whatever until the verse actually starts. And they do fucking awesome job like building up this atmosphere. You know? I could not agree more. It's fucking great, man. It's great.

This is one of my favorite Alison Shane's tracks. There's a lot of things going on in this intro too, right? Yeah, let's play it. Yeah, let's play it. And then we'll come back and talk about it. So, you know, amazing, right? A lot going on there. Yeah.

For me, my favorite part, of that intro that gets me is it's like one minute in when he's first, his voice comes in. It's doing more like a moan thing. Yeah. Yeah. That whole sound, like what they're doing with, what is it, the guitar? Yeah.

Yeah. It's just got that like, I don't know, gut-wrenching, like, uneasy feeling that you get. Okay. Dude, I'm glad you said the word uneasy because that's the word. was going to use to describe not just this track but like it makes you feel it's like a sense of dread yes oh man cue welcome to the world of metal my friend uh so like uneasiness right um he does that so the way that you know lane staley he is well known for his vocals right he almost I thought his name is Stain Lely.

I'm sorry. No, I did. Well, now you're making me question everything here. Hold on. No, no, no. I'm totally fucking with you. Oh, dude. Okay.

All right, it's Lane Staley. I'm sorry, man. I'm probably fucking fraternity. You sure did. Yeah. So, Lane, you fuck out. Lane Staley. He's known for his vocals, okay?

Yeah. So he does this whale a lot I guess it's a whale right It's just agonizing kind of Yeah yeah I don't want to call it Agonizing but like His kind of

It yeah Whale I think that's a good way to describe it Well okay it sounds like it's like a sing-songy cry Okay yeah So like in the opening track Right when the song starts on them bones He's sort of screaming with the guitar can you play that again?

Just play that again real quick. Yeah. And then we'll come back and talk about it. So you see how he's kind of screaming. Yeah. Along with the guitar. Yeah, not along with it, but alongside. Right, but I mean, but with every, I guess, measure.

I don't fucking know. You know what I'm saying? He's like, yeah. He does it again on rain when I die, right? But he's kind of moaning with that guitar and whaling with, Yeah, he's adding to it for sure. Yeah. It's kind of like almost like a almost like

inhaling and exhaling kind of thing going with that. And it's funny that you picked it up to probably because we're twin brothers, bro. But you immediately thought of the exact same thing that I immediately thought of, which was that track off of, I don't know the origin of this movie enough to talk about it, but it's called irreversible. Yeah. It was a horror movie. Horror movie, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah. Yes. And one half of daft punk, Thomas Bang Alter, did this soundtrack. And this song is called Rectum. We'll put it in the show notes on the website. But it's got that same kind of like in and out kind of drone. And it makes you feel really uneasy. It was actually, he purposely did that.

And it goes on for like the entire track. You know, it's not the same as this song. But I'm just, it's got that, that, that, um, you know, sense of dread, I guess. Yeah. So Irreversible was a French art psychological horror drama film from 2002. That's what I'm going to say about it. Yeah, and I believe that was during the rape scene in the, the controversial rape scene in the movie.

Yes, I remember reading that. If we want to go there, you know. We just did. I did. But that sound? That's what I was talking about. A minute into dread uneasiness. Yes.

that sense of dread uneasy like queasy feeling yeah it does that to you you feel the impact more on the Thomas Bang Altar track

because he was doing that on purpose you know and Mike yeah that track that'll that'll fuck with you you can almost not I almost struggle

even listening to it all the way through with headphones that track yeah and he actually Thomas Bang the Thomas Bang altar

track yeah anyway you also get to hear the Wawa pedal. Q, do you know what a Wawa Pettel is? I know what a Wawa Pettel was, brother.

You know, I don't know. I'm the guitar player of the duo here. But Jerry Cantrell, he used the Wawa Pettel a lot in a lot of his work. So you get to hear that in this track as well. Is that going to be in point two? That main rip.

Yeah, it was in that first clip. Okay. I swear I know what a Wawa Pettel is. What is it? it's that pedal that makes it go wwant, wawt, dude, you couldn't describe it better right there.

I mean, the name of it is, it's an animonopoeia, I guess, right? Yeah. Anyway, Jerry Cantrell is well known for the Wawa use usage.

So you got to hear some of that. I mean, if you know man in the box, that's nothing but Wawa, right? So anyway. Yeah, I hope it is because

you got another clip from rain when I die yeah because you know that first that first clip was really just the intro so you could hear that intro the second clip just you get to hear more of the song basically so the chorus and whatnot so you can play that so you really get to hear staley's in that chorus when he holds the word die like that

and just kind of I like it he does that a lot on a lot of his songs and again it all contributes to that feeling that this music kind of embodies, right? Yeah, I like it. I like that track a lot. Yeah, it's a good, it's a good, very moody, you know,

and just like, it's a good, it's a good, it's a good, uh, Alice track, you know, as far as like, everything that, that makes them great is, is in this track, you know? So would this, is this your go-to? intro track for someone that's trying to get into Alice? Would you show them this track?

No. No. I mean, it depends on who I'm talking to, but Wood would would be a good one. Wood would be a good one. You know what I'm saying? But no, I mean, you can't go wrong with them bones. Yeah. That's a hard question to answer, Q. It really is. there's a lot of great stuff on on on on on on their self-titled album but if you know if you

needed to go if somebody's like I've never heard of Alice and Chains what should I listen to yeah I think you're right dude rain when I die would be a good one because like I said it just you know it's kind of a good summary of them it's got a little bit of everything it's got his signature wah-wa guitar riff you know It's got his wailing vocals. The intro is badass, you know? Intro is badass. And I've got somebody like you who isn't a metal fan.

It's telling me that you like it. Yeah, there you go. So what was your overall take of this album, dude? Before we play the last track, I just want to hear from a sort of an outsider's perspective. What did you think? I liked. I liked its mix of... That does not...

That does not sound like I planned to say this. That does not sound convincing, dude. Look, I enjoyed... I enjoyed the heaviness of it, along with the fact that... That's all right, man. I liked it, man. I liked it.

It's not for everybody. I liked it. It's not for everybody. I liked it, man. I would listen to it again and again and maybe one more time. Really? Maybe insert it? No, I don't think so.

Oh, man. I'm sorry. But that's the thing, but I'm not convinced that you made it all the way to the end of the album. Probably not, man. Dude, you didn't get the angry chair? Or would? I don't know, man. I was listening to it while I was doing majors.

All right. Well, you know what, Q? we can't always agree on music and that's what makes this podcast great because we're going to go through these together you know what I think you should do I think you should listen to Alt J's first album an awesome wave

well I'll listen to it when we do an episode on it that's exactly how I feel about Allison Chains All right see that's kind of what dude I got I got nothing nothing against him man I this is what I say with every

with most bands that I I am indifferent to. I appreciate them and I respect them but I'm not going to listen to it on my own time.

Yeah, I hear you. And I won't say that about bands that I don't like, you know? So what you're saying is like you get it, you understand it. I get it. It's not your cup of tea. Well, now, you know,

that's one of the things that I was hoping to get out of this. podcast is basically being forced to listen to an album that I wouldn't listen to otherwise and then listen to somebody tell me why they like it. You know what I mean? That's why we need to start pulling in some guests on this show so we can get some different perspectives here. But working on it.

You know, I basically tricked you into listening to this album so I could talk about it with you, which is great. It needed to be done. I needed to listen to it. Yeah, man. Everybody needs to listen to this album. it's one of the greatest rock albums of all time one of the greatest metal records of all time

and it is a great album I of course it is I totally agree with that with that statement that's what I'm saying so let's segue into the final track here that we picked you can't talk about dirt that you picked brother

that's true that's true that I picked I'm staring the ship here you can't talk about dirt or Allison Chains really without talking about the drugs the heroin usage and this album it's all through it

it's a theme that's what made this album have such an impact is because they were struggling with especially the lead singer they were struggling with drug abuse at the time of recording

also this is a segue but something else that's interesting about this record is that the the LA riots were going on the same time that this was being recorded

in LA. So like they recorded this another interesting piece of info here. That is interesting. Well they recorded this in the same studio that Metallica had recorded Black Album. I probably should have said that earlier when we're talking about Metallica.

But this was so down the street Cantrell, a guitar player, he was quoted as saying that he was in a store buying some beer when some guy came in and started looting the place. So this is during the riots and this is happening while they're recording the album. He also said he got stuck in traffic and saw people pulling other people out of their cars and beating the crap out of them.

Jesus. So here's this quote. That was some pretty scary shit to have to go through and it definitely affected the overall feel of the album. So with that knowledge, you've got the L.A. riots going on. down the street pretty much. And you've got... You've got members trying to kick their addictions?

Exactly. You've got various members of the band actively battling drug abuse. And then you listen to the album and it's like, well, you know, no wonder it sounds like this. Like, no wonder it's so like heavy and like dreadful and they're dealing with these demons

like in the lyrics and stuff. So the final pick is junkhead, which is about drug user I think it's about his relationship with his dealer with his dealer I think one of the things

let me pull this up because I remember reading this and it was interesting so I'm going to pull it up this is when Q's got to do some editing cutting and peeved in

good morning to you and better baby all right here we go So here's a quote from Cantrell guitar player. This was in 2013. He says, reflecting on dirt, he says, The darkness was always part of the band, but it wasn't all about that.

There was always an optimism, even in the darkest shit we wrote. With dirt, it's not like we were saying, oh yeah, this is a good thing. It was more of a warning than anything else, rather than, hey, come and check this out, it's great. We were talking about what was going on at the time, but within that there was always a survivor element,

a kind of triumph over the darker elements of being a human being. I still think we have all of that intact, but maybe the percentage has shifted. So in other words, this album is about... Because when you listen to Junkhead, the lyrics, or Sick Man, it almost sounds like they're glorifying the drug use. But they're saying that this was more of a warning, but also like a celebration of the fact that they're alive.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, yeah, I get that. They're trying to, yeah, they're writing about how it feels when you're glorifying the drug that you're addicted to. Exactly. So let's play it. Let's play it, brother.

So one comment I want to make, the opening of that song sounds like Nirvana. Do you agree with that cue? Yeah, definitely. Just the very beginning of it. So, you know. I like this song too. This is another one of my favorites. Okay.

So you made it this far in the album. I definitely, yeah, man. Dude, you'll just by the end of this podcast, when we're said and done, hopefully, years from now. You're going to be a metal head, my friend. Maybe not a metal head, but you're going to be a fan of metal, dude. I'm already 30. I'm going to get it in India.

Well, look, I'm about to admit something. You ready? I'm ready. I didn't listen to this album or really get into Allison Chains until this last few years. So I'm talking a big game over here. But you've been a metal head for quite some time. I've been a metal head for quite some time. I would never call myself a metalhead because, you know, I've never been like, when you think metalhead, let's get real here,

where you think about the dude in high school or the chicken high school with the, you know, the sleeveless gene vest with the patches on it and the studs in the eyebrows. and the Mohawk or whatever. I was never that dude. I like to call myself like a closeted metal head. You know what I mean? That's like calling yourself a juggalo because you listen to insane clown posse on the occasion.

That doesn't make you a juggler. No. But what I'm saying is I've always appreciated metal and it's always, it's got to draw on me, you know what I mean? Special place in your heart. Yeah. I you know Metallica was my first

metal band as I'm sure it was a lot of people's but yeah I remember it was middle school when you got into them and I listened to them because I'm your twin brother well so like I was jamming the black album you know what I mean

yeah which is kind of like everybody's gateway drug into Metallica basically or at least if you're if you're my age I think you know but I've always I guess as a years have gone on

like I've actually gone deeper and deeper into metal the more I listen to it you know what I mean yeah so Allison Chains

I just recently got into like I can say that but that's fine man what was the whole point of me saying that I don't know dude whatever

um but yeah I really like I like the chorus in the song a lot it's got it's got those harmonies that everybody loves and everybody kind of associates with him and uh, Cantrell.

And if you let's, I don't know if you watched that whole interview queue that I sent you. I did not. But the guy interviewing them and I recognize him from MTV. I don't, or maybe VH1. I recognize his voice. That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. He was one of the VJs.

Yeah, I think he was. But anyway, he actually said that Cantrell and Staley had their voices together were almost up there with George and Paul or John and Paul. I don't know about that. Hmm.

But their vocals together I mean, they're known for that. So, yeah. Well, Travis, I want to thank you for getting me to listen to this album. I would have never done so if it wasn't for this podcast. And that's the truth.

Yeah, I mean, that's the goal of the podcast, not just for us sharing music with each other. That's what it's all about, brother. But, you know, our hope is that this is true for somebody else out there who's listening to this podcast and is willing to listen to albums that they're not familiar with. Yeah. Listen to episodes that where we cover. an album that they're not familiar with. You know what I mean? Oh, I hope so. Yeah. I hope they don't

skip it. So as we've done previously, we're going to try to keep it up. Every week, midweek, we will release a bonus episode, as it were. Originally, we were calling them bonus b-sides with the idea being that we were going to cover a track from the same artist from a B-side that was a non-album single, or no, non-album track, right? featured on a single on a single side. Yeah so that was... Literally a B side.

Yeah, exactly. Harder said than that. Yeah, that was becoming very difficult to find tracks to talk about every time for every band. So we're kind of going to switch up the formula here and we're going to call these episodes side tracks. And the idea is going to be... basically, really, I mean, there is, there are no rules here. But the idea being, let's just talk about, pick a track, any track,

as long as it is within the realm of the band that we talked about last, the band or the album or the genre or the decade that we covered last. I mean, it's going to, it has to get tied to the artist in some way. Some way. It's a little bit more free form. It's going to allow us to, to, to, to you know showcase you know anything from like

you know here's a side project that the lead singer did you know for a little bit yeah or you know here's yeah because you know it's going to be a lot easier and more fun really to be honest with you so I don't think we've landed on what the side track is going to be for Allison Chains

actually we have haven't we but we shouldn't reveal it you'll have to download that episode to hear it Yeah, just check it out midweek. Check back. Check back on our podcast feed and we'll have it up. Yes. Go to no failure podcast.com if you want to see the show notes.

And I'm not sure what our... Subscribe to all the things that we're going to have that we don't have yet. Yeah, subscribe to all the things. I don't know what our release schedule, as it were, is going to be for these Spotify playlist, but it's either going to be once a week or once a month. We will share the details

once we know more about it and have it more ironed out. But for now, as with every episode, we will close out with a song that was an influence on somebody or the entire band.

This week being Allison Chains, Lane Staley was influenced by Sabbath, as I'm sure most of them were. Because if, I mean, if you're in a metal band, you were influenced by Sabbath in some way or another. But Alice and Chains, they have been compared to sludge rock, doom, metal. I wouldn't classify them as that, but they've been called that. and this track in particular that I'm going to play from Sabbath it's called Into the Void it was the final track on Masters of Reality

which I believe was their third album let me clarify that Master of Reality was their third album came on in 1971 this track is called Into the Void it is widely considered to be sort of the the spawn of the doom metal genre

because it's got a lot of the same characteristics as doom metal you know the more kind of slow side of metal think of it as like the opposite of thrash metal right so let's play it out my head brother

not for long dude I'm gonna learn you because we're gonna do a album at some point. It's either going to be Master of Reality or it's going to be their debut album. But it's going to be one of the two. So let's play it out.

This is probably my favorite Black Sabbath track. I love the solo in this. So it's included in this clip that's going to play out the rest of the episode. Yeah, we've got it fade in towards the end and then it plays out to the end of the track. Yeah, it basically fades in at the second bridge and it just

plays out for the rest of the song. so you get to hear the killer solo and the way that the song ends is fucking awesome so, you know, we're like three days out from Halloween right now so like I'm still kind of in that vibe right now, dude. So. You said you play this song every Halloween.

It's like a tradition of yours. Yeah, it's kind of silly. But like if I'm driving around on Halloween night, I always end up playing some Sabbath because just the imagery in the fucking sound. It's fucking sound. Sabbath. Yeah.

Especially track one of the first track on the first album. We could do a whole episode on that song, but we won't. So let's play this out. That'll do it for No Fielder this week. My name is Travis. This is Quentin. You're Quentin. You're my brother.

And I'm Quentin. I'm Quentin. All right. And we don't have an official sign-off yet, but we'll see you next week Bye bye