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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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?]

Ah, our good old friends Grunge and Alternative, those bastions of ’90s rock nostalgia. Are they one in the same? Did they start out meaning different things but over time come to mean the same? At some point in ‘92 we started hearing both of these terms bandied about in equal measure to describe the crop of bands emerging from the Seattle scene and their ilk, but over time these words seem to have lost all meaning. What the hell is “grunge” music anyway? And for that matter, what the fuck is “alternative”?

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Yeah, I know — Ten was Pearl Jam’s biggest to do, their entrée into the world of rock, but this opening track off of Vs., the second offering, is (in my humble opinion) one of their most rockin’, and — dare I say — metal? Okay, that’s probably an overstatement, but it’s still a damn fine, get-you-goin’ kinda song.

Welcome to our weekend of grunge.

-KW

PEARL JAM – “Go”, from Vs.