I’m cynical about the Soundgarden reunion for the reason I’m cynical about most reunions, which is to say, I’m not sure the band has it in them to make a new record that will live up to all the expectations. But usually that concern doesn’t/shouldn’t apply to a reunited act’s live show — I mean, all they have to do is show up and play their classics and everything should be hunky dory, right?

Thing is, I’m not sure Chris Cornell’s voice is what it used to be. I had the (dis)pleasure of seeing Audioslave twice, and once his voice sounded fine, and once it sounded like shit, and while that was eight years ago already and maybe he was just having an off night or whatever, I’ve heard tell that these days he sounds not-great more often than he does great. And that could, obviously, be a serious detriment to the band’s concerts. I mean, I don’t doubt that Kim Thayil and company can still play their asses off, but if Cornell can’t do songs like “Outshined” justice, well, then, really, what’s the point?

(I’m not saying the singer is the most important member of the band, by the way. I’m just saying it would be weird to be sitting there, wishing that “Fell On Black Days” was an instrumental number.)

But I guess we’ll find out, ’cause the band is doing their first North American tour in almost a decade-and-a-half this summer. There are only four dates right now, but more should be announced soon.

Get the dates after the jump, and then let us know whether or not you’re stoked for these shows in our comments section.

Click to read more…

Vince and I both have framed posters from the Neurosis/Mastodon shows in Brooklyn a few years back, which means we both have the words “A Storm of Light” on our respective walls. But that’s really incidental, ’cause they were one of the support acts for those shows. I’d be lying if I said I was an active fan of A Storm of Light; honestly, I don’t have very many feelings about them one way or the other.

But I guess Kim Thayil, a.k.a. The Coolest Member of Soundgarden, digs ‘em. ‘Cause he plays on a new track by the band, “Missing,” which is now streaming here.

Click to read more…

Soundgarden continues to be one of those legendary bands that defies pure pigeonholing.  Sure, they rose to the top against the early 90s grunge backdrop, but could you really call them “grunge”? Lest we forget that way back when, they were often touted as the forerunners of “alternative metal” (whatever that means), in addition to grungesters.

SIDEBAR: Remember when “alternative” was a genre? Nowadays when people say they are into “alternative” music (and yes, it does happen every once in a while), I feel compelled to inquire “alternative to WHAT???”  Back then the genre label actually meant something, but today everything just seems to be the alternative to everything else.

From the beginning, the band’s songs were sludgy enough, but always had at least a tinge (usually a boatload) of melody, largely thanks to wailer Chris Cornell but also to the inventive guitar stylings of Kim Thayil.  Add the proto-rumblings of bassist Ben Shepard and thumping pocket-chop grooves of drummer Matt Cameron, and we had a truly unique rock n’ roll band that created their own sound. Five albums strong, Soundgarden broke up in 1997.

After some recent unfortunate solo Cornell material and plenty of rumors of reunion, the reformed Soundgarden finally played a couple of shows last Spring & Summer (the first of which under the anagram pseudonym Nudedragons), and it was recently announced that they will release a live album entitled Live on I5 on March 22nd (tracklist here).

Furthermore, just this past week it was mentioned on their website that the band has written some new material and hopes to release a new album later this year (!) ….

“OUR GOAL FOR 2011 – LET’S MAKE A RECORD.

Over the past few months, we’ve been busy jamming, writing and hanging out together – exploring the creative aspect of being Soundgarden. It feels great. We have some cool new songs that we are going to record very soon. Thank you for all of the support!

Loudest of Love, Ben, Chris, Kim and Matt”

We shall see.

-KW

Announced with fanfare in the opening minutes of New Years Day 2010, the return of Soundgarden was supposed to redeem Chris Cornell’s tarnished legacy in the aftermath of the Timbaland-produced bomb Scream. Unfortunately, the grunge superstars have to-date spent their so-called reunion trying to sell repackaged collections of previously released music sprinkled sparsely with studio outtakes and ultimately playing fewer concerts than I can count on one hand.

We’ve yet to get a clear answer as to why this has been the case (theories: Matt Cameron’s Pearl Jam obligations, Kim Thayil’s obsessive compulsive beard maintenance), and the latest announcement that an old live concert is being put on CD only makes matters worse. As a longtime devotee, I pretty much feel cheated.

Seemingly, Cornell recognizes that the fans want to see the guys on tour, which is perhaps why he’s decided to offer up the next best thing and go out on the road by himself for a cross-country series of acoustic “Songbook” dates. It makes sense, and he can probably sell some of those live Soundgarden CDs along the way. Some press release blather and the list of dates are below the cut.
Click to read more…

For whatever reason, I just haven’t gotten that excited about the Soundgarden reunion yet. Maybe it’s not “real” enough for me at this point; maybe when the band finally does a proper tour and I’m holding the ticket in my hand, I’ll suddenly be really, really stoked. Or maybe Chris Cornell has just pissed away all my good will towards him, and I’ll never care.

Whatever. Point being, I had no intention of checking out the band’s performance on Conan earlier this week, until I read Shane Mehling’s assertion on The Deciblog that guitarist Kim Thayil is so “fucking old” that “looks like Kim Thayil’s dad.” Say no more, Mr. Mehling. I love a good laugh at other people’s expense. Curiosity piqued!

Click to read more…

Soundgarden reunion rumors have been flying around almost as long as Soundgarden have been broken up. (And in case you lost count, this Friday will be the thirteenth anniversary of the break-up. Someone will have been born and bar mitzvahed in the time since Soundgarden were last together! Egads!) Chris Cornell pretty much let the cat out of the bag that the band is reuniting back in January, and now they’ve announced that they’re headlining Lollapalooza in August. (Unfortunately, the rest of the line-up for that festival is pretty blech, especially from a fan of half-way decent rock; there’s Social Distortion and, uh, that’s it. If the artist on the bill I’d be most excited to see that isn’t Soundgarden is Erykah Badu, well, that’s a festival I won’t be attending.)

And, as usual, my enthusiasm is tempered with cynicism.

Click to read more…

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?

Click to read more…

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.

Click to read more…

…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.

Click to read more…

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.

Click to read more…