WHAT’S MORE SHOCKING AND APPALLING: THE NEW CHRIS CORNELL ALBUM IN ITSELF OR THE FACT THAT HE’S SOLD OUT TWO NIGHTS AT ONE OF NEW YORK CITY’S BIGGEST VENUES?
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 1:49pm by Kip Wingerschmidt
I noticed yesterday in the Village Voice that the former Soundgarden/Audioslave frontman turned top-40 hip-hop beat crooner (whose real name is Christopher John Boyle, btw) will be playing a show tomorrow night at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino & Resort, but before I could even come up with a snappy headline mentioning Cornell’s show as a “bad gamble” or some such other terrible pun, I noticed just a few scant pages away that the once-grunge superstar wailer has two sold-out shows scheduled for next week at New York’s own Webster Hall, which is a huge general admission venue. (hmm…for some reason it says sold out in the Voice but it seems there may be some tix still available online — dunno)
And I immediately had to ask myself, who the hell is comprising that massive audience?
Obviously any self-respecting Soundgarden fan must have issues with the direction that Cornell’s creative voice has taken — how could you not have reservations about the singer’s collaboration with Timbaland? Sure, it’s a unique and unexpected choice, but at the end of the day, the results sound grody, to put it mildly.
Naturally there have to be die-hard old-school fans who don’t care if the new material is, well, shite, and simply wanna see the voice physically come out of the man himself (even though it’s like comparing apples and kumquats), but can there really be so many in that population as to sell out two nights at a sizeable venue? I guess the jury’s still out on whether the shows are in fact sold out, but one’s still gotsa wonder who’s legitimately psyched about these performances.
I guess that leaves newbies that have likely never heard Soundgarden (or Audioslave, who I could pretty much care less about), and this begs the question, how does Cornell’s new material stand up as pop music on its own? I couldn’t actually make it through the tracks on his MySpace page without simultaneously vomiting and sharting my pants, so maybe somebody else can chime in from a strictly pop=music perspective…
It also seems that anyone who has bought an expensive ticket to see Cornell singer to a sampler’s back-up beats will also receive a digital copy of his entire new album — but wait, so does that suggest that the folks who are going to see Cornell live likely haven’t heard the new album yet?
Holy moly, are they in for a surprise!
While we’re remembering the good ol’ daze, here’s one of my very favorite Soundgarden tunes, the inimitable “Jesus Christ Pose”……if you haven’t heard the entire album from whence this one came, get the fuck out of my car.
SOUNDGARDEN — “Jesus Christ Pose”, from Badmotorfinger (1991)
-KW
Webster Hall isn’t THAT big is it?I was under the impression it only house about 700 people.
People will go see him regardless of the new album. He’s been in two hugely successful bands and has had a few radio singles from solo records prior to ‘Scream’. (I hear he even does Temple Of The Dog stuff in his sets.).
Cornell is a legacy act now. It doesn’t matter if he ever writes a great song ever again. He’ll be able to sell out mid-sized concert venues for a long time.
When I saw him at the Weenie Roast he did maybe 1 or 2 new songs. He did alot from all his different projects thou. And his band was tight as hell. I thought he was really impressive. His voice was stonger then the previous couple times I saw him with Audioslave. So as curious as I was to hear this new and different music him and timberland came up with. I was hoping at least it would have some solid songwriting, And I actually like Justin Timberlakes CD for what it is. I just didnt hear any solid songs. I gave it a chance thou. However I think the concert still worth seeing~
lol @ scream’s sales figures
Q. “who the hell is comprising that massive audience?”
A. “chicks”
(if his US fanbase is anything like his UK one)
Exactly what McHammered said. I saw him this winter and he was amazing. Played 2 songs max off his album, the rest was all old Soundgarden/Audioslave stuff. His voice was amazing live.
I’m just of the opinion that because everyone’s hating on him he must be the best thing since sliced bread, at least the man has chosen to do something different, meanwhile on metalsucks we’re all still masturbating to the same albums that have been put out twenty times in a row – see cannibal corpse, or sucking off for anyone that’ll write a column for you – see god forbid.
For a site that prizes itself on it’s unique direction Metalsucks sure does like to put the blinkers on and become part of the herd, it sure is easy to become partisan when it suits you.
Bottom line is Cornell is still one of the best male singers on the planet, that’s why people are going to see him, whether or not he’s released an album that the metal community dislikes because it’s no longer catering for the same audience of fucktards that can barely wipe their arses properly let alone dictate to the rest of the world what they “should” be listening to, as they so like to pine on about.
I actually don’t mind the song Scream by Cornell. Maybe I’m just a gigantic faggot. I don’t like it enough to bother listening to the rest of the album though.
Well said Owen… ya I am down to check out different stuff.. get tired of just listening to 1 style of music PERIOD! However metal is my 1st love… Anyways it seems many of the metal community is very narrow minded these days.
Yeah, its crazy, people coming to a metal website and generally not liking an ex-metal singer attempting some half-assed hip hop stuff. Doesn’t make sense at all! Cause obviously, if you like other types of music, that automatically means you’ll like Cornell’s attempt at Timberlake.
Just to add further fuel to the fire, despite loving Soundgarden and Rage, I found their union in Audioslave to be fairly dull.
I’d still go see him live tho if he came by, simply cause of the Soundgarden and Euphoria Morning stuff.
@ Owen
I don’t think the fact that Scream is a stylistic departure is the issue here for the site, Cornell has always evolved his sound. The problem is that it’s a really bad album. Not middle of the road like Carry On but pungent, undiluted bad.
Live? Yes, well people should get a range of songs from his impressive and diverse back catalogue which is great. Unfortunately here in the UK he played the whole Scream album through with five other songs tagged at the end. Still, I’m not writing him off yet – all the best artists have some howlers in the closet and the genius of Superunknown buys a lot of credit as far as I’m concerned.
selling out venues in nyc is not all that impossible; not only are you drawing in customers from the entire metro area (long island, connecticut, westchester/rockland maybe some of nj although he’s playing montclair later this month, it looks like), you have a huge concentration of record label / media types who still live here (even with both those businesses being the first to *really* collapse during the current economic free-fall) and who can get on the guest list for whatever reason. i’d start to wonder if the sellouts were taking place in similar-sized venues in, say, pittsburgh or detroit.
I saw Cornell ’bout two weeks a go, and the show was excellent. Really he still has a great voice and certainly he knows how to rock.
He played some new songs, but i believe that when you hear them live they don’t sound so shitty (to me), like they do on the album. The show was almost 3 hours long and he played several Soundgarden and Audioslave songs, and some other solo material. Really if someone can go, he must go.
Just for the record I understand why people dont dig his new music. I was just making a general statement metal fans seem to be pretty closed minded. I realize this is a “metal” sight.. And dont expect all or any to be into what timberlake does. However my point was is the taste in general seem pretty narrow.. Not just here but other sights also.
Chris Cornell said himself, he doesn’t feel like he has anything to lose on solo albums.
He hasn’t given us any reason to BELIEVE he sold out his integrity. He said previously, during his time with Audioslave, that his favourite type of music AND singers has always been soul/r&b, it just happens that he’s always been making rock music.
Secondly, as I said at first, what’s he got to lose? Solo albums to a dedicated, talented musician are like winning a sports season. Ok, great, you did well, you won. So what? You get a couple months grace period and then you have to defend it successfully or lose it. To those that lose, so what? Shrug it off and try again in a few months.
Same with Chris; Euphoria Morning was amazing, Carry On was quite good, Scream is quite poor. It’s certainly not the worst you can expect. So what? He’ll either pursue it, in which case we are free not to support him, or he’ll try something else that we may or may not like.
It’s no biggie until he starts appearing on commercials.
Webster Hall Can easily be “Sold Out”…Especially when a a major label knows they are releasing a turd and want to still be able to boast, “2 SOLD OUT SHOWS IN NYC” in their press release,
so the label will just buy up all the available tickets: Voila :”Sold Out” show.
Consider this: Why would the label bother to pay for a full page ad promoting a show that is already “sold out” (ie: theoretically, there is no more money to be made in sales to say…pay for the ad itself) unless its just to be able to brag a pre-fabricated “sell out show” in the press?
The Strokes did the same back when they suddenly “sold out” 2 nights when no musician in any decent NYC band had even heard of them …
this album has been marketed creatively. this includes bundling tickets with album sales so nobody can tell how many of either one is really sold, as well as gerrymandering the sold-out status with online reserves or whatever, as razzo described.
whether KW (not to mention McH) is on the payroll or not, this negative publicity is just solidifying the impression that cornell should be taken seriously– as seriously as celine dion or tom jones etc– by a crowd of 40yo housewives who thought he was cute in 1992. at least reznor and MJK will have someone cool to banter with in vegas in 2020.
These NYC shows have been genuinely sold out for some time. One sold out before the other, but there’s now not a seat to be had unless you go to the scalpers.
However, it’s interesting how many people (including the usual anti-Cornell brigade, oh hello Maura from Idolator…) are so intent on trying to sabotage CC’s credibility online that they will gladly make themselves look like jealous schoolkids. It doesn’t make sense that ordinary people would try to do that just because his new album ain’t their kinda thing. Got to be another reason. I wonder how many of them are being persuaded to do so by his vicious ex-wife? If we’re talking “creative marketing” here, just a thought.
Wow, the long arm of the ex is everywhere! I hear she has many, many friends in the biz and is now cashing in on some favors.
Funny. I was looking online at all the NYC reviews that are suddenly popping up and recognizing the hand of someone who is very jealous that Chris has moved on and is, god forbid, HAPPY!
I was not so sure about the collaboration between Cornell and Timbaland, but after actually spinning the disc a few times I am totally diggin’ it. Of course I have no music prejudices. Learning that there are a lot of music snobs who think they know it all when it comes to any sort of music. Some self respecting Soundgarden fans are fine with this change of pace and proud of Cornell for not giving a shit what the haters say. GO CHRIS!
There is so much crap being thrown around about Chris Cornell, you would think it was a major freaking earth shattering piece of history. Instead of a small time smear campaign by a few friends of the metal loving crowd. Out with the silver of old.
“Some self respecting Soundgarden fans are fine with this change of pace and proud of Cornell for not giving a shit what the haters say. GO CHRIS!”
- Go find somewhere else to hang out Chris. Your new stuff sucks.
This is why metal, in fact DOES suck..because in the metal world everything is about being a PURIST. Its not about the creation of art anyway you choose make it..the individuals interpretation of what they wanted to do. Sure, it’d be cool if chris cornell made superunknown 20 more times, but honestly….variety is the spice of life. If you are a real fan, continue supporting him. I do believe in construcive criticism, but to competely knock his new project is going beyond that into just complete elitist territory. At the edn of the day, CC doesnt give a fuck what this website thinks..hes an artist and he’s going to create what he wishes regardless of how many people keep begging for a SG reunion you know aint gonna happen–Itd be a big wankfest if it did happen so let SG in our minds as a great thing the way it was so it doesnt get ruined. Lay it to rest and carry on