Yeah, I really enjoy all three of the post Layne AIC albums. Jerry still has it, his writing is as good as ever. I’m excited for his new solo album next month.
You are no longer in the minority cause I am sure a lot of people, including me, agree with your comment: MORE album videos, MJR! However, i don't agree on JOF being their best album. The best Alice in Chains album is Facelift.
@@kenterminateddq5311 Man, I remember years ago MJR put up some music videos and a lot of ppl got pissed!! Hahaha Perhaps MJR could do a spin-off channel. As I have gotten older and have a family there’s less time for video games and I’ve really dived into music.
When I bought this album at K-Mart when it was realeased the cashier saw the flies and was like, what is this? I said, it is called Jar of Flies, so they put flies in there. She said, "Luckily it isn't called Jar of Vomit.".
2017 & 22 years old, Hip-Hop being my main genre of music, I wanted to venture out and listen to things that i’d truly never heard. As no genre was off limits, I ventured into pop, country, and even metal. I was interested in the things I was hearing, but nothing truly hooked me. That was until I discovered this album at a going-out-of-business sale at the end of that year in my local area. I bought it for mere dollars, and the cover caught my attention as it shone vibrant under a dash of sunlight in a store that was largely bland. I remember listening to Rotten Apple and I Stay Away specifically that night and having to pause the songs as I replayed them over and over. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. the album has really changed my musical tastes, as i’d ventured down the rabbit hole of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots (which i’d later discovered i’d heard as a child playing Gran Turismo for the PS1) and Mother Love Bone. I can attribute this album to truly changing my life in many ways. I resonate with a generation before my time even more than my own all because of music.
You should check out the RU-vid channel Lost in Vegas. Two guys who grew up on hip hop in the 90s reviewing new hip hop and classic rock songs they usually have never heard. They're a fun watch.
The pressing with the files in the spine of the Jewel case is not a promo, its a US limited edition 1st pressing. Its pretty easy to get but does command a good price. In case you did not know AIC released quite a few cool items of merchandise to promote the release, there were two types of honey jars with loads of plastic files in them, a collideascope and a wipe board, all very cool items of which I am lucky to own. Actually AIC did many innovative promotional items for their releases back in the 90's,
@@gasolinekiss There are two versions of that, one with lime green spine and inner with purple case and another with purple spine and inner with a lime green case. I have tried to put where you can get them if you are interested but my post keeps getting deleted because stupid youtube does not like me mentioning others web-sites despite the fact they are not related in any way to what idiot tube does so no competition!
Stuff like this wasn't too uncommon for the first million copies to be released back when the recording industry was rolling in money. Another example of something like this is Warrant's Cherry Pie. The first million all had the explicit lyrics stickers on them because only the first million had the final track, "Ode to Tipper Gore" which was just a compilation of Jani Lane cursing in concert for 2 or 3 minutes.
@@cagycylinder6246 I've got all their albums on vinyl, vinyl singles, box sets, promo CD's and promo vinyl, a lot of promo weird and rare merch items from Facelift through to their S/T album era, an RIAA platinum CD/cassette award for Live and Unplugged, signed prints and an Ampex golden reel award for Facelift. I've been into AIC since I got Dirt as a child when it came out, such an amazing band. My collection is not that big as I collect many bands and when it comes to AIC they have not done loads of stuff over the years and I have only concentrated on the unusual and rare. I'd post some pictures if I could!
This EP was absolutely incredible. Layne Staley’s vocal were so haunting, the music so beautiful (especially the guitar work) and different to all the other work they’d done before or since. And don’t get me started on Nutshell. It absolutely breaks my heart.
Nutshell is one of the most emotional songs ever written. The unplugged version makes me cry every time. You can hear the pain in Layne's voice and relate to it
@@MetalJesusRocks OMG! I am a guitar player and LOVE playing Nutshell , Rotten Apple, No Excuses & Brother (From the Sap EP) on my acoustic. I also play most of I'll Stay Away on my electric but need to just sit down and nail down the rest of that song one of these evenings. I bought this CD the week it was released and my copy does not have the flies or enhanced CD. The first 2 enhanced CDs I bought were actually by Todd Rundgren & the first one was "No World Order" which came out around 1991/1992 - ish (I did not have a computer yet so I didn't get to really use the extra features. I bought a home PC in 1995 & right around that year Todd Rundgren put out "The Individualist" which was fun to use on a PC & I enjoyed that CD a lot. I taught myself a song I love from that release as well titled "If Not Now, When?" and it sounds awesome on both an electric or an acoustic. I thought the enhanced CD format was going to take off but it never really did for some reason. Thanks for sharing this. I still listen to Jar Of Flies quite often & loved it from the first time I played it. It may sound weird but it wasn't until after Layne passed away that I realized just what a massive part Jerry Cantrell was to their vocal sound because I did not realize how much he sang and how he shapes all the background vocals and the haunting vocal melodies. I am not taking anything away from Layne he was amazing. Jerry Cantrell is my favorite guitar player from the Grunge movement. He is a studio wizard who layers guitar tracks that always sound incredible & then add in his contribution to their haunting melodies and background vocals brings him up to another level. As a guitarist I obviously have several influences and what I like to refer to as my top 5 - top 10 - top 20 list of favorite players. I also have a list of favorite guitarists in various genres as well.Thanks for sharing this. I bought this CD the week it was out due to I already had Sap & Dirt and was waiting for this release and was blown away with what they delivered with Jar Of Flies. I am so happy I came across your channel earlier today. I subscribed as well. :)
In the UK, we got a double CD released, which featured both Jar Of Flies & SAP. I've also got the 2 x LP repressing by Music On Vinyl, which like the original vinyl pressing features an etched image on side 4 , however this edition features the AIC sun logo, with the letters printed on the label & the triangular sun rays etched into the vinyl.
I bought this CD the week it came out. I liked the songs so much, and they put me in such a mood that I decided to go ahead and propose to my girlfriend shortly after. We've been married almost 27 years now.
My aunt has the plastic flies CD. From what I remember, she said the cashier at the record store offered it to her instead of the plain one because she was a frequent customer, so they must have been somewhat limited. I don't know what store it was, but it would have been in the Seattle area. Probably Peaches.
Seeing any obscure parts of your collection is awesome. As I’ve grown older, I appreciate Alice In Chains more and more. I never got to see Layne Staley live, but caught AiC with William DuVall many years ago and they were great. Was happy to finally see them after missing them in the 90s.
I almost skipped over this because I regularly have Alice In Chains items on my youtube home page before I realized it was an MJR video. One of my favorite releases from the 90's it always makes me flash back to playing Command and Conquer and listening to this ep.
I totally forgot about cd+ releases. Jar of Flies was definitely one of my favorites that I owned. The amount of content really varied with those releases.
Agree with everyone else you should do more music stuff. Specifically, archiving a lot of this type of multimedia that really isn't available anywhere. You have the means to bring it back to life, whereas I'm not sure the labels or bands even have archives of this stuff. Yes, probably some de-monetized videos, but could make for a fun side project that many people will appreciate. Thanks for sharing!
1. I love Alice In Chains 2. I feel like the world of music and physical collecting within the space is something I know so little about because I was a kid when these things came out, and my exposure was limited to Sam goody, columbia record club, and honestly borrowing cds from my brother and sister. I’d love more of this type of content.
This is one of my favourite albums of all time!. The MTV Unplugged show they did was absolutely fantastic live performance!.Right up there with Nirvana's MTV'S Unplugged.
They never announced that Sap was getting released. It just got shadow dropped into stores. Wish you touched on that a little bit more. There is a great collaboration with Ann Wilson on there in one of my personal favorite songs = Am I Inside. I have the double 10" 1st press on Orange and Blue Transparent Wax. One of the best albums of all time. From what I understand, most songs on Jar of Flies were written and recorded in one or few takes and written in just a few days. Best AIC song IMO is = Died. Nobody talks about that one.
My Squirrel Nut Zippers Hot and Aerosmith Nine Lives both have supplemental videos buried on the CD disk. Alice Cooper has bonus DVDs as a separate disk in many of his newer albums, but something about Hot and Nine Lives having it embedded makes it cooler.
You hear people complain that Blu-ray menus and bonus content are no longer as fun and interesting as those on early DVDs, but for me, nothing quite beats an Enhanced or Plus CD. Would love to see the others that have made it into your collection!
I think "No Excuses" was the first song I heard by them knowing who they were, but I'm pretty sure "What The Hell Have I", on a college radio station, was the first not knowing. Thought both were great and I became a big fan.
You did indeed get "Live Facelift" with the CD !! Mine came taped with packing tape to the longbox that held the disc !! There was also another version of Faceclift that came with a T-shirt attached to it. I never got one, as the shirts were always small or medium, and I am 6'3 !!! it was a promotion to push album sales in summer 1991 when MTV picked up the "Man in the Box" video, and the tours they did with Anthrax/Slayer and VH.
About 15 years ago my wife and I went to see Jerry Cantrell solo in Atlanta. He did some older Alice In Chains songs and it was so great. Just him and his guitar. I'll never forget it!
I remember the Prong - Rude Awakening album having an Enhanced CD as well....there was some really cool stuff on it at the time. I also remember Clutch's Elephant Riders also was enhanced when it was first released...
Really glad to see some music content on the channel. My channel is completely focus on vinyl (obviously) but you were an inspiration for me starting it. That Alice In Chains EP was really good and I'm glad you focused on the very unique packaging. No one seems to remember that stuff from when it was first released
I remember the version with the flies in the spine, my mom pointed it out to me in a Blockbuster music store (yes they had a short lived music store for a while). I wasn't a an AiC fan back then, they weren't thrash or death metal enough but I really wish I'd bought that. The enhanced CDs and CD plus were a giant PITA even back then.
Amazing album, I remember buying this and listening to it constantly. The spine for mine when i bought it at the time didn't have the flies but super cool. I definitely had the CD Plus though, Sarah Mcchaughlin (butchered her last name) had it as well. Thanks for the memories, loved this video Metal Jesus !
Great video MJR. This is was my introduction to Alice and Chains and I also still listen to it frequently. I remember one of the Limp Bizkit albums also having the Enhanced CD format too. I would love to see other enhanced CD albums in your collection.
I remember a few Black Metal bands doing something similar as well back then, but I've always (and still am) been a vinyl person, so it never interested me. Slayer did something similar to the fly thing, but they did a CD single that was in a "blood pack" that had skulls floating in the fake blood . The fake blood dried up in most, if not all, of them I saw AIC live on the CLASH OF THE TITANS tour, they were great live! I remember most people were there for SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX YES, do more of these videos! I'm not only a retro game collector, I also collect vinyl (mainly Black Metal)
I have the enhanced cd version as well, and as you said, you can't access the enhanced content on a modern computer. Seeing all of the enhanced cd stuff again brings me back! Awesome video, dude.
Perfect timing as I've been binging AiC lately, and Nutshell is probably my favorite song of theirs. Such a great band, and despite their success I believe they were a bit underrated.
Hard to believe 30 years ago, 1991 is still the best year in rock. People still miss Layne Staley as well as Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots. *Time flies.*
Jar of Flies / Sap are such amazing albums. Whenever AiC did MTV Unplugged they played a few tracks from the albums and they just brought forth such an emotional weight with them. Not to mention that Layne was in the depths of his drug demons at that time as well R.I.P.
I have jar of flies on my vinyl wishlist! Nutshell is the best song on that album, it's so deep and meaningful. I can't believe it's been nearly 20 years since Layne's passing 💔😢
Fall is in the air, it’s a cool overcast day in September here in Michigan. There is nothing more perfect in my head than listening to AIC and playing street hockey in the fall. This video couldn’t have been posted at a better time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the enhanced stuff as I was definitely way to poor in the 90’s to afford a computer. It would be cool if you could share that stuff. 🖖🗽🤘
I've always wanted to see what the plastic flies in the spine were like. Thanks for sharing. Incredible EP, and Rotten Apple is probably my favourite Alice in Chains songs - an excellent introduction to Mike Inez in his first recording with the band.
I remember when I found the Jar of Flies/SAP double EP on vinyl at Goodwill for a buck. I almost passed on it because one of the sides was scratched to shit. Until I realized it was an etching done on purpose.
@@MetalJesusRocks I have not, the last time I listened to them is when I believe they were a trio after Layne Staley passed. It felt odd to not hear his unique voice on a track, I know that they have a lead singer now but in all honesty I lost track of them. Maybe it's time to revisit the classics and listen to some new Alice in Chains. I'm definitely open to hearing something new from them !
...I recall that the first PC that I purchased in '96ish, A Compaq "Precidio", er something...came with a Columbia CD-ROM featuring Four Performers: Celine Dion, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ...possibly one of the Three Tenors or something?, as well as this exact Alice In Chains Multimedia!...
Love this album. I remember popping in almost every cd I bought back then to see if there was any extras hidden on the disc. I had a lot of those enhanced cds. Shame I never got to see Alice while Layne was still alive. Saw Cantrell open for Metallica and he played a couple Alice songs 🤙🤘
Dude! This was fun! Yes, keep peppering in some vids on music releases. I don't remember the version with plastic flies, but the CD+ feature I remember fondly in the mid 90's. Speaking of rock music and video games, did you know REO Speedwagon released a companion casual game in the late 2000's called "Find Your Own Way Home"? Kind of a "hidden objects" game with some of their jams featured.
Hey man, love the channel. I'm an old rocker/gamer myself. I remember these type of CDs as I owned one many years ago too. It was a NOFX CD that had a video called un-precedented, about the 2000 election between Bush and Gore, when ran on a computer. Cool stuff.
The music industry needs to take the stick out of their butts cause alot of stuff will be lost to the sands of time if they just go around striking stuff down, even for preservation sake.
I was a teenager when this came out and at the time Smashing Pumpkins were my favorite band. Nowadays I listen to way more Alice in Chains music. I'd say all around they are my favorite 90's band now. Also, and this might be controversial, I think Grind is my favorite AIC album.
I remember there were also "Enhanced CDs" that some artists were playing around with. Specifically I remember that the Weird Al album, "Running With Scissors" had a computer track on it that was called something like secret file or secret video or something. It had a short mini mocumentary about him on it.
My first concert was The Clash of the Titans Tour with Alice In Chains, Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer in Vancouver, BC on June 01, 1991. While I've seen every band multiple times since then I'm grateful that I got to see Layne Stayley and Mike Starr perform at least once. Yes Black Gives Way to Blue (2009) and The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013) are great albums, specially since it's mainly Jerry Cantrell taking up the lead vocals.
I didn't have the edition with the flies in the CD holder but I do remember using this exact CD+ stuff on our family's computer. It was really cool at the time!
Great video ,cool that you covered all of the releases cd Enhanced cd and vinyl of the same album,love Alice In Chains and this album especially and of course not forgetting there amazing unplugged performance, would love to see more videos like this really great content, been a fan of your channel for along time ,thanks so much ,
What a rad piece of metal/rock history! Thanks for sharing this! Loved Layne and the boys. Gonna have to try and hunt down that vinyl and disc with the flies in the spine! Never even knew about that!
