RIP Mike Starr

Mike Starr, former bass player for Alice in Chains, died earlier today, TMZ is reporting. He was 44. Starr reportedly passed away in a home in Salt Lake City. He was arrested a few weeks ago for possession of prescription drugs and had appeared on a recent season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

There's a fairly lengthy discussion of this on the Alice in Chains messageboard, but as of yet no official statement from Jerry Cantrell or Sean Kinney, now the only two surviving original members of one of grunge's most influential bands.

Bass Player Week: Ex-Alice in Chains' Starr busted for drugs

Mike Starr, former bass player for Alice in Chains, was busted in Utah last week for possession of prescription drugs. TMZ has the mugshot, in this case because Starr was featured on a recent season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Starr left Alice in Chains during the Dirt tour in 1993 and was replaced by Mike Inez, who's still in the band.

Coming to your town: the grunge tribute tour

The "Sounds of Seattle" tour, featuring Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden tribute bands, may be coming to a city near you beginning Nov. 6. As the AV Club points out, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains are on tour now, and Chris Cornell still plays a lot of Soundgarden songs in his solo shows. So what's the point? Maybe if there was a Nirvana tribute, but alas, Nevermind has dropped off the tour.

That new Alice in Chains album is a little freaky

I'm back, briefly. No major goings-on in the Peepers household, just haven't really had anything to say.
Then I heard some of this new Alice in Chains album:


We're positive Layne Staley's dead, right? And there's a new lead singer? They're not singing with old tapes of Layne like Nat King Cole's daughter did, right?

This week in reunions... the Hole saga drags on

* So, in case you haven't been paying attention, Courtney Love said she was getting Hole back together, which surprised her old bandmates. One of them, guitarist Eric Erlandson, claimed he and Hole made an agreement when they broke up 7 years ago that neither of them could tour or record as Hole without the other. Well, Love has taken to Twitter and claims that a) that's not true, and b) Erlandson was stealing from her. And yes, if you're keeping track, this is the 325th person Love has accused of helping to take all her money in the late '90s.

* Alice in Chains' new album comes out in about a month, and apparently Elton John is playing piano on the title track, "Black Gives Way to Blue," a tribute to Layne Staley. The first single off the album, "A Looking In View," is #27 this week on the rock charts and #38 on the alternative charts.

* The Butthole Surfers have been playing sporadic reunion dates of late, and now they're doing a full-fledged tour, September 24 - October 31. This is the late-'80s lineup reunited, but I'm assuming they still play "Pepper."

After a quiet spring, second half of the year looks big

We haven't had a lot of news to report so far in 2009, other than the Better than Ezra career resurrection. But a whole slew of albums are set to come out by Christmas by a lot of your favorite artists. Among them:

* Third Eye Blind, Ursa Major - recently pushed back from June 23 to August 18.

* Our Lady Peace, Burn, Burn - out today, with a large Canadian tour and short US tour to follow. I've already got my tickets for the Atlanta date.

* Vertical Horizon, Burning the Days - out August 11.

* Alice in Chains, Black gives way to blue - out September 29, but the first single, "A Looking In View," is available now on iTunes (or listen to it below). First album without Layne Staley.


* Pearl Jam, Backspacer - out September 20. The band premiered a song off it on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last month.

* Collective Soul, Rabbit - out August 25. First single "Welcome All Again" just hit radio and is available on iTunes as well. Go here if you want to hear a clip of another song off the album, "Staring Down." After two self-released albums, this one's coming out on Roadrunner Records, more famous for metal bands and Nickelback.

This week in reunions... The Wallflowers

* With Jakob Dylan back in the fold, the Wallflowers are touring in June and July. No new album as of yet, though be honest: do you know anyone who's bought one of their albums since 1998? I didn't think so.

* Taking a page from the Everclear playbook, Evan Dando is releasing an all-covers album with the Lemonheads, and going on tour in June. This isn't really a reunion, because only Dando remains from the band's '90s heyday.

* The Limp Bizkit reunion tour starts... in eastern Europe. The band will be playing arenas and festivals in Latvia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, among other places, this summer. No word on a new album or a US tour.

* The Alice in Chains reunion album, which we first heard about in February 2008, is now supposedly coming out in September. For real.

* Oh, and Creed is getting back together. But I don't really want to talk about that.

Ryan Adams covers Alice in Chains

Here's a video of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals on the radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic recently. They start with one of Adams' best tunes, "Come Pick Me Up," then segue into an interesting country-rock cover of Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole." What do you think?

Chris Cornell blogs about his dreams

Chris Cornell's been blogging in the run-up to his new album Scream, and this recent entry was fascinating. Seems Cornell had a vivid dream about Layne Staley (of Alice in Chains) and Andrew Wood (of Mother Love Bone), both long-dead of heroin addictions. It's a really, really interesting little essay, and comes highly recommended.

Meanwhile, Cornell has added a Canadian tour for November (find dates here), and you can obtain a (legal) mp3 of the title track off his new album, "Scream," here.

This week in reunions...

*Undeterred by half-empty amphitheatres, long-winded, rambling stage patter, and loogies thrown at bass players, Stone Temple Pilots have tacked on some late October dates to their reunion tour, including three shows in Mexico.

* This is completely unconfirmed, but Tonic may be getting back together. At least, that's what some dude who went to a private concert put on by Emerson Hart says. If it does happen, it would probably be 2009 or 2010.

* Alice in Chains plan to go into the studio in October with new lead singer William DuVall to record their first album in 12 years. Then again, they were supposed to be recording back in February, so I'll believe it when I hear it.

* And... Phish got back together. But just to play for a buddy's wedding.

More reunions: Alice in Chains, Blind Melon

According to the new Spin magazine (the one with Pete Doherty on the cover), we can expect new albums in 2008 from Green Day, U2, Metallica, No Doubt, Spiritualized, the Cure, the Breeders (really? nice!), Weezer, Portishead, and Beck.
But the big news is the return of two groups who haven't recorded in quite awhile.
Alice in Chains have been touring sporadically since 2006 with new lead singer William DuVall (replacing Layne Staley, who died of a heroin overdose in 2002 after 11 years of heavy drug abuse and 5 years of complete seclusion), though they're now expected to record a new album, their first of all-new material since 1995's self-titled album, which went double-platinum. Remember "Again"?

Big rock hit in early '96? Top 10 on the mainstream rock charts? No? OK, me neither, but I couldn't find embeddable videos for "Heaven Beside You."

It's hard to believe, based on their continued presence on rock radio, but Alice only managed to put out three albums and two EPs, due largely to Staley's heroin problems. Jerry Cantrell has released two fairly well-regarded solo albums (here's 1998's "Cut You In":)


Also back together are Blind Melon, who only managed to record two albums before lead singer Shannon Hoon died in 1995 of a heroin overdose.* New lead singer Travis Warren will make his recording debut April 22, when For My Friends is released. You can hear the new single, "Wishing Well," here.
The band certainly had their fans back in the day; 1992's Blind Melon went quadruple-platinum, and 1995's Soup went gold (in Canada). I know, everybody remembers them for the Bee Girl video, but they had some chops. Here's "Galaxie," from 1995:


*Strange but true story: I saw Sponge at the Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City the night Shannon Hoon died. We found out about it because Vinnie Dombrowski from Sponge announced the death from the stage, then the band played "Wish You Were Here." I'm still not sure how (or if) the guys in Sponge knew the guys in Blind Melon, but it still makes for a cool story.