By 1995, the alt-rock scene in Seattle was already well on its wat to falling apart from exposure and the evils associated with it. By then, Kurt Cobain was dead, in-fighting, substance abuse and a general sense of dissatisfaction had started to dissolve Soundgarden from the inside out, Pearl Jam was fighting with Ticketmaster (and suffering from substance problems much more quietly) and Alice In Chains' vaunted excesses were beginning to catch up with them as well. It wasn't a good time for any of the major players in the scene, but some musicians were (rightly) beginning to get nervous; members of bands big and small were dropping like flies and everyone was getting a hard reminder of their own mortality as a result. In desperation, musicians looked to rehab for 12-step solutions, and it was at a rehab clinic that both the musicians and the music got a shot in the arm. Stints in rehab saw all kinds of unusually-formed and personnel-ed bands like P (members included Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers and actor Johnny Depp) and The Neurotic Outsiders (featuring Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses and John Taylor from Duran Duran) come together, but arguably the best of the lot was Mad Season.
The first stirrings of Mad Season came in 1994 when Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready went to rehab, where he met Walkabouts bassist John Baker Saunders. After they completed rehab, the duo returned to Seattle and formed Mad Season with Skin Yard/Screaming Trees alumnus Barrett Martin on drums. McCready then brought in singer Layne Staley to round out the lineup (quietly hoping that being surrounded by sober musicians would inspire the singer to clean up too), and the band was set. The group's only release, Above, came out in 1995 and immediately found an audience. The bluesier tone of the record appealed to a crowd more interested in roots than grunge (although some of the grunge-mongers did come along), and Above got a bit of momentum behind it.
Even listening to the remastered version of the record now, it's easy to understand what the record caught the ears of some listeners – even beyond the league of grunge fans hungry for one of their favorite bands to release something. While at times a little scattered (with three songwriters in the band, that's bound to happen), Above remains the perfect antidote for grunge-mania in that the jammier, bluesier aspects of songs like “Artificial Red,” “River Of Deceit,” “I Don't Know Anything” and “Long Gone Day” do tie to that sound but are not bound to it. It stretches further than “just grunge” and shows a development beyond that sound; it shows that the members of these bands were not interested in simply being tied to drugs and desperation for inspiration, they were interested in going further.
Even now, Above stands as excellent food for thought on where grunge could have gone but, in the end, it was for naught; Staley never got clean so, outside of doing a few shows (both the audio and video for one of which is included in this deluxe set), Mad Season never really got off the ground, It's unfortunate really; some groups have the distinction of being one-hit wonders, but Mad Season is a “one-album wonder” which is all the more heartbreaking, somehow.
Unlike the “one-album” dalliances released by other side bands (like Evil Stig, Neurotic Outsiders, P and – let's be honest – Velvet Revolver), the interest of Mad Season has never really faded. Above is steeped in a more timeless form than grunge (Above simply could not have existed as it is without the blues) and continues to breathe fresher than a lot of other records of its vintage. Those who discover Above end up discovering a new way into grunge which is wildly thought provoking, and that – more than the extra songs and remastering job done to Above – is what proves to be the greatest, most lasting aspect of this record; it came from nowhere, but it ended up seeing a different fertile ground for a music form which was in danger of becoming stale.
“New songs?” you ask. A reader's ability to pick out key points is unbelievable. Yes – new material from Mad Season has been included on the Above album reissue. Apparently, Mad Season had been occasionally working on a follow-up to Above before John Baker Saunders died in 1999. The bare bones of a few songs had been sketched out and, when work on this reissue began, Mike McCready and Barrett Martin asked Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan if he'd be interested in working on the material. Lanegan joined the ranks and his work with the group bore good fruit, and so there are an added three new songs as well as a cover of John Lennon's “I Don't Want To Be A Soldier” (which the group had been playing in 1995 and '96) appended to this reissue as well.
Now, usually “new songs” being present on a reissue simply means some outtakes or demos which were left off of the original recording (usually for a damned good reason) but, because “Locomotive,” “Black Book Of Fear” and “Slip Away” were intended to appeal on a new album which was never finished, it's a lot easier to look at them with an unbiased eye. These songs are easier to judge on their own merits because they weren't cast-off and that makes them seem like much more valid additions to Mad Season's legacy. Listeners will know exactly what this writer means when “Locomotive” charges at them and sees Mad Season hit them with the same force “Wake Up,” “River Of Deceit” and “Artificial Red” did over a decade ago. Here, Mark Lanegan doesn't so much try to fill Staley's shoes as simply present himself as the best successor to Staley's performance on Above; he gives a sort of lilting, dangerous angle to lyrics like “Your countenance fallen. Turned white as a sheet/ In the face of rain growing colder” and “You slide inside/ To the back of the train they can suicide” and the terrorizing tempo of the song hooks listeners in with the same maniacal frenzy that “River Of Deceit” did. In that way “Locomotive” is really exciting because it feels like it could be the re-ignition of Mad Season; it won't be the same, but it represents an intoxicating possibility. That possibility gets even stronger as “Black Book Of Fear” shows listeners how good at manipulating emotional states Lanegan really is (listen to the different moods the singer creates with the same words when he snarls “Ths is the room where a crime scene was staged in the songs chorus and “Slip Away” illustrates how slyly he can leave listeners to draw their own conclusions about the meaning of his lyrics) may be headed.
The conclusion left by “Slip Away” is fantastic. By then listeners and viewers have had the chance to sample the past and appraise the present – and that will invariably leave them wondering what the future might hold for Mad Season. In that way, the reissue of Above represents an interesting twist on the 'reissue' paradigm; usually, sets like this are designed to celebrate the past and turn a buck but, after experiencing the deluxe reissue of Above, listeners/viewers will (like those who were introduced to the record in 1995) find themselves hoping for more. In that way, this reissue does more than just celebrate what was, it presents what is and what could be as well; it's unlikely that ayone will see that coming.
Artist:
www.legacyrecordings.com
www.madseasonmusic.com/
www.facebook.com/MadSeason
Album:
The Legacy Edition deluxe reissue of Above is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
