Facelift

Facelift is the debut studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released by Columbia Records on August 21, 1990. The tracks "We Die Young", and "Man in the Box" were released as singles. "Man in the Box" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 1992. Facelift became the first grunge album to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), achieving this feat on September 11, 1991. The album peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 chart, and has been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of three million copies in the United States. Background and recording Local promoter Randy Hauser became aware of Alice in Chains at a concert, and offered to pay for demo recordings. However, one day before the band was due to record at the Music Bank studio in Washington, police shut down the studio during the biggest marijuana raid in the state's history. The final demo – dubbed The Treehouse Tapes – found its way to managers Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver, who also managed the Seattle-based Soundgarden. Curtis and Silver passed the demo to Columbia Records' A&R representative Nick Terzo, who set up an appointment with label president Don Ienner. Based on The Treehouse Tapes (sold by the band at shows), Ienner signed Alice in Chains to Columbia in 1989. Alice in Chains became a top priority for the label, who released the band's first official recording in July 1990: the promotional EP We Die Young. Its lead single and title song became a hit on metal radio. After its success, the label rushed Alice in Chains' debut album into production with producer Dave Jerden. "I told Jerry Cantrell, ‘Metallica took Tony Iommi and sped him up. What you've done is you've slowed him down again,’" Jerden recalled. "He looked at me and said, ‘You got it.’ That's how I got the gig." Drummer Sean Kinney claims to have played this album with a broken hand: