Reunited, but who will sing?

CROSS the band Alice in Chains off the list of potential successors to INXS and the “Rock Star” hunt for a new singer.

But surviving members of the popular Seattle grunge-metal group, whose singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002, are exploring ways they might be able to perform again on a regular basis.

The prospect is an outgrowth of a February reunion of guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney at a benefit for victims of the Indonesian tsunami.

At that Seattle show, vocals were handled by Cantrell and four guests: Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin, Damageplan’s Pat Lachman and Heart’s Ann Wilson.

“The guys had so much fun that they thought maybe there’s something else we want to do,” says Bill Siddons, who co-manages the band with original manager Susan Silver. “We’d love to find a way to let these guys perform together and have the fun they had and honor and respect what they created in the past, as well as Layne’s contributions.”

What shape that might take is very uncertain at this point, though Siddons insists there will be no reality show to find a singer, a la “Rock Star.”

“That’s a perfect example of what happens when you marry television and music badly,” Siddons says. “It’s not what Alice was ever about.”

They may not even be looking for a lead singer, at least not one full-time member, Siddons adds. While they’re open to the potential of something along the lines of the current Queen tour (in which veteran rocker Paul Rodgers is filling in for the late Freddie Mercury), that’s far from a given.

“We might do a date here or there if there are opportunities to get a special guest to sing,” Siddons says. “That’s been discussed. More likely at this point we’ll do benefits rather than paying gigs.”

If they did find a new singer and embarked on a full tour, what would be the box-office prospects?

“I’d put that one down in the question-mark category,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of concert business publication Pollstar. “Alice in Chains even in the heyday was not a 20,000-seat-arena headliner. But it’s really difficult to predict. I would never have thought the Pixies reunion would be as big today as it has been.”

Alice in Chains might well have become an arena headliner if not for Staley’s ongoing drug problems. The band stood alongside Nirvana and Soundgarden as one of the most prominent acts in the Seattle grunge explosion, its dark, sludgy songs holding an even heavier edge than the others’ music.

In terms of album sales it was an unquestionable success -- 1992’s “Dirt,” with the radio hit “Rooster,” sold about 3.2 million copies per Nielsen SoundScan’s U.S. tallies. And its three other studio albums averaged more than 2 million sales each.

But after appearing on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour, Alice was unable to perform live with any regularity due largely to Staley’s struggles.

“Part of the enigma,” says Silver, “was they didn’t play that much.”

That, she says, was as much the case for the band as for the fans, and the February show let the musicians get a taste of what they’d missed.

“It was so terrific for them to play together,” she says. “But they’re not ready to announce a new person, make a new record and start the cycle over yet. They want to just go have fun and give a tip of the hat to Layne and the people who enjoyed the music.”

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NPR’s choices loud and clear

NATIONAL Public Radio’s news programming seems to be under constant fire from conservative commentators alleging that it’s too liberal.

Now some devoted listeners are using another L-word in criticism: loud.

In recent weeks, letters and e-mails have been read on the air of both the Saturday and Sunday morning “Weekend Edition” news magazines complaining of too much rock music in the shows’ interview and performance features. One decried the “heavy metal” of a segment on singer-songwriter John Hiatt -- who will never be confused with Black Sabbath. Other listeners took more general umbrage with what they felt was music that did not fit the aesthetic of NPR.

Does that mean the programming will change to take off that edge? Don’t count on it.

“The fact is the listeners are overwhelmingly positive about the music choices,” says Jay Kernis, NPR senior vice president of programming, noting an overall desire among listeners for a range of music. “Over and over they say they want more contemporary music coverage, more jazz coverage and more classical coverage. The reason you hear those music segments is listeners tell us they enjoy them. Would we allow a few letters to affect the programming? No. We have 26 million listeners for NPR.”

So why air a few negative ones? “Those are just ways of indicating ‘We’re hearing you’ to listeners,” he says. “And a lot of the producers grew up with their parents saying, ‘Will you turn that music down?’ I’m a programming chief, not a therapist. But what may be going on was producers saying to their parents, ‘We hear you, but we’re not going to turn down the music.’ ”

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Small faces

* Writer-director Cameron Crowe has long shown his ex-rock-journalist chops in his movies’ soundtracks -- with such films as “Singles,” “Jerry Maguire” and the semiautobiographical “Almost Famous” featuring songs as core elements. He’s done it again with the Kentucky-set romance “Elizabethtown,” handpicking songs by Louisville’s My Morning Jacket as well as Elton John, Tom Petty and Ryan Adams, among others. The film, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, premieres Oct. 14. RCA Records will release the soundtrack album....

* With “Hold Me to This,” Christopher O’Riley’s second album of piano interpretations of Radiohead’s music, high on the Billboard classical crossover chart, the musician has just finished an album with a similar approach to the music of late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. “Home to Oblivion” is due early next year. O’Riley, who says he has more than 80 recordings of Smith concerts on his iPod, introduced the concept at a UCLA concert last spring....

* After 25 years of being known for dynamic concerts, Bad Religion has captured the experience on film, with a “Live at the Palladium” DVD due in the fall from Epitaph, the L.A. label owned by band member Brett Gurewitz. The material was shot during two shows earlier this year at the Hollywood club and the package will feature 31 songs (in a hi-fi 5.1 mix) plus interviews and commentary from band members....

* Rock band Good Charlotte is working on a project with Miami hip-hop producers Cool & Dre -- another intriguing turn from the band after its presence on popster Hilary Duff’s upcoming “Most Wanted” album.