Alice in Chains are celebrating three decades of their Jar of Flies EP by pressing up a… vinyl LP of flies.
In a serious challenge to Sleep’s weed leaf-embedded LP, AIC have worked a Jar of Flies vinyl pressing with actual flies inside into a slate of 30th anniversary merch that also includes a cassette tape, tri-coloured vinyl LP, blacklight poster, skateboard deck and more.
The band’s listing for the collectable “limited edition D2C exclusive clear vinyl,” which has since sold out, touts the inclusion of “real flies” inside the wax, which was “assembled by hand limited to 150 units.” If you’re reading this and happen to be the lucky pressing plant employee who meticulously dropped insects into all 150 records, please give us a call.
Jar of Flies is the latest Alice in Chains catalogue entry to receive an expanded anniversary reissue, following similar treatments given to Dirt in 2022 and Facelift in 2020.
How could AIC up the ante for future anniversary reissues? One can’t really give a vinyl LP a true Facelift, and depending on how listeners treat their records, it’s usually dust they’re more concerned about than Dirt. Can I count on a three-legged dog delivering me an anticipated reissue of 1995’s self-titled LP? Shall I dial some palaeontologists when it’s time to dig up an expanded edition of The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here? The label marketing departments have plenty of time to figure this out.
Alice in Chains released sixth studio LP Rainier Fog in 2018. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell released third solo album Brighten in 2021.