Art, Music, Pop Culture 09-16-10

For AMPC today, because they are my favorite band ever and because I am going to see them in a few hours, I am holding you hostage to Alice in Chains.  They are in Chicago today with the Deftones and Mastodon and are playing at one of the cooler venues in the City to see a concert, Charter One Pavilion.  Yes I have Art for you, as well as Music, obviously, and I'll spin them into Pop Culture as well.

ART

Alice In Chains' original lead singer, Layne Staley, was well recognized for his voice and his songwriting, and unfortunately later in life much more so for a drug habit that eventually killed him.   Along the way, however, he had an interesting artistic style, well represented by the cover art that he created for his side project, Mad Season's album "Above."  The original piece sold at auction for over $10,000 with Christie's.  Here is the piece, and the accompanying description provided by the auction house.

Original cover art for Mad Season's lone album Above created by lead singer Layne Staley. The artwork is created from a collage of printed material touched up and encompassed by a hand-drawn "frame", which has been pasted over the cover of another album cover.


















MUSIC

In 1996, after not having played a live performance in three years, Alice In Chains performed on MTV's Unplugged.  Due to his serious heroin addiction, there was speculation leading up to the performance for some time as to whether the show would ever even take place.  It did take place, and Layne, though looking like a shell of his former self, delivered a powerful vocal, leading off the set with one of the most memorable performances ever from the Unplugged series, with Nutshell.



POP CULTURE

There is little I can say about the impact of Alice In Chains, and particularly Layne Staley on the culture of rock music, so I will let his peers say say all that can be said.  Following are the songs "04/20/2002" by Pearl Jam, "Layne" by Staind, and an interview with Aaron Lewis of Staind discussing the impact Layne had on his life.





Aaron Lewis Interview:
Link because someone's too cool for embedding.