MetalSucks

Unless your New Years Eve revelry landed you in county lock-up or somewhere else without Internet access (or you just own an iPhone), you’ve likely heard the fantastic albeit unsurprising news that SOUNDGARDEN HAS REUNITED. Chris Cornell announced it precisely at the stroke of midnight (Eastern Standard Time) via his often bizarre and unintentionally hilarious Twitter account:

The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com

So Soundgarden’s back together. What the hell does that mean?

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For those of you still skeptical of whether or not Pissed Jeans are worth your time, your precious hero Kim Thayil (of the world-famous TADGARDEN) digs the group enough to appear in a photo with one of its members. (Also shown: Sub Pop Records co-founder Jonathan Poneman.) And if such minor metal celebrity proximity doesn’t persuade you, perhaps one of the band’s newest songs will. Replete with the raucous riffage and humid sleaze that made 2007’s Hope For Men so irresistible, “False Jesii Part II” is the first track from the forthcoming King Of Jeans record and you can download it for free from Sub Pop directly. This is probably the album I’m most excited about this year, and I really hope you can take the time out of your busy Internet schedule of masturbating and expressing butthurt over our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far to give it a listen before King Of Jeans drops on August 18th.

-GS

[Gary Suarez will not be attending the Michael Jackson memorial event. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually mismanages 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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…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

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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That is a fucking great question; what the fuck has ex-Soundgarden axeman Kim Thayil been up to recently? We all know what Chris Cornell has been doing, and some of us might know that ex-Soundgarden skinsman Matt Cameron has been busy playing drums for some band called Pearl Jam for the last 10 years. As for bassist Ben Shepherd, “Nobody gives a flying fuck what Ben Shepherd is doing because bassists do what again?” But thankfully MetalSucks reader and fellow blogger NoYokoNo has done some research and turned up an answer about how Soundgarden’s resident beardo is keeping busy.

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