Mike Starr, the onetime bass player for Alice in Chains, has been found dead at a house in Salt Lake City. He was 44. BBC News reports that police said officers responded to a call on Tuesday about a possible body at the residence but added there was no sign of foul play involved. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Starr was the original bassist when Alice in Chains formed in 1987. He left in 1993 following the release of the Dirt album in 1992.

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The 90s gave us some of the purest rock music ever, and it’s a testament to the quality of those bands that they were able to record dozens of solid albums and still have plenty of great rare material lying around. What follows is a list of some of the best B-sides, rarities, obscure tracks, and special releases from eight definitive 90s rock bands. Enjoy the flashback.

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Alice in Chains (a.k.a. the band that kicked out original bassist Mike Starr and lost distinctive doomsday vocalist Layne Staley in 2002 to an overdose and yet still calls itself Alice in Chains due to the presence of Jerry Cantrell), is hitting the road next week on a triple bill also featuring the Deftones and Mastadon for the BlackDiamondSkye tour, according to Reuters.  The tour launches in Chicago on September 16^th in Chicago and runs to October 16^th in Las Vegas.  And, according to the irreplaceable Layne Staley’s replacement, William DuVall, the band is already churning up new songs for a follow-up to 2009’s subtlety-drenched Black Gives Way to Blue:

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Apparently there was an earthquake this past weekend…

Epicenter? Pomona Fairplex in California. Cause? Tool, Linkin Park, and Alice in Chains, among others. August 22, 2009 marked the “first annual” KROQ Epicenter Festival, fondly referred to as KROQ‘s Inland Invasion in past years.

This year’s stellar lineup consisted of bands both new and old: After Midnight Project, Sonny, Paper Tongues, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Street Sweeper Social Club, Hollywood Undead, Atreyu, Wolfmother, Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, Dead by Sunrise, and Tool. Even as weather reports threatened Thunderstorms, they didn’t stop concert-goers from flocking to the Fairplex to have a good time. The gloomy morning turned into baking temperatures in the mid-afternoon, but 11 solid hours of music made up for the lack of shade.

After the jump,  check out pictures and my experience at Epicenter’09.

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If you’re in the LA area tomorrow, you might want to stop by the Pomona Fairplex and catch a few up and coming bands. Who am I kidding? You might want to FLY to Los Angeles tonight to catch some of the biggest names in music: Alice In Chains, Linkin Park, and Tool are headlining, but Wolfmother, Atreyu, and BeatCrave Favs After Midnight Project and Paper Tongues are slated to play as well.

KROQ‘s Annual Inland Invasion has come back bigger and better, and with a new name: Epicenter. In the past, bands like Incubus, The Offspring, Social Distortion, Blink-182, Muse, The Walkmen and Kings of Leon have graced their stages. This year, Linkin Park‘s Chester Bennington will be debuting his new project, Dead By Sunrise, to Southern California, with members Ryan Shuck and Amir Dreakh (from Orgy/Julien-K), Brandon Belsky, Elias Anda (Also from Julien-K), and Anthony Valcic.

After the jump, check out Set Times, a Video Promo, and more!

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Alice in Chains will be releasing their first album, Black Gives Way To Blue, in fourteen years this September. There’s a ton of buzz and excitement for the new album since they decided to have William DuVall join.

However, we’ve just learned that Alice in Chains has asked the most unexpected guest to play on one of their tracks. Who will be making this guest appearance? None other than the diva, himself – Sir Elton John. Did your jaw drop? Did your throat just produce a guffaw?

They wanted to add a piano track to this particular song and as their guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Cantrell, stated in a press release, “A friend suggested we call Elton, and I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’”

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It’s been nearly 14 years since Alice In Chains released their last self-titled album, but both the band’s singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, say that their upcoming album Black Gives Way to Blue “doesn’t stray too far from [their] influential catalog.”

According to Billboard, Kinney says the 11-track album continues in the Alice in Chains tradition and will measure up to some of their previous record hits like Dirt and Jar of Flies. The new album is set to be released on September 29. A lead single hasn’t been announced yet, but their new track A Looking in View can be heard at aliceinchains.com.

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Alice in Chains have released a new song entitled “A Looking In View” today on iTunes. The band, which was one of the main bands of the so-called Grunge movement in the early 1990s, was basically considered finished when vocalist Layne Staley died of an overdose in 2002. However, the surviving members of the band, which came out of the same Seattle area as fellow prominent bands Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, has since enlisted a new vocalist, by the name of William DuVall.

Before I heard this new song, I was apprehensive at best, as I always am when bands replace singers. Staley was the main focal point of Alice in Chains, so the prospect of replacing his thunderous voice made me skeptical. “A Looking In View”, though, BLEW ME AWAY. DuVall channels Staley so well it’s eerie. The track sounds like it belongs on one of AIC’s albums in the early 1990s. I almost can’t believe it came out today. I think this reinvention of Alice in Chains might just work, as DuVall seems more than capable of handling the singing duties.

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