Mike Starr (Alice in Chains) wont be down for breakfast...

[Ponch ®]

My guess is some type OD

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1659474/alice-in-chains-mike-starr-dead.jhtml

[greenpigs]

Shame, first Staley then Starr.

[BIGBLCK11]

Man, that stinks!  It seemed like he was doing a little better, from what I saw on Celebrity Rehab.  Then, not so much, on Sober House.  I am sure it's a tough road, with many ups and downs.  R.I.P

[chargermike]

RIP MIKE STARR. big AIC fan. loved your bass playing

[Manfred318]

RIP MIKE STARR. big AIC fan. loved your bass playing

[bull]

He probably wasn't too big on breakfast anyway. Why eat when you can do coke?

[Richard Cranium]

No great loss there from what I can see.   

On a related note; "Won't be down for breakfast" has become a catchy little phrase that I brought in here.   

[BrianShaughnessy]

I saw that celeb rehab stuff.     I really didn't think he had it in him to stay sober.   He was on the verge of walking out several times to go get messed up.    RIP.

That early AIC stuff was killer... the bottom end is what drove it...   otherwise they'd be just another grunge band full of stoners. 

[Mike DC]

  
AIC was part of that early grunge scene from the start.  Plenty of drugs of all kinds in that scene.  


I'm just amazed that Scott Weiland is still around.  He's visibly looked like a junkie for at least a decade and probably using long before that.  

[learical1]

 
He's visibly looked like a junkie for at least a decade and probably using long before that.  

Keith Richards has looked like a junkie for 40 years, and he's still around.

[chargerboy69]

That is a shame, I thought he had his addiction beat.

I was lucky enough to see Chains back in the late 90's. Still one of my favorites.

[Ponch ®]

IMHO there were 4 bands that were the 90's: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and AIC. Sadly, two of those are not around any more (at least with their original members).

[Mike DC]

                              
Honestly I think AIC was overrated.  Not bad, but their stuff all kinda sounded the same.  At least in the early days.  

Nirvana & PJ were the cream of the 1990s crop for sure.  I'm surprised that PJ has outlasted Nirvana by such a wide gap.  Nirvana seemed to have more functional years left in them at the time Kurt died.  Whereas PJ seemed pretty volatile in the those days.    

I liked Soundgarden and always thought they were just a few radio hits away from being on the top shelf.  They had the ability but they didn't stretch those radio-friendly muscles very much.  

I think Green Day has grown into the top ranks of 1990s stuff too, although I wouldn't have praised them that highly when they first hit big.    

[Ponch ®]

Green Day peaked with Dookie. Then they sold out and, worst of all, became a "mom friendly" band - meaning that when your mom says she likes them because she heard them on the top 40 station she listens to at work.

Green Day now is like Jefferson Starship.

[Brock Samson]

or journey. 

[PocketThunder]

Make your top 4 into the top 5 bands of the 90s by adding the Offspring.   

Pearl Jam had one good album, the first one.
Green Day had dookie, that was it.

And 1 vote for Weezer.. 

[Ponch ®]

Make your top 4 into the top 5 bands of the 90s by adding the Offspring.  

Pearl Jam had one good album, the first one.
Green Day had dookie, that was it.

And 1 vote for Weezer..  

I heart the Offspring (this was the soundtrack to my high school days, after all) but I never thought they were all that great or unique. Same thing with Weezer (another one of my favorite bands). Its just the kind of music that in a way is very "niche" and that one outgrows at some point - I'd almost put Nirvana on that category too, but not quite.

Pearl Jam's first three albums - Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy were amazing. Then they did that weird world music album and they lost me. Can't say much for their later stuff since I never really listened to it, except for that song that sounds like "Goin to California".

The thing about Nirvana, PJ, Soundgarden and AIC is that they pretty much defined the sound of rock up until today. Listen to any current "mainstream" band and they're either doing the quiet/loud/quiet/loud thing that Nirvana trademarked, doing the riffy Soundgarden groove, or ripping off Eddie Vedder's vocal style or AIC's harmonies.

[Mike DC]

The thing about Nirvana, PJ, Soundgarden and AIC is that they pretty much defined the sound of rock up until today. Listen to any current "mainstream" band and they're either doing the quiet/loud/quiet/loud thing that Nirvana trademarked, doing the riffy Soundgarden groove, or ripping off Eddie Vedder's vocal style or AIC's harmonies.

Absolutely. 

And with all four of those things, I like it when the original artist is doing it but it mostly just annoys me when anyone else imitates it. 

 

[Ponch ®]

The thing about Nirvana, PJ, Soundgarden and AIC is that they pretty much defined the sound of rock up until today. Listen to any current "mainstream" band and they're either doing the quiet/loud/quiet/loud thing that Nirvana trademarked, doing the riffy Soundgarden groove, or ripping off Eddie Vedder's vocal style or AIC's harmonies.

Absolutely. 

And with all four of those things, I like it when the original artist is doing it but it mostly just annoys me when anyone else imitates it. 

 

Hell, Nickelback rips all of them off.

[Mike DC]

 
IMHO the worst offender is Creed.

[Hissing Cobra]

Alice & Chain's music was HEAVY but very good at the same time. I saw them in 1990 when they opened for Van Halen and it was their first tour. I believe Mike was with them at the time but I'm not too sure. Anyway, "Man in the Box" was on the radio at that time and it was getting heavy airplay. Unfortunately, it was the only song I knew from them at that time. They would later come out with "Would", "Rooster", and a whole slew of them. I never bought their albums but when they would come on the radio, there was only one place for the volume knob and that was just about full blast.

As for the best bands of the '90's, here's my favorites in order.

1. Van Halen (still making very good records up to 1995 then Eddie turned into a drunken bum).
2. Pearl Jam (Best band of the '90's - bar none!)
3. Alice & Chains (see above)
4. Smashing Pumpkins (raw power)
5. Nirvana (One great album, one o.k. album, death. HIGHLY overrated in my opinion).

[Ponch ®]

5. Nirvana (One great album, one o.k. album, death. HIGHLY overrated in my opinion).

make that TWO great albums. IMHO Unplugged in New York is one of the best records EVER.

Not many bands back then were ballsy enough to do 70 year old obscure Leadbelly covers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKT1P7x_Pzo

As far as them being overrated....sometimes I think so, sometimes I don't. It's one of those things where you probably had to be a certain age or at a certain stage in life to really get it. I like the Beatles and John Lennon and McCartney, but I think they're overrated...

[Mike DC]

              
Nirvana was influential as hell.  It can't even be doubted.  


Truth is, Pearl Jam was probably every bit as influential as Nirvana.  There have been a lot more PJ clones than Nirvana clones on the radio over the last 20 years.  But PJ's own mass appeal was pretty much their worst enemy in those days.  They would have been more critically acclaimed if they hadn't sold as many T-shirts.  


Nirvana certainly did more influencing with less works produced than most big bands.  Their catalog of stuff is pretty small for the influence it had.  It's like if the Beatles had first hit big in 1964 and then broke up by '66 or '67.