Matt Yglesias

Alice in Chains?

John Hollinger opened up his most recent chat with this “Got a bunch of grunge CDs on shuffle right now, so if this chat comes across as angry and jaded blame Kurt Cobain.” That, in turn, led to the following exchange:

J-Vicious (Morristown, NY)

I dig that you’re jamming to Nirvana. Do you think Gilbert Arenas will come out of the dead this year and perform like the elite point guard he was a couple years back?

John Hollinger (3:45 PM)

We got Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the criminally underrated Alice in Chains going head to head right now. As for Arenas, I’m really suspicious. He had a very serious injury and it’s not like he’s 7-feet tall — the guy is entirely dependent on his cutting and quickness. Even if he stays healthy all year I think it’s highly unlikely he has the same zip.

That’s right on Arenas, but Alice in Chains? It seems pretty clear to me that the third leg of that particular stool ought to be Smashing Pumpkins:

I think their not-very-good later work sort of brought them into discredit, but Gish, Siamese Dream, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie alone constitute a reasonably extensive body of excellent work. Alice in Chains, meanwhile, gave us “Man in the Box” and . . . what?