Check My Brain
| "Check My Brain" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Alice in Chains | ||||||||||
| from the album Black Gives Way to Blue | ||||||||||
| Released | August 17, 2009 | |||||||||
| Format | Digital download | |||||||||
| Recorded | October 23, 2008-March 18, 2009 at Studio 606 in Northridge, California | |||||||||
| Genre | Alternative metal, heavy metal | |||||||||
| Length | 3:57 | |||||||||
| Label | Virgin/EMI | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Jerry Cantrell | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Nick Raskulinecz | |||||||||
| Alice in Chains singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Check My Brain" is a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains, featured on their fourth studio album Black Gives Way to Blue (2009). It was released as the second single from the album on August 17, 2009. The single topped the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Billboard Rock Songs charts in September 2009. This was the first time an Alice in Chains song would hit #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart since their 1994 single "No Excuses". "Check My Brain" received a nomination for "Best Hard Rock Performance" at the 52nd Grammy Awards. It was also their first #1 on the Alternative Songs chart.
"Check My Brain" features the lyric "California's all right/Somebody check my brain...". The lyric is in reference to guitarist Jerry Cantrell moving to Los Angeles, California in 2003, with Cantrell commenting, "I like how I am right now...and I like where I'm living."
Cantrell on the song:
There's a certain aspect of sarcasm, I guess, being a guy from Seattle who lives in L.A., ex-drug addict who lives in the belly of the beast and doesn't partake, and being totally cool with that...It's like being the bad gambler and living in Vegas. It's right there. It's just the irony of that and a little bit of sarcasm. And it's not putting this place down at all. It's just kind of like, 'Wow, you know, check my brain, wow.'
It is in F minor. The tonic (F) is played as Fb bent up, so it can be unbent back to Fb. (The guitars are downtuned (which is "standard Alice in Chains tuning" according to Cantrell) and the bass is drop D.) Both the bass and rhythm guitar do this. Also the vocals follow. The chords in the chorus are F5, E♭5, B♭5, A♭5, B♭5, C5, F5.
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