Soundgarden

I'd rather hear a tribute cover of like, "The DAy I Tried to Live"

BHS revisionism can suck it

Perhaps, but by 1994 I was already sick to death of Soundgarden and didn't give a care about Superunknown outside of "My Wave," and the ferocity with which "Black Hole Sun" was overexposed poisoned a song I thought was bad to begin with.

ymmv, of course, but imo the dropoff after Badmotorfinger was significant and probably comparable to R.E.M. post-Bill Berry.

i'd pay human earth dollars for Ann Wilson to do Fourth of July

some good old clips of Chris, starting with...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZaglHQOgt8

audio only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmJ8ATggl5c

in fairness i thought maybe i hated it for a few years there but then i listened to it and i was wrong

^^^ this. it's an impossibly sad, beautiful song about depression. I sang it to my daughter as she went off to sleep the other night (she's too young to really grok the words, thankfully) and the "no one sings like you anymore" line hit me like a brick wall

I'm not sure what I think of BHS these days. There's maybe a similar problem with it as with Cornell's other flirtation with a Lennonesque melodic sensibility, Blow Up the Outside World, which I used to think was amazing, but now sounds rather gratingly portentous and cheesy.

By contrast, some of the more understated stuff on DOTUS, I think, still stands up really well. "Switch Opens" may be another case for arguing that Ben Shepherd was SG's most beguilingly idiosyncratic songwriter (also comes to mind is the melodic and rhythmic wonkiness in the chorus of "Somewhere", or the way an otherwise fairly standard, punk-metal song like "Face Pollution" is totally made by the unhinged instrumental section near the end.)

I think I may have mentioned it upthread, but I was watching some BMF-era live footage on Youtube a while back and Ben Shepherd is a deranged motherfucker, leaping and staggering around the stage and not missing a note but looking like he's scarcely paying attention to anything that he's doing. Thrilling stuff.

This one is p great imo.

There's an interview from those days in Bass Player magazine with Shepard and the interviewer talking completely past each other, where Ben talks about wanting to crawl under the stage and set off low-frequency bombs from there.

Revisiting King Animal for the first time since it came out. There's a hoarseness in Cornell's voice on "Been Away Too Long" that makes him sound like Sammy Hagar. That was my impression of the album at the time - that it sounded more like Chickenfoot than Soundgarden. We'll see.

'I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota' is the rare lyric about depression that's both hilarious and heartbreaking. I forget because the riffs are all-encompassing on most listens, but really it was the lyrics on Badmotorfinger that sealed the deal for me.

living colour's blow up the outside world cover was great, was cool to see a tribute by a band that actually had the chops and singing ability to cover soundgarden and do them justice

also unperson jesus christ chickenfoot have a little decency

Bones Of Birds is wonderful

otm

Anyone ever listen to that Hater album?

After making it all the way through King Animal, my impression from five years ago (!) was reinforced. All the songs were decent riff-rock, but when it was over I couldn't remember how a single one of them went. If I was on a game show and the challenge was, "Hum one song from Soundgarden's King Animal for $10,000," I would be going home empty-handed.

i guess that's cool but the playing on that record is wonderful and the songs are all real growers

"bones of birds" and "halfway there" are up there with any of cornell's great hooks

and "eyelid's mouth" is maybe the most matt cameron matt cameron song ever, title on down

Anyone ever listen to that Hater album?

I remember liking it but then not going back to it very often

Wellwater Conspiracy has some jams.

The first Hater album was reissued last summer, it's quite good. They made a second one years later but I've never heard it.

Yeah I really liked the first one

i liked it alright at the time, but i have no idea if it's aged well or not.

matt cameron is a good guy who writes great songs

he also warbled "puberty love" in attack of the killer tomatoes…

yes! <3

i'm listening to higher truth for the first time and it's a lovely record, way way wayyyy better than carry on, idk why i didn't give it a shot when it came out

probably because you heard Carry On

j/k tho. I kinda wanna listen to his other solo albs now, I ignored them because I hated Carry On so much but now is the time to get acquainted.

"Follow My Way" is still my fav solo joint of his....starts out so Zeppelin-y

carry on is p bad beyond "you know my name" and "arms around your love" and i have no idea why except that maybe audioslave briefly ruined his songwriting

"follow my way" is such a jam

I hated Audioslave but man he he get mileage out of that material with his performances

i just revisited a few audioslave singles. "be yourself" is a great song. the more aggro audioslave tracks are dogshit imo

now i'm onto scream, which 1) lol 2) but i think this song is a jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A9lcO2xeMQ

brad, it's bad. I've wanted to defend scream so bad but in the end, it's just not possible.

lmao i love it while recognizing it is bad

dang that's bad

i do feel like cornell might have been in store for an increasingly interesting solo career as he aged, cf Robert Plant.

i was hoping Scream would be nothing but covers of the Michael Jackson song when it came out

Down On The Upside is better than I remembered. It's still too long, but that's a quibble. I had forgotten songs like Zero Chance and Tighter and Tighter.

Down on the Upside is notable for being the Soundgarden record that Ben Shepherd had the largest hand in, writing-wise. Thayil contributed 'Never The Machine Forever' (a standout track, IMO) but much less compared to what he'd done before.

What I always liked about this band is that all the band members wrote songs and contributed riffs and ideas, even Matt Cameron who came up with some great stuff.

you can really hear cameron's melodic sensibility and odd Soundgarden-ish chord changes in his songs for Pearl Jam

Cameron has "Mailman", "Fresh Tendrils", "Applebite" and "Room a Thousand Years Wide" to his credit, so fair fennel seeds to him. And your comments have aroused in me something I'd have never expected: interest in 00s PJ.

His stuff on Binaural is partic strong

"Green Disease" off the mostly ignorable Riot Act is great

I didn't realize 'Room a Thousand Years Wide' was Cameron... it's about my favorite Soundgarden song most days.

It's a Thayil lyric, but Cameron wrote the music.