Soundgarden

I've heard a couple of tracks and I'm still not feeling it. Cornell's vox sound really ragged and weird.

but Bee OK otm, its sounds good, just not great.

i think the full album is pretty great. its what the album after down on the upside would always have sounded like imho. good and psychedelic.

playing live on BBC 2 tonight - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nw95g

XP - Stevie, I noticed your review and was glad to see the word psychedelic, are there any tracks in the same ballpark as She Likes Surprises or Switch Opens?

more a darker, heavier psych than 'she likes surprises', but lots of lovely complex, karmic kim thayil guitar stuffs. and cornell's in fine, fine voice.

I'm liking this a lot more than I expected to, four tracks in anyway. Nothing to make me cringe like 'Live to Rise' so far.

Yeah, Live To Rise is awful, and made me fear the worst.

Listened to the whole thing on the train this morning. The only songs I remember after a single play-through are the first two (which have been streaming) and the last one. And the first two sound more like Chickenfoot songs than Soundgarden songs, mostly due to generic hard-rock riffage and Cornell's vocals having degenerated into a Sammy Hagar-ish gravelly howl. But later in the album, he seems to recover his range somewhat.

Weird trivia note: This is the first Soundgarden studio album not to have a band photo on the cover.

i could never figure out if the weird distorted face on the Superunknown cover was Cornell or not

"Non-State Actor" is the first leak from the new one that i've found encouraging at all. curious to see the writing credits, sounds like it could be a Ben Shepherd joint.

This is an unmemorable dud of a record. I know I shouldn't have expected anything else, but I had hopes. It's not a shamefully horrific album, but it is a blandly sad one.

it's so strange because i don't know why they would do this and not go all in creatively. it's not like being the most accessible Soundgarden they could be means a fraction of what it did commercially in the '90s, they may as well play to the base.

Tracks I've heard are slightly on the bland side. Better than AIC's comeback at least.

AIC did better than anyone could've expected given the personnel handicap though!

Yeah, despite Cantrell being the principal song writer it really proved how vital Layne was to the band.

it's so strange because i don't know why they would do this and not go all in creatively.

Probably because they're doing it for the money, and their label wanted something that can play on the radio. They could play to the base, sure, but Soundgarden got forgotten pretty quickly and it seems like they were only rediscovered by doom metal dudes over the past few years. So some base. Their market today, as far as their record label bosses is concerned, is pretty much dad rock.

That's the position I'm taking, anyway, and it doesn't sound nearly as disappointing through that filter.

yeah but a) nobody listens to rock radio and b) reunited SG would probably sell the same number of albums and concert tickets in 2012 with or without rock radio hits. "Live To Rise" was #4 on the rock charts and the official soundtrack single from the biggest blockbuster movie of the year, but that doesn't mean it really registers beyond (or even among) the band's fanbase in any meaningful way. reunited Alice and Stone Temple Pilots and "Sublime With Rome" had rock radio hits too. Soundgarden at least had enough of a creative legacy that they could've nurtured that among their fanbase. Superunknown was a pretty weird album to represent a band's commercial peak!

i don't think bands in Soundgarden's current position really get told what to do creatively by labels anyway. i imagine they made the album they wanted to make, or thought people wanted from them, without being forced or led by anyone.

just to be clear, the album's much, much better than Live To Rise, even if it doesn't set you on fire.

yeah i'm assuming that has to be the case. should really not post much here til the album drops anyway.

a) nobody listens to rock radio

Nobody you know listens to rock radio. As someone who works for a hard rock/metal label, let me assure you that getting songs on the radio is a hugely important part of promoting a band.

::long sigh:: listen i prob listen to rock radio more than 99% of the people on this board and realize it does have a more significant listenership than most of them would like to believe. i'm just saying, in the larger context of terrestrial radio and popular music as a whole, it matter so so so so much less to so fewer people than it did the last time Soundgarden made an album.

especially for an established band like Soundgarden.

the audience of all of atlanta's rock stations combined isnt as big as the audience for its single biggest hiphop station. my understanding is that's basically a nationwide trend

yeah definitely

This is a subject for another thread, but I can't figure out hip-hop's business model.

Yeah, I can't believe people pay money to hear that crap either.

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsK/9460-19426.jpg

i like this record!

i mean half of it is the pleasure of hearing thayil, shepherd, and cameron play together on a new record

the audience of all of atlanta's rock stations combined isnt as big as the audience for its single biggest hiphop station. my understanding is that's basically a nationwide trend

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, November 7, 2012 12:58 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is not true where i live, but minneapolis and atlanta are like opposites

anyway this record has some good playing on it! vox/lyrics mostly suck but yeah i'm digging hearing kim playing again....about as good as you could expect

i mean half of it is the pleasure of hearing thayil, shepherd, and cameron play together on a new record

This is all I really care about from a SG reunion.

yes! hearing cameron/shepherd hold it down and thayil soar is something else. cornell isn't half-bad either. i've only listened to KA a couple of times so far, but nothing has really hit me as being jarringly bad yet. he's at least a lot less creepy than he was w/ timbaland, and not as sentimental/transparent as he was with audioslave. so that's something.

chris cornell is a horrible person

seeing them tonight. stoked.

also finally bought the reissue of Superunknown (remaster isn't spectacular but lost my 18-year old version and wanted the bonus disc) but now on re-reading the lyrics to Mailman part of me wonders if it's about salad tossing o_O

they were awesome in london earlier in the summer - played superunknown in its entirety (save Half, disappointingly).

yeah my friend went last night and said it was Superunknown and BMF heavy, which is music to my ears.

if they play "Limo Wreck" and "Mailman" I will lose my shit. i've always dreamed of hearing those in a live setting. it's an outdoor show too so it won't be sound bouncing off walls and make me go deaf.

so...great

haha!

cornell doesn't seem to have aged a day, does he?

Saw them here in September last year, what a set! They kicked off with 'Incessant Mace' and kept dipping deep in the catalogue even as they played most of the hits. They're not much of a stage presence, but hey. The one they didn't play was 'Black Hole Sun', and as I was leaving the moaning of punters around me was something else. I mean you paid €60 to see a band play one song? Feck off.

It's a shame though because he can actually sing that song live now, unlike back in the day!

my only complaint (if it's even a complaint) is that they were a little 'hits' heavy. I woulda loved to hear "Mailman" or "Limo Wreck". but who gives a shit really?

this is the reason I love outdoor shows. hearing "Fell on Black Days" as the sun was setting = <3

Saw them last week too. I was there mostly for NiN, but it was cool to see SG back together. Cornell was in great voice. I don't know how well-regarded the Down on the Upside era is, by them or the fans, but I was disappointed they skipped the entire album since the show was pretty much all hits anyway.

he played "Burden in My Hand" and "Pretty Noose" last night, which surprised me given how static their setlist had been over the last few weeks. I was glad - don't love Upside, but I love those two songs, especially the latter.

I was quite surprised at how full-voiced he sounded on "Beneath the Wheel". No, it wasn't as powerful a wail as it was in the Ultramega O.K. days, and he had to strategically take breaths to get through it. But there was power behind that falsetto, rather than wispiness. For a guy that's pushing 50 that was technically a baritone anyway, to hit stratopheric notes like that is extremely impressive.

He did a helluva "Fell on Black Days" too!

Those are exactly the two songs I would have liked to hear. Aw well. "Fell" was the highlight of the show for me too.

Cornell won me over on the last reunion tour -- all I needed was to hear 'Like Suicide' live again and I was back to full fangirldom

Just bought Screaming Life/Fopp on vinyl and it is really incredible how these two EPs framed my entire way of listening to music. And I'm still hearing new things in both (and in "Ultramega OK," and "Louder Than Love," and "Badmotorfinger," and the Temple of the Dog album too)