Soundgarden

WFT? I can't believe this. He was a genuinely nice guy, great singer. Always struck me as one of the 90s grunge folks who seemed the most together. I'm stunned.

Holy shit.

i always loved this song from the LOUDEST LOVE ep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktJ3pgdEHy4

this b-side to 'flower' was good too, very eerie and weird (it's from the SCREAMING LIFE sessions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpuiJPtE4a4

Amazing that Lanegan is outliving them all. First grunge show I saw was in 1989, Mudhoney with Soundgarden in support. Good times.

I saw Soundgarden co-headlining with Voivod, with Prong as the opener. Cornell walked on our shoulders and hands.

Damn, I haven't really listened to them in years but those 90s albums were my shit when I was 16-17.

Never mentioned it on this thread, but I bought the remix/remaster of Ultramega OK when it came out earlier this year and holy shit, it's amazing. If you haven't heard it, buy it.

xxxpost Not the same scene, but I was just thinking about how amazing it is that Reznor outlasted all of these guys.

Years back I wrote up the three times I saw SG in 1992 for a blog series I was doing -- good memories all

https://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/not-just-the-ticket-29-soundgarden-january-29-1992/

https://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/not-just-the-ticket-43-soundgarden-april-25-1992/

https://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/not-just-the-ticket-58-lollapalooza-92-sept-12-1992/

Favorite by default was the first time, but they were all fantastic.

Really gutted about this, Superunknown is one of my favourite rock albums. R.I.P.

I can't... he should have been making music for a long long time.

This sucks.

Superunknown was a monster of a record. I remember listening to it the day it came out and just being bowled over by its power. I wish rock records still sounded that good.

I cannot understate the totemic importance that Badmotorfinger had upon my adolescent life. It's probably only second to Physical Graffiti in the number of times I've replayed it.

To my mind it's still very weird and random -- in a good way -- how Soundgarden ended up on A&M in 1989. I mean, nobody could have predicted exactly what was to come, and all labels by default are chasing cash as much as A&R dreams, but that was such a strange outlier for the time in terms of anything major label, in terms of the cover aesthetic, the actual content of the songs on Louder Than Love, etc.

I play Soundgarden on my iPod more than most bands. They are my go-to "I am so tired I need some ear-aching raaaargh to get me through the commute to/from work". They never don't thrill me.

Can't believe this news. Saw SG for the first time only a few years ago with Nine Inch Nails - both bands killed it. NIN I wasn't surprised put on a good show, but Soundgarden was way better than I expected. RIP

Man, I just put on Badmotorfinger when I got home last night; this feels so eerie. That album and Superunknown are so classic for me.

I would say along with Jane's, Faith No More, Living Colour, they were an incredibly important band for us suburban weirdos in that sliver of time just before Nirvana up turned the entire apple cart...I road my bike to the store the day that "Badmotorfinger" came out, I couldn't wait for that record and I loved it.

I can't say I've listened in a long a time but they were such a huge band to me. RIP.

Listening to them this morning, and so much of it now sounds like an obvious cry for help (a la Nirvana and Alice in Chains).

listening to the day i tried to live and pretty noose for like the millionth time. i will always be amazed at how he turned those riffs into killer radio-friendly rock songs.

Shocking sad news.

First time I saw them I remember I was on crutches, at Pearl St. in Northampton 1989 and then a bunch of times in the next few years. A bud and I kind of snuck onto their bus (!) at a show somewhere in NJ and were scowled at by temp-bassist Jason Everman, but C. Cornell was friendly and welcoming.

At an impressionable age Cornell and co. relieved me of some stupid art/punk hangups I had about the music I most love—Led Zeppelin in particular—and in this regard for a brief shining moment were punker than punk.

RIP

RIP

suicide is the worst, i feel so powerless whenever i hear someone took their own life. no one should ever be compelled to do so.

And he has a kid, too. The pain Chris must have been in, to push him to kill himself even though he'd be leaving his son behind, is just unimaginable to me.

Has said cause been confirmed?

Every time I hear of something like this it renews my terror of depression (which I've had minor brushes with), that it can make someone ostensibly so successful and fulfilled do that to themself.

cornell had three kids :(

xpost yes—"band on the neck" does not nec. mean suicide. Sources on this?

xps I've seen it in a few sources - The Mirror, in the UK - but nowhere, I guess, 'official'

The reports I've seen - incl NYT and Independent - say that it is being investigated as an apparent suicide but not more than that.

I'm sorry i jumped to a conclusion.

Yeah, I think that's the reason for the odd language of the police report -- it's very likely to have been a suicide, but band and family didn't see it coming, so there will be careful investigation.

Cornell i think caught a bit more flak than deserved sometimes bc of his vocal style, especially in recent years. i mean i wasn't familiar enough w/his work post-soundgarden to say anything about it, but Badmotorfinger/Superunknown are all-time classics. and Temple of the Dog was probably the album that hit home the hardest for me. And it does now with this news. like i said upthread i mean it's just ridiculous that this whole slew of charismatic frontmen are gone for reasons that are all too common.

just heard your spot on 5live stevie.

v. nice sir.

Say Hello 2 Heaven is a wonderful song, and the alt versions on the TOTD reissue from last year are really fantastic.

xp haha did i say "fuck"? i was trying so hard not to say "fuck"

didn't hear it all, had to leave the kitchen.
no swearing during the part i heard.

totally stunned and bereft right now

been texting with mr veg & another friend, we're all just like wtf

cried all the way to work :(

fucking weird as shit, i had a dream about Soundgarden two nights ago.

I was playing basmotorfinger really. fucking. loud. on the commute to work this morning. Mind Riot slayed me.

Yeah, as mentioned, that song's always been my favorite and learning whatever we're learning about this, those lyrics start taking on even sharper edges. It's less about any sort of 'prediction,' more a real capturing of a mindset.

listening to down on the upside, which i think i secretly like better than superunknown

he was def the last rock god, now so many bands try so hard to be that but he just was that

It's less about any sort of 'prediction,' more a real capturing of a mindset.

I think it's also pretty explicitly about Andy Wood, too.

Weirdly, their cover of Spinal Tap's "Big Bottom" was the first time I'd heard of Tap, so I'm grateful to them for that introduction. Did they ever return to doing silly stuff like that? I get the impression it all got a lot more serious from Badmotorfinger on, but I was off the bus by then.

chris cornell was a rock god bc he had that voice and just easily slipped into the role. definitely the best rock star to come out of the Seattle scene imo. the other guy who comes to mind when I think of him unfortunately is Michael Hutchence, just a similarly huge figure who owned his role but apparently had something building inside him for so long.

i didn't really know a lot about black sabbath (solo ozzy was sort of hogging the spotlight then) and their cover of 'into the void (sealth),' fnm's 'war pigs' and (sorry) ugly kid joe's 'sweet leaf' were my primer

still prefer soundgarden's Into The Void and Faith No More's War Pigs over the originals. Using Chief Sealth's speech on INto The Void was an inspired move.

"Only the lyrics of 'New Damage', which are about how the American people have become unbelievably complacent about the way that the US government is eroding more and more basic human rights, could be described as particularly direct." - Cornell quoted in Melody Maker, 1991

maura otm - soundgarden was my gateway into Sabbath in high school

i love that Into The Void cover

The wreck is coming down / Get out, before you drown.