Like the iconic 60s and 70s bands which inspired them, Soundgarden redefined rock music for a whole generation and had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history, while also leading trends in street style and graphic design.
Soundgarden’s roots go all the way back to1984. Initially a drummer, Chris Cornell soon moved on to front the band, writing songs alongside guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Their music was a jagged, sinister drone, its atonal ferocity deeply at odds with the synth-pop and hair metal which was then dominating the airwaves.
Matt Cameron from Skin Yard replaced Scott Sundquist on drums in 1986. Meanwhile, guitarist Kim Thayil was helping to matchmake the alliance between Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman which gave birth to the city’s legendary Sub Pop label. Early indie releases, including seminal EP Screaming Life and Grammy-nominated album Ultramega OK, quickly collected a dedicated indie following as the band toured on both sides of the Atlantic.
After the departure of Yamamoto and a brief stint by Jason Everman on bass, Ben Shepherd completed what now became the band’s classic lineup and their years at the top of indie rock culminated with their becoming the first of the new generation of Seattle bands to sign to a major label. At A&M their punk ethos, coupled with a brutal metal soundscape, compelling lyrics and Cornell’s ravenous roar, soon seduced audiences hungry for something new.
1991’s platinum album Badmotorfinger attracted critical applause from all over the world (NME called it “stripped down, lithe and lethal”) and a tour supporting Guns ‘n’ Roses gave wider exposure to Soundgarden’s wild originality and outsider allure.
Mainstream success came with the 1994 release of the band’s best-known album, Superunknown. It’s a stark, uncompromising piece of work, full of tortured melody, strange rhythmic geometry and oblique lyrical puzzles. It doesn’t give up its secrets easily, yet audiences the world over embraced it. An immediate #1 album in the States, it netted Soundgarden two Grammys, shifted millions of units worldwide, and introduced the band to a mass TV audience via the David Lynch influenced video for Black Hole Sun. At the same time it explored a menacing interior landscape teeming with pain, fear, fury and defiance. As Rolling Stone concluded, musically “it demonstrates far greater range than many bands manage in an entire career.”
Two years later, Down on the Upside continued the band’s musical development away from alt-metal into hard-edged experimentation. Rave called it “full of dualities and binary oppositions”; People said “Soundgarden breaks down the walls and pulverizes them.” Self-produced and stylistically various, it was perhaps the most complete expression of just how far the band had travelled.
After a dozen years, five pioneering albums and a slew of singles, Soundgarden played their final live show of the century at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu on February 9 1997 and “amicably and mutually decided to disband” in April that year so all four members could pursue other musical projects.
At the dawn of 2010, the band announced a new beginning; MTV hailed their first 21st century show on April 16 as “a rousing performance” from “the heavy, loud powerhouse that exemplified the early-to-mid '90s”. The performance in front of hometown fans and Seattle greats at the city’s Showbox venue had sold out in mere minutes.
In August they hit Chicago, with two more unforgettable shows – first in the intimate setting of the Vic Theater, and then with what Rolling Stone called “an epic set...a blueprint of the Seattle sound” to headline the closing night of the famous Lollapalooza festival, where the Chicago Tribune hailed them as “one of the last great hard-rock bands to emerge in the last 25 years.”
Soundgarden celebrate their triumphant return to the live stage with the September 28 release of Telephantasm, a career-spanning retrospective celebrating the band’s legacy and introducing their greatest work to a new generation. The album includes the previously unheard “Black Rain,” which also features on the soundtrack of Activision videogame Guitar Hero®: Warriors of Rock. Remixed from the sessions for 1991’s Badmotorfinger with new added vocals from Chris Cornell, it’s the perfect blend of vintage and modern to point the way into a new era for the band.
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