Some months back, Chris Cornell took the first step to undo the self-inflicted damage caused by his god-awful Timbaland-produced solo album Scream: he re-recorded one of its songs as a straightforward soft rock tune. Since then, the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman has taken some considerable steps towards restoring his rocker reputation, including performing John Lennon’s “Imagine” on the September 11th episode of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien and unexpectedly reuniting grunge rock one-off Temple Of The Dog at a recent Pearl Jam concert.

Now comes news that the much maligned Scream will receive a full-blown “rework” to better reflect the rest of Cornell’s easily digested radio-friendly solo discography. Though, Cornell has yet to make any public statement about this, the existence of another re-recorded Scream cut says it all. Listen to this new version of “Never Far Away” and imagine just how positively banal Scream (Naked) will ultimately sound.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is simply irresistible. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

I wouldn’t be shocked if Soundgarden reunited. Everyone else is doing it; Chris Cornell needs to try and get his street cred back; I’m sure Kim Thayil could use a paycheck; and then there was that whole Tadgarden thing. In fact, I’d imagine that, at this point, the biggest impediment to a Soundgarden reunion is the fact that Cornell’s ex-wife, Susan Silver, set up the Tadgarden show, which, presumably, means she’s still involved in the band’s business dealings despite what was reportedly a nasty split with the singer.

Now, all of that being the case… in the words of my associate Gary Suarez, I’ll believe the reunion is happening when “I hear it from Kim Thayil’s hairy lips.”

And Shinedown singer Brent Smith, whom Blabbermouth tells me claims he heard from “someone… specifically in their organization” that the reunion is happening, ain’t no Kim Thayil. His lips aren’t even hairy.

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In a not-that-surprising turn of events that I predicted back when musicians first starting jumping on the Twitter train, NIN frontman Trent Reznor — former Twitter king — is now railing against the service, though not for the reason I initially thought. According to a lengthy blog post by Trent on the NIN.com forum [via Metal Insider], the Internet haterati and psychopaths appear to have gotten the best of Trent, and he’ll be pulling out of social networking entirely for the time being:

I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it’s now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule.

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So I started getting down with tweeting yesterday, and the verdict is………IT’S SILLY!!!

(but you knew that already)

My fave exchange thus far was when I asked Chris Cornell if he ever rocks Timberlands, cause that would be SO ironic, and he replied that haha yes he had 3 pairs, to which I told him that I actually like the Nelly Furtado cover version of “Jesus Christ Pose”, to which he didn’t reply. Naturally this morning when good ‘ol CC tweeted complaints about having long hair/short hair/hair, I suggested he shave his pubes. Haven’t heard back yet but obvs I’ll let you know when/if I do.

Cause of course you care, right???

When Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed mentioned that he was trying Vietnamese food last night for the first time and asked what he should have, I couldn’t resist suggesting that he try the cream of sum yung gai….to which he responded that my mother recommended the same thing! Mom — how could you??

And so perhaps I could become addicted to this terse, infantile format of communicating the random thoughts off the top of your head — but let’s hope not. What I’d really like to do is harrass as many “celebrities” as possible, and get them to respond to my inane baiting… Star-tweeting, if you will?

Follow our misadventures, and speak up!

(and after you add us, add Valient Thorr too, cause he’s hilarious!)

-KW

Tonight, Gavin Rossdale will be playing New York’s Gramercy Theatre as part of a May/June U.S. tour supporting his 2008 solo effort Wanderlust. Those of you familiar with this record or its corresponding singles know that the former Bush frontman has departed significantly from the raucous yet melodic post-grunge of his old band, opting for a softer, essentially adult contemporary sound not entirely dissimilar to Chris Cornell’s post-Audioslave offering Carry On. While this description likely wont appeal to you metal maniacs (I sure as hell didn’t buy it), here are a few reasons why you should load up on alcohol and catch one of the upcoming dates.
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Though recently convicted of murder, Phil Spector is regarded as one of the greatest music impresarios of the 20th century. His “Wall Of Sound” production style made him stand out from the pack, though the final results were not always met with appreciation by the artists with which he worked–perhaps the most noteworthy of these dissatisfied parties being The Beatles. Paul McCartney in particular loathed Spector’s approach on Let It Be, and a very different version of the album appeared in 2003. Whether or not such a revision will occur with Chris Cornell’s Timbaland-produced Scream remains to be seen, but an undeniably rock-centric version of his latest single certainly raises the question.

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…or at least, he still talks to Kim Thayil, as evidenced in one of the former Soundgarden frontman’s tweets:

Kim just told me that it was pre 1990 that we played Ann Arbor at a place called the Blind Pig. Time flys!

So yeah. Let the reunion rumors run amok!

-GS

Chris Cornell has taken quite the public beating lately, from Trent Reznor’s Twitter taunting to the generally negative response to his recent Timbaland-produced album Scream. (Check out what our own Sammy O’Hagar had to say about it.) Well, perhaps on the advice of some stodgy A&R type at the bloated major label he happens to be signed to, he’s finally decided to respond to some of the criticism via the cutting edge music periodical known as The Washington Post. Below are some noteworthy extracts:

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As reported here previously, on Tuesday March 24, 3/4 of the incomparable Soundgarden reunited onstage at a Seattle concert venue. Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd tore through a short but potent set that featured three classic tracks: “Hunted Down”, “Nothing to Say”, and “Spoonman”. On the microphone was none other than MR. TAD DOYLE, the Seattle legend that previously brought us TAD and HOG MOLLY, two heavy ass projects that demolished any attempt to define the so-called grunge sound. (His latest endeavor BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH continues in that awesome tradition.)

Some reporters would have hounded absent frontman Chris Cornell for comment (full disclosure: I sent him an unanswered tweet), but being me I knew the man I really needed to talk to was Tad himself. Thankfully, he was gracious enough to reply to my inquiry and we efficiently arranged a call. If I learned anything from my twenty minutes on the line with him last week, it’s that your musical heroes can sometimes turn out to be totally awesome, down-to-earth people. Tad Doyle is a rock star devoid of ego and bursting with passion and sincerity under an otherwise laid-back personality. As you’ll discover for yourself below, he totally fucking rules.

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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?

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Speaking of Chris Cornell’s epic fail…

You may remember that Trent Reznor took a shot at Cornell over Twitter last month. Not content to leave “Fuck You” enough alone, Reznor has now launched what is pretty much the funniest, if not most convincing, April Fool’s prank of the year, offering an alleged download of a new album, The Strobe, on the NIN website. Here’s a description of the album:

To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.

Your email will be kept confidential and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it.

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The infamous Now That’s What They Call Music comp, now it’s thirtieth iteration (!), will never stop selling. Nor will Hannah Montana. Given, it’s tough for any true metal band to crack the Billboard 200, but Mastodon did just once again that by notching a #11 debut with Crack the Skye, beat out metal-wise only by Papa Roach (ugh). Elsewhere, we got some surprises from Chris Cornell, Twiztid (!?) and others. Sales figures for those and other notable hard rock and metal releases after the jump.

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OK, so far it seems like a one-off thing, but how incredibly awesome must it have been for Seattle concertgoers to witness 3/4 of Soundgarden reunited onstage together with Tad Doyle this past Tuesday night? (Thanks to fellow twitterer Mark Carrass for alerting me to this. Social networking fucking rules.) Sure, the (literally) massive grunge veteran doesn’t have the vocal range of Chris Cornell, but watching this sweet video footage of the band playing “Nothing To Say” makes it evident that that’s beside the point. You wont have to dig much deeper on YouTube to catch the clip for “Spoonman” featuring former Cornell cohort Tom Morello on rhythm guitar. Fortunately, no Audioslave songs were performed.

Mr. Cornell could not be reached for comment (I tried!), as he is currently in Chile in support of his latest solo album which nobody seems to like.

-GS

[Gary Suarez feels as if a weight has been lifted. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Headbanger’s Blog just alerted me to the fact that Trent Reznor allegedly left the following message on Twitter:

“You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.”

All I have to say is this:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

As you were.

-AR

P.S. I know what you’re thinking: “What the fuck does that picture of Eliza Dushku have to do with Trent Reznor or Chris Cornell?” And the answer is, as far as I can tell, nothing. I did a Google image search for “Trent Reznor” “Chris Cornell” in hopes of finding a photo of the two singers in friendlier times, and instead the picture of Dushku sticking out her chest came up. And since she’s really hot, I thought, hey, why the heck not?

Well, the day has finally arrived. That’s right, Internets: Chris Cornell’s new solo album, the Timbaland-produced Scream, is now available wherever people buy music these days. For me, that place is Amazon, where the MP3 version is already at the super-promotional-discount-to-inflate-Soundscan-numbers-price of $2.99 USD. Now you too can empathize with Sammy O’Hagar and hear what promises to be the Now And Zen of the former Soundgarden frontman’s career – minus the hits, of course!

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Let me begin by saying that I thoroughly enjoy Timbaland. His work with Ludacris, Jay-Z, and especially Missy Elliot has yielded great, forward-thinking results for his genre of choice. Yes, metal faithful, I think Justin Timberlake’s work with him is damn fine pop music as well. However, Timbaland’s best work has been within the confines of pop music, and I have yet to have a problem with that. His first foray into rock – or rock music as I (and many others, in that his work with No Doubt, Duran Duran, and OneRepublic haven’t exactly strayed far from the bands’ roots) know it is a spectacular, bordering on legendary, misfire. Chris Cornell – Soundgarden’s former golden-throated front man that has spent the better part of this decade coasting with Audioslave – picked perhaps the worst partner for his gravelly shout on his latest (even terribly titled) solo album, Scream. And though I am far from one to decry someone’s sense of artistic exploration, I must say that this one is hilariously misguided. The only thing keeping this album from being a so-horrifically-bad-it’s-good triumph is the familiar sound of Cornell’s shriek over a terribly mismatched backing track, a ploy seemingly utilized for the sake of a desperate stab at commercial relevancy. He’s a long way from Louder than Love, Badmotorfinger, and Superunknown, and it’s hard to see how he’d be able to make his way back.

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As threatened previously, I have decided to see Chris Cornell live in concert this Spring, my perverse fascination getting the best of me. Apparently, he did a handful of North American gigs last year, including an autumnal jaunt through select Western U.S. and Canadian cities. From glancing at some of those setlists, it appears that most of those performances were exclusive showcases of material from Scream, the delayed Timbaland-produced album now due out this March. (Those who buy a ticket to these shows will get a free digital copy of the album upon release.)

What’s truly unsettling, however, is what else I stumbled upon in my Intarweb searching: a Verizon-sponsored website that allows fans to create horrible mash-ups of new Cornell tunes and Soundgarden classics. Trust me: you will never think of “Jesus Christ Pose” the same way again.

-GS

Yeah, me too. That was pretty cool. Well, anyway… here’s a clip of Soundgarden performing “Outshined” live in 1991.

-VN

Is Twitter the new Facebook (if Facebook was, in fact, the new MySpace)? MetalSucks isn’t gonna wait to find out, and has now officially joined 2008 by signing up for Twitter (follow us!). In case you’re over the age of 20 and not yet hip to Twitter, Twitter is a social networking site that’s basically just the “status update” section of Facebook with everything else stripped away. Users can update their profiles with short messages and links with quick updates about what they’re currently doing (140 characters or less), from a web interface or from their mobile phone. Musicians have begun dabbling in the world of Twitter, and, naturally, this provides loads of entertainment for us.

Aside from the obvious humor inherent in a bunch of br00tal metal dudes doing something that’s called a “Tweet,” some notable metal musicians are already ensconced in the world of Twitter. And what’s cool about it is that you know, at least until marketing department heads become hip to it, that you’re getting a direct link to the actual person. When Vernon Reid Tweets about the guy that designed his custom pedalboard, you know it’s him. When Fred Durst Tweets about a tattoo of Frankenstein he’s getting… uh, you know it’s him, for better or worse. Let’s look at what some notable quotables in the metal world are saying on Twitter:

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By now, y’all are more than aware that Chris Cornell has been recording with hip-hop producer Timbaland. The consensus around the blogosphere has been that this is going to be a fiery trainwreck of Mariah Carey Glitter proportions. Now, throwing fuel on the burning upholstery, Cornell solo concerts to promote Scream (as in, what you’ll probably do when you eventually hear this album) have been announced. I know I should just go hide in my secret underground bunker with my special lady and repopulate society until this whole thing blows over – but I think I actually want to see this disaster LIVE!

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