Soundgarden

lolol

I think I've written about this previously on ILM, but back in the mid 90s I was in a band that briefly was being courted by a record label in southern California. The head of the label was pals with Chris Cornell and arranged for him to come down and hang out with us. We went out to dinner with Cornell and the label folks and then later hung out with him at his hotel room, mostly drinking beers, shooting the shit, goofing around. For some reason, we ended up watching Barbarella, which happened to be on the hotel tv. Anyway, Cornell was very nice to us, he was a chill, down-to-earth guy. We were of course very star struck. This was shortly after Superunknown came out, so pretty much the height of his career. There was really no reason why he should have to hang out with me and my band friends, but he was perfectly friendly and patient with us, and gave us some good advice about the record biz. I appreciated the fact that he was the one person we were interacting with that didn't come across like he was trying to sucker us in one way or another. He just seemed to really have his shit together and to be enjoying life.

One thing I remember is that in the record label guy's office there was a Christmas photo of Chris Cornell and his wife both in big garish Christmas sweaters with big smiles, very cute. It was nice to know he didn't take himself too seriously and could just be happy and silly, despite the heavy rocker image.

wow that's awesome

he has always seemed very thoughtful. and i love his super dry sarcasm, he has a pretty killer sense of humor like a lot of guys from that scene

possibly the best gif ever, at least for my needs

https://68.media.tumblr.com/ad84d8f2408c29edd533be0ab7e85d3a/tumblr_o4bifeOogB1scx7dho1_400.gif

xps to crut, fwiw

Cornell on "Spoonman"

It's more about the paradox of who (Artis) is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play.[6]

speaking of Beinhorn, this bullshit was still floating around int he '90s:

Jack Endino: I’m not a big fan of the production. It’s okay. It’s kind of noisy now when I listen to it. The production captures a feel, which I think is good, but it’s an odd-sounding record if you listen to it with technical ears

Yeah I really like him with the tan and the shorter hair.. its how I first saw how he looked like I think.

Moodles story confirms my suspicion that he was a really cool guy to be around and not a pretentious asshole like others in the scene.

lol 'my needs'

i don't think it's controversial to say that beinhorn's production was a little stilted, tho i think it mostly works

I can't hear how it's stilted.

it is a bit odd-sounding, it sounded weird to my ears when it came out. Sounds great now.

I think superuknown is the gold standard for 90s big budget rock production

"Material keyboardist producing grunge band" is my idea of a fantastic idea.

the drums in particular are very loud and crunchy, almost distorted, guitars a bit de-emphasized from where they were on Badmotorfinger. It's unusual, but I like it.

xxpost yes mookie my needs

<3

<3

jeezus Down on the Upside was 1996? It feels so much later in my head.

I remember when that came out it felt like there was already this subtle shift in the wind. Hard to put a finger on but I kinda wasn't surprised that was the last album (for a while), but it wasn't just them, more like a collective 'hmm...now what?' (Sadly, that ended up being the dregs of third-wave ska and nu-metal...)

And swing. Don't forget the swing!

yeah ned otm - it was a weird period for a few years there

i just called it high school

Michael Beinhorn is the producer in the infamous Hole drummer story btw, despite having been in material he seems to have been the epitome of the interventionist label producer

lol xp

I remember when that came out it felt like there was already this subtle shift in the wind. Hard to put a finger on but I kinda wasn't surprised that was the last album (for a while), but it wasn't just them, more like a collective 'hmm...now what?' (Sadly, that ended up being the dregs of third-wave ska and nu-metal...)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, May 18, 2017 11:44 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I imagine the Pumpkins losing Jimmy and Jonathan dying that summer cast a pall over it all, a year later all of the leading voices of the early 90s were dead, inactive, or broken up (except Pearl Jam).

for pumpkins fans, maybe. idk that that really registered much w me anyway, pall-wise

i know i'm headed for the bottommmmmmm

Been working on another tribute thing and finding I Awake to be really REALLY difficult to listen to this morning

Yeah, Mailman is pretty underrated, basically a Queens of the Stone Age template.

Every single song on Superunknown is really good and really distinct. A tremendous feat for a fifteen track album.

Goodbye little brother. You're folded in now I'll carry you inside me. Thank you bless you pic.twitter.com/YhkDHATS8t

— Alain Johannes (@AlainJohannes) May 19, 2017

That's nice. Not to derail, but decades ago friends from LA used to tell me stories about what a talent Alain Johannes was.

Yeah, Mailman is pretty underrated, basically a Queens of the Stone Age template.

Agreed the new Ultramega Ok remaster is great

Speaking of Down on the Upside I was stuck yesterday at how good it is, it's really not much of a drop-off at all.... Though... One of it's best songs is not ruined but takes on a lot now :(

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUQNq5FjkT1/

Shot of audioslave getting some air

The second half of Down On The Upside drags a bit (or more to the point there's a big sag in the middle) but the opening seven tracks or so are so great that I'll forgive a lot of what comes afterwards.

"Ty Cobb" and "Blow Up the Outside World" is a hell of a one two punch. Going to spin King Animal later today since I didn't spend enough time with it when it came out.

I realize "4th of July" was about a Cornell acid trip but its lyrics are so vague even they seem extra sad to me now.

Bones Of Birds off King Animal is such a fantastic song, about how you can't protect your kids from losing their innocence

The second half of Down On The Upside drags a bit (or more to the point there's a big sag in the middle) but the opening seven tracks or so are so great that I'll forgive a lot of what comes afterwards.

Down On The Upside is one of the prototypical "too long" albums. If it was 45 minutes it would be considered a classic.

"Non-State Actor" on King Animal is such a "Soundgarden song title", I'm not really able to fully articulate this thought but they had very distinctive song title aesthetics

everything on down on the upside is great but the pacing is terrible. sort of the opposite of superunknown, which is 70 minutes long but every song seems to build on the previous in this really captivating way

I would def listen to a brad-sequenced DOtU

yeah brad u should do that on spotify...

also I had a !!!!! moment when I listened to Louder Than Love....the origin of the James Hetfields "Ye-AH!" OMG at the beginning of "Gun"

srsly though this def sounds like a template of sorts for Black Album and 90s Metallica...I haven't heard them address Soundgarden iirc but Soundgarden def was the grunge band that got respek on their name in metal circles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKSBK-aUKp4

Friends and I saw them on the Upside tour and it definitely felt deflated, like the band had lost some of its will, in contrast to two years earlier when we saw them with NIN at the height of their fame. I wasn't surprised when they disbanded shortly afterward.

As someone who loved Soundgarden in high school but didn't pay much attention to the lyrics aside from the odd cool-sounding phrase or image, it's terribly sad to read through them now in light of the illness he was obviously struggling with his whole life.

tbh i have no idea how i would resequence down on the upside, feel like the band did the best they could with the material

"Non-State Actor" on King Animal is such a "Soundgarden song title", I'm not really able to fully articulate this thought but they had very distinctive song title aesthetics

Incredibly true. They managed an insanely great trick of song titles that weren't entirely po-faced or straightforward, but weren't 'funny' either. More like this captivating blunt wryness that seemed to float in its own zone.

http://pitchfork.com/news/73603-soundgardens-chris-cornells-family-questions-cause-of-death/

from familial experience Ativan can be a motherfucker of a drug

it's such a weird set of songs

xxp

Maura did the man justice, of course.

http://pitchfork.com/features/afterword/10080-why-soundgardens-chris-cornell-was-more-than-just-a-grunge-frontman/