Michael David "Mike" McCready (born April 5, 1966) is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam. McCready was also a member of the side project bands Flight to Mars, Temple of the Dog, Mad Season and The Rockfords. He is also the proprietor of HockeyTalker Records.

During the production of Vitalogy, McCready went into rehabilitation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he met bassist John Baker Saunders of The Lamont Cranston Band. In 1994, when the two returned to Seattle, they formed a side band, The Gacy Bunch, with vocalist Layne Staley of Alice in Chains and drummer Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees. After several live shows, they changed their name to Mad Season. The band released the album Above through Columbia Records in 1995, and are best known for the single "River of Deceit". The band broke up following Saunders' death in 1999 due to a heroin overdose. Staley would pass away three years later in 2002, of an apparent overdose of heroin and cocaine.  On February 28, 2010, McCready performed at the Hootenanny For Haiti at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle along with the likes of Velvet Revolver, Jane's Addiction and former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Fastbacks bassist Kim Warnick, Loaded and former Alien Crime Syndicate, Sirens Sister and Vendetta Red bassist Jeff Rouse as well as Truly and former Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel among others.  A number of songs were covered during the show, including Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", The Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers" among others however one of the more notable covers came when McCready performed a cover of "River of Deceit" for the first time since the breakup of Mad Season with Jeff Rouse performing vocal duties on the song.  Above was re-released in a 3 disc Deluxe edition in 2013. Also in vinyl format featuring 3 new songs with Mark Lanegan on vocals.  In 2015, Live at the Moore 1995 was released on 12" vinyl to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the band's final show. Earlier in 2015, the surviving members, McCready and Martin joined with the Seattle Symphony in a concert at Benaroya Hall entitled "Sonic Evolution" featuring special guests and friends. The show was later released on CD/12" vinyl.

Using a quote from the above article, answer the following question: What is mad season?
After several live shows, they changed their name to Mad Season. The band released the album Above through Columbia Records in 1995,