Mad Season ~ Above (album review) ... Poetic grunge supergroup with Screaming Trees, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Howlin Wolf members!

Style: grunge, rock, blues-rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1995
Home: Seattle, Washington

Members: Layne Staley ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
Mike McCready ~ guitars
John Baker Saunders ~ bass
Barrett Martin ~ drums/double bass/cello/marimba/vibraphone

Everybody knows the grunge supergroup Temple Of The Dog, though technically it was recorded before Pearl Jam made it big, but the one album by the equally potent grunge supergroup Mad Season - made after all involved had become big - has seemed to have slipped off the radar. It featured guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, frontman Layne Staley of Alice In Chains, drummer Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees, & bassist John Baker Saunders who had played with Howlin' Wolf's guitarist Hubert Sumlin. For many, the inclusion of Layne is enough to warrant interest. The band was formed when Saunders & McCready met in rehab in 1994. Mad Season released this one album, before inevitable drug issues got in the way ... which makes a long sad story very short. After Layne's death they transformed into Disinformation with Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, who co-wrote a song here & sang on some songs that would appear as bonus tracks on re-issues of this album. Saunders death in 1999 brought the band to a close, before Disinformation could record a formal debut, though the remaining members have had some informal reunions on stage. I should mention that the bands these members were involved with, even Saunders, can all count me as a fan, so I'm totally biased going into this. Kurt killed himself when I was a junior in high school living over an hour north of Seattle. I had a lot of friends traumatized by this, so grunge was my childhood. I was too young to go to the bars, but the music was & remains an intrinsic part of my life. Mud Honey even played at my alma mater, Western Washington University - home of the Death Cab For Cutie & the Posies, who might have been in a class of mine - for the freshman orientation, while Bikini Kill & Sleater Kinney I saw in a converted lounge before the later went truly national. I still love the music as much as ever, & believe grunge was the last great music movement, & maybe the last hurrah before home studios, pro-tools & the internet. So, my bias aside, what does a whose who of grunge sound like? The answer is: it both hints at all the bands involved, but also completely & shockingly different. I do need to post a warning to curious listeners. You may love Alice In Chains or Screaming Trees or Pearl Jam, but this might not be your thing. 'Shockingly different' was a deliberately chosen phrase. On the other hand, you might not care for grunge at all, but find this album fascinating & addicting. Mad Season is thus an enigma. Where their peers Temple Of The Dog had a lot in common with the grunge sound, this really doesn't feel like grunge but instead has hints of grunge. It absolutely is not what I would expect from all involved. That's neither a bad nor good thing, but really depends on what you are looking for musically. I shall detail further. You can hear the melodic guitars & interesting rhythms that weaved through the Screaming Trees & Pearl Jam, but you won't mistake this for either band. Layne's voice is undeniably distinct, & these are mostly his lyrics, but he's not trying to imitate Alice In Chains. This album features a stripped back sound that none of those bands has ever had, or maybe just for a passing moment in a song or for one gimmicky song on an album. Mad Season ropes you in softly, & with rope made of tissue paper, versus pounding you on the head out the door. There is no mad rush like an Alice In Chains album has. The whole album is dreamy, floating & simplistic in its composition. Actually, the instruments almost have too much breathing room, as it often sounds improvised or like a jam with no real direction. The best comparison would be a Doors concert where the group is improvising through a contemplative Jim Morrison moment. That might be the best description of opener "Wake Up" where Layne pours out his meandering poetry, which sounds like poetry & not a typical song, over guitars that slowly roll out almost like an improvisation that is trying to take things extra slow. When things go up a notch for the guitar break its still pretty low key, like a drug trip that might be comparable to a bluesy Jimi Hendrix solo. There's very little polish here. The whole experience is raw & an emotional parade. It feels like an honest & real album, a real rarity. Its demons on display, not the next chart topping hit in the making. It sounds so different than the highly technical Alice In Chains you have to wonder if the inner Layne was stifled lyrically in that band, which says a lot given how dark some of those lyrics were. This is helped by the one thing that gets criticized: this album meanders. Songs don't feel like here's the verse, then the chorus, then the refrain. It has more in common with the Doors "The End" & "The Unknown Soldier," where the chorus is more a familiar point to regroup to than the big sing-a-long moment, yet without the big climaxes that Jim's songs had. Yet, there's so much  nakedness here lyrically that at times the meandering quality is a triviality. On the other hand, the 55 minutes can feel a bit long depending on one's mood when listening. It ends on an instrumental that personally dragged too much for my tastes. Rule of thumb: come to this not looking to rock, but instead to sit in a dark room in the rain with a glass of wine & maybe something to smoke. Its been said that Layne was reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gabran while writing & recording this, & felt like he was a on a spiritual mission. Having read the book, it absolutely feels that way.

Hobo ~ Blues Jim Morrisonnak (album review) ... Jim Morrison didn't die but reunited with the Doors in Hungary!

Style: Tribute, progressive, hard rock, blues-rock, experimental
Label: MUSIC Budaors Kft
Year: 2001
Home: Budapest, Hungary

Members: Hobo ~ vocals
Szabolcs Nagy ~ keyboards/b.vocals
Janos Varga, Gyorgy Pribill ~ guitar
Viktor Hars ~ bass/b.vocals
Lajos Gyenge ~ drums

For those that speak Hungarian the title says it all Blues Jim Morrisonnak, or Blues Of Jim Morrison. And, that's exactly what this tribute is, though taken into some interesting directions by Hungary's reigning Jim Morrison imitator/fan/keeper-of-the-flame Hobo, who tends to invibe the spirit of the music, poetry and art more than any physical resemblance to the life of the departed icon. To clarify, once during my 9 months living in Budapest, I stumbled upon a poetry reading by Hobo dedicated to Morrison in a rather fancy venue ... not exactly the Morrison we remember, albeit considering that once drugged out Lou Reed has done poetry readings who knows what Morrison might be doing if he was still alive and nearing 70. This release takes a unique twist to being a tribute as it features an array of Doors songs translated into Hungarian, with some of Hobo's own poetry thrown in eulogizing Morrison, against an incredibly wide musical palette that's blues-rock, honky-tonk piano, 80's guitars and the Doors trademark prog rock. At times (i.e. "Alabama Song") it sounds like music from a circus, i.e. a little fun, odd and flamboyant, but given the reputation of the Doors the circus might be the perfect mood. They were their own circus with the greatest of ringmasters. So, this is essentially less a tribute then a new creation as the songs get such a work-out. "Wild Child", "The Spy", "Roadhouse Blues", "Five To One", "Waiting For The Sun", "When The Music's Over" & "Alabama Song" all get the Hobo treatment, which is typically pumped up blues-rock against Hobo's very non-Morrison sounding deep gruff voice. With his blues band and on his own Hobo, aka Laszlo Foldes, until his retirement in 2010 at age 66 had been churning out the blues since 1977 and is nothing but an expert on the form with a voice many blues musicians would love to have, let alone having released two previous tributes to the Doors in 1987 and 1996. The Doors may not be a blues or hard rock band, but their music lends itself well. Though, there's definitely something about hearing "Alabama Song" in a strange guttural language even rougher than German to most ears ... though I still can understood some of it it's still strange sounding to me ... where the only recognizable words are "Whisky Bar ... Alabama". On one hand you can't help but be reminded of the original or English versions, but on the other hand this comes across as so much more than just another tribute. Rarely do tributes hold their own this well, hard as hard and instill new life in the songs as though the songs were new by the performing band and not forty years old and from thousands of miles away. I only have to ask ... have Ray, Robby & John heard this and what do they think? What would Jim think? I have a strange thing all of them would be inspired by it.

Riders On The Storm (aka Doors Of The 21st Century) ~ Live In Hollywood New Years Eve 2004 (live) (album review) ... Ian Astbury is Jim Morrison!

Style: progressive, hard rock, live, classic rock
Label: Disc Live
Year: 2004
Home: n/a

Members: Ray Manzarek ~ keyboards/vocals
Robby Kreiger ~ guitar/vocals
Ian Astbury ~ vocals
Angelo Barbera ~ bass
Ty Dennis ~ drums

Guest: Waylon Kreiger ~ guitar

This is an excellent surprise from a reunited Doors, or half the band sans drummer John Densmore & obviously Jim Morrison & now under the name Riders On The Storm, having faced a copyright lawsuit under the original moniker of The Doors Of The 21st Century, now with a bassist & Ian Astbury of the Cult behind the mic. Some people will criticize the reunion of such a classic cult band whose sound was so tied into the drug culture of the 1960's let alone so dependent on the self-indulgent poetry & dramatic antics of Morrison, let alone his youthful natural charisma. Plus, reunions have often proven themselves short lived affairs that didn't live up to expectations & should have been left as an idea on paper. Honestly, ROTS encompasses all the positive & negative traits of similar reunions but somehow managed to create something that didn't hurt anyone's careers or reputations, excelled expectations, made some great music that went beyond nostalgic romps, didn't try to recreate the past when it couldn't & had a good healthy run before going into the disturbing territory of making new music when the gig is essentially a nostalgia/tribute act. First off, this three CD release is a small press live recording, like all ROTS releases, that features many classic songs plus the entire L.A. Woman, the final recording with Morrison that was never performed live as it wasn't finished till after his death. So, this is quite a treat, regardless of the fact that the band really lets loose with high energy in this New Years concert that even brings in guitarist Robby Krieger's son to jam with the band when the calendar turns. Musically, the first thing one notices is that this is the not a quartet but a full guitar/bass/drums band. This might be a detriment to the sparse sound of the Doors, but one must remember L.A. Woman featured such a line-up & would have probably been the direction the band would have gone if given the chance, so this is really picking up where the band left off versus the now clean/sober band recreating earlier drugged out days & turning themselves into a tribute band not a creative entity on its own. Another musical change, albeit less noticeable but when it is the change is an undeniable big one, is the absence of drummer who chose to instead tour with his jazz band. Densmore is a jazz drummer who kept time as much as he added a new layer of spontaneous sounds, while his replacement is a straight ahead rock drummer. It would be interesting to hear Densmore in this context. But, as one notices the tighter drummer one also hears the more mature guitar style of Kreiger. He's always had an angular playing style that encompassed flamenco, classical & rock elements, but after 40 years of largely playing rock music he's not just a better & more fluid player but also more rock sounding, let alone no longer under the drug influence. It's almost embarrassing to say that its a problem he became a better guitarist, but that's the response many listeners will probably have. But, the problem really isn't with Krieger because his playing is as hot as ever, if not more, but the particular sound of the Doors is so ingrained in our ears that to hear different is a struggle. It's a wall incredibly hard for the musicians to climb over no matter how they play. As for other original member Ray Manzarek ... he has also changed in his playing, but the most noticeable difference is that with a full rhythm section he's no longer tied to playing bass notes so ROTS actually allows him to branch out in ways he never got to previously as one hand was always tied to the low end. As for the vocalist ... the real focus of the band & where the whole project could fail ... The Cult's Ian Astbury is a wonderful choice that many were critical of when ROTS started but through some amazing performances built up glowing respect & has become almost as irreplaceable & charasmatic as Morrison. I know I started listening to the Cult after hearing him here. Krieger & Manzarek could have chosen someone completely different than Morrison, as Queen did with Paul Rodgers, or gone with someone similar. There's good & bad points about each direction. Choosing someone similar was a good decision, though Astbury is spookily similar both visually & vocally. I played this for one person & they actually thought it was an old concert of the Doors. It's almost as if Astbury intoning the spirit of Morrison & helps out towards making this sound like the Doors never split & Morrison had grown old with the rest of us. Krieger & Manzarek know the tightrope they are walking bringing back the past, which is probably why much of the reunion has been done on their own modest terms & not plastered across billboards & magazine covers, which is what many reunited bands do only to have the disappointment kick them on the way out. There is no question ROTS is a band having fun & not taking itself too seriously. It helps that they chose not to write new material & try to link it to the past. That's where reunited bands often go wrong. Page & Plant, The Who & Queen with Paul Rodgers have all suffered from this mistake. ROTS has since disbanded and are now the Manzarek-Krieger Band, which allows them to mix together old & new music & not step on the past or limit themselves to the nostalgia umbrella. But, for a time they let the nostalgia flow & it's well worth hunting up. As it is, the critical points to the band just make the story of the band more interesting because the music was & remains untouchable.