Soundgarden

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.

They should have done more songs with sax on them.

or songs about improbably large rooms

goddamn what a good song

I saw some pics from the memorial & fell apart again. But it did lead me to find a full recording of his Albert Hall show from last year. He sounds so fucking good

https://youtu.be/z6qUbq6JzFo

TOMORROW BEGIIIIINS

NORAH JONES - BLACK HOLE SUN tribute cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQ08Ixczvo

Whole raft of covers here

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/chris-cornell-see-best-tributes-to-soundgarden-singer-w483606

Hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayosR-SJMqw

HI DERE

xp "Get Right" sounds like a Soundgarden song.

whoa, this exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY6cyaUzuU0

that clip Freedom posted is hysterically funny imo, well worth watching

lost me at spoonman

Still cannot really believe it.

clip is funny but sad... natasha schneider too...

It's a parody of a classic Sid-era Pink Floyd interview.

i got a tattoo of the "s" on ULTRAMEGA OK

ULTRAMAURA OK

Rock

\m/ \m/

I put down some of thoughts re Chris Cornell & Seattle bands & my teenage life here, if anyone wants to read

http://tourdefrump.blogspot.com/2017/05/its-just-end-of-world-chris-cornell-and.html?m=1

Wonderful work. :-)

I'm always struck by how few people talk about the Screaming Trees. Lanegan, yeah, but not the band. "Sweet Oblivion" is a great album.

Ha, I've been thinking about them randomly for the past couple of weeks. (In part due to the great new Lanegan album, admittedly.)

Sweet Oblivion and Dust are masterpieces, and a lot of their SST output is brilliant too.

yeah, it was like there wasn't enough room in the wider world for one more Seattle grunge band

Screaming Trees have always been a favorite- Cornell co-produced and did backing vocals on Uncle Anaesthesia.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/inside-chris-cornells-moving-refugee-themed-final-video-w488762

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/chris-cornells-daughter-pens-poignant-fathers-day-note-w488849

'Overfloater' is good. I don't think I've ever made it this far into DOtU before.

i ordered a CD (the old pre-remastered version of Badmotorfinger -- which I think actually sounds better a/b-ing my itunes rip vs. the spotify version of the deluxe remaster) right after his death off Amazon (it was on sale one day for $4)

it's really been rewarding listening to this band with fresh ears, I hadn't actively listened to Soundgarden (with the exception of checking out King Animal a couple times) in so many years, so blown away but how GOOD they were...a lot of this stuff I listened to on the car radio or cassette player or a cheapo boombox in someone's apartment or dorm, now listening on good headphones, the rhythm section is such so top notch and Kim was heads above any other guitarist of this era, in terms of having chops but not being a wanker and also using a lot of weird tunings and dissonance and odd time signature riffs that are somehow as infectious as 70s rock

and Cornell...man just a real rock singer that can fucking go out there and GET IT IN like a 70s dude

yep

yeah, and even a lot of the popular retro 70s-styled rock acts that plopped out after the turn of the century never had guys who could wail vocally, they were almost always working with a limited toolbox.

the weird tunings really opened up so many sonic possibilities. when I was learning guitar, Soundgarden were some of the earliest riffs I learned, and I remember learning "Mailman" and "4th of July" and how fun those were to play due to the really weird tunings and unusual finger positioning. always purposeful, like Mailman sounds so fat because the tuning has the A and D strings detuned and set to the same note so it's essentially fattening the high note of the octave, while the E string is detuned and serves as the low octave note. and the tuning allows you to have a Drop D type setup, fingerwise (only with a lower tuning and fatter sound).

yeah i didn't even know about something as routine as drop D until I learned "Outshined"

Badmotorfingers is also kind of more...psychedelic than I thought of them, like I dunno they are traditionally what I think of as a psych band but there's a sorta LSD vibe that hangs over it

They are def psychedelic. I remember the first things I read about them in the Melody Maker circa 91 referred to Thayil's "heavy karmic guitar".

I said something about this way up thread, but they've always reminded me of a very heavy version of early Traffic - the shifting overcast-sky textures of the arrangements, riffs that are complex but not wanky, Cornell's pleading hooks.

God yeah. They would have smashed Paper Sun.

"Mind Riot" kinda felt like a precursor to some of the more atmospheric stuff they did on later albums

That Vedder video making the rounds is cathartic and sad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2GcJ32m13Y

they've always reminded me of a very heavy version of early Traffic

for your consideration, this challop (?) i found on the interweb:

'SG was always more Heart than Sabbath'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY5tDB9mp3c
what a voice

OMG

heavy as fuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkPDK0m8Ir4