Mad Season Unearth Lost Cut ‘Locomotive’ – Song Premiere

Click to listen to Mad Season’s ‘Locomotive’

In 1994, Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin and the Walkabouts’ John Baker Saunders came together to form Mad Season, venturing into hard-edged blues with their new project. The band released their only album, Above, the following year, but put things on hold soon after. Life took its toll, and Staley drifted away. The band tried to record a follow-up to Above in the late Nineties, but the personal troubles of Staley and the death of Saunders in 1999 put the band to rest. Staley would eventually pass away in 2002, and though Mad Season had worked on a sequel to Above, the tracks became lost.

Photos: Supergroups – Mad Season

But on April 2nd, Mad Season will release a deluxe reissue of Above, complete with unreleased tracks from the unfinished second album. McCready and Martin regrouped last year and went back to the rough-cut songs, and former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan came onboard to write lyrics and sing on three tracks. Here, Lanegan takes control of “Locomotive,” which was intended to be on the band’s second album.

“Locomotive is a song that best represents the direction Mad Season was going for our second, unfinished album,” Martin tells Rolling Stone. “Mark Lanegan’s lyrics and powerful voice captures that time perfectly.”

“He did an amazing job singing over this track from the elusive second Mad Season record that was to be called Disinformation,” McCready adds. “‘Locomotive’ hits you like one!”

The deluxe reissue of Above will include two CDs and one DVD and features the original studio album, previously unreleased tracks intended for the band’s second album, and a full concert video of the band’s last show ever performed. A special double vinyl expanded edition will also be released on April 20th to commemorate Record Store Day.