Alice in Chains' Cantrell on a long 'Degradation Trip'

ROSS RAIHALA

Originally published Friday, February 15, 2002

With Alice in Chains still mired in what its record label calls an "open-ended hiatus," guitarist Jerry Cantrell has signed a deal with Roadrunner Records for his second solo album, "Degradation Trip."

Generally considered the brains behind Alice in Chains, Cantrell was the primary songwriter for the Seattle heroin rockers, whose last full-length album hit stores way back in 1995.

In the years since, Alice in Chains' label, Columbia, has tried its hardest to keep the cash flowing by releasing an unplugged disc, a live album, a box set, a single-disc compilation of the box set and a straightforward best-of collection.

Columbia also put out Cantrell's first solo album, 1998's "Boggy Depot," a much-anticipated record that was greeted with middling reviews and commercial indifference.

Cantrell, a Tacoma native who now lives in Snohomish, recorded "Degradation Trip" from November 1999 to March 2000 at the legendary (and now closed) A&M Studios in Los Angeles with help from Suicidal Tendencies bass player Robert Trujillo and drummer Mike Bordin of Faith No More.

In April, Cantrell toured the Northwest to drum up interest in the album, which was originally a 25-track, 2-CD set he had hoped to release a few months later.

"(It's) pretty amazing," he said at the time. "The quality is of a level I've not yet achieved. This is my best work yet, I can confidently say."

Despite his enthusiasm, it took Cantrell a bit longer than he expected to find a record label.

And, at first glance, Roadrunner may seem like an odd fit for Cantrell, given the label's roster of younger, louder acts such as Slipknot, Fear Factory and Type O Negative.

Then again, Roadrunner's recent smashing success with Nickelback (shudder) shows the move could prove to be a fruitful one. And the label already has done some cross-promotion between the two acts, with Cantrell recently joining Nickelback on stage for shows in Calgary and Edmonton, the latter of which will be released on DVD.

The Roadrunner version of "Degradation Trip" should hit stores in May and will feature 14 tracks that, according to the label, sound a whole lot like Alice in Chains.

In other Alice in Chains news, the band's rhythm section of Mike Inez and Sean Kinney are still plugging away with Spys4Darwin, a band they formed with Chris DeGarmo of Queensryche and Vin Dombroski of Sponge.

Spys4Darwin made its live debut at a Seattle radio station concert in August and are currently working on a full-length album.

Belle and Sebastian news

The new Todd Solondz film "Storytelling" limped its way into Seattle last weekend, and judging by the poorly attended Saturday evening screening I caught, it seems pretty clear the picture won't replicate the success of Solondz's previous efforts, "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Happiness."

I actually enjoyed the bleakly humorous film -- my friends pointedly did not. Solondz takes some welcome potshots at the vastly overrated "American Beauty" while giving "American Movie" co-star Mike Schank a great cameo role.

Anyway, Belle and Sebastian fans will be disappointed to learn that very little of the music the band specifically recorded for the soundtrack is actually played during the film.

In fact, the most recognizable B&S moment comes when the previously released "The State I Am In" is used to wryly comment on one sequence. And weirdly enough, Elton John's "Island Girl" and a purposefully empty pop song titled "Gonna Have Fun" are both given far more conspicuous play during the movie.

Not that this comes as much of a surprise to those who caught Belle and Sebastian when they played Olympia last year. During the show, lead singer Stuart Murdoch complained from the stage that Solondz had cut most of the B&S numbers during the editing process. (Also lost, by the way, was a segment featuring James Van Der Beek as a gay jock.)

Jeepster, the overseas home of B&S, says the soundtrack will be released in the spring.

And in other Belle and Sebastian news, it looks like the band will embark on an American tour in May. They will play the Coachella Festival in California on April 28, and the band's official Web site suggests further U.S. dates will follow: "After all, it's a long way to come for just one show."

That said, it seems unlikely the band will make its way up into these parts again so soon.

The Donnas sell out

In a somewhat unexpected move, the Donnas have left the indie confines of Lookout! for the big time, Atlantic Records.

The foursome -- lead singer Donna A. (Brett Anderson), guitarist Donna R. (Allison Robertson), bass player Donna F. (Maya Ford) and drummer Donna C. (Torry Castellano) -- first gained punk-level notoriety with 1998's "American Teenage Rock & Roll Machine," a record that suggested the ladies grew up on equal diet of the Ramones and Motley Crue.

In major-label terms, the Donnas have not sold all that many records -- the group's 2001 album "The Donnas Turn 21" moved about 34,000 units, according to SoundScan. They have, however, earned heaps of positive press from critics who appreciate the Donnas' young hussy image.

Green Day lost plenty of punk cred back when they left Lookout! for Warner Bros., but that doesn't seem to bother the Donnas. Said Donna A. in a statement: "Worrying that people are gonna say we're sellouts is not a concern for us. We've always wanted to be as big as we could while still doing what we want to do ... (Lookout! has) been great for us, but we just wanted to reach a lot more people, and we needed bigger label to deal with that."

Personally, I can't help but remember the sad case of Tuscadero, a fantastic Teen Beat Records band that left that indie for Elektra.

The label asked the band to partially re-record its great "The Pink Album" release and then went on to drop them six weeks after releasing the group's first "official" Elektra album, 1998's "My Way or the Highway."

Let's hope the Donnas have better luck.

Ross Raihala covers music for The Olympian. Send news and Top 10 lists to OlyRoss@aol.com.

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