So as you may recall, the three non-Chris Cornell members of Soundgarden played behind Tad Doyle last week at a benefit thrown by Tom Morello. Well, the frontman-in-exile opened his U.S. tour over the weekend in Dallas, and the Spin reviewer charged with covering the show noted that his set not only included “Spoonman” and “Jesus Christ Pose,” it incorporated “Gun,” one of the more menacing tracks from the band’s 1989 major-label debut Louder Than Love. And no, to answer the question Mike posed when I informed him of this development, the song’s scary-monster riffs were not interspersed with baby noises and tablas. A clip of him performing the song last week—in Chile, not Dallas—after the jump. Compare and contrast!
These were posted in the comments of our original news item on the Ben Shepherd/Matt Cameron/Kim Thayil/Tad Doyle collaboration that went down in Seattle the other night, but in case you’re having a problem keeping up with your fellow readers’ bloviatings, I decided to pull them out and let them shine. “Hunted Down,” the leadoff track from Soundgarden’s Screaming Life EP, is above; “Nothing To Say” and “Spoonman” after the jump. The band still slays; Doyle’s vocals are certainly different than original Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell’s, but I think it all fits, in some sort of alternate-Pacific-Northwest way.
“I have not been approached so far to fill in for… More »
Every week, I pore over the digital-album charts–which lists the 50 albums that sold the most virtual copies on sites like iTunes, eMusic, and Amazon MP3–in an effort to figure out what new albums have high percentages of digital sales, and to see what older albums are having odd online sales spikes. Yesterday, I noticed that Amazon MP3’s Twitter is being updated with the store’s daily cheap-album deals, which is a big help for someone who wants to figure out why certain albums that are old in Internet time (like, sometimes even 10 years old!) are popping back on the chart. A few attempts at correlation after the jump.
ARTIST: Chris Cornell
TITLE: “Long Gone”
WEB DEBUT: July 17, 2008
Former Soundgarden frontman/renegade “Billie Jean” reworker Chris Cornell has been reduced to making cameos in videos by OneFreakin’Republic. More »
Chris Cornell, indie-rocker. While discussing his turgid, bowel-stirring rendition of “Billie Jean,” recently jacked on American Idol, Cornell revealed just how much street cred he was risking. “I stuck my neck out being a guy that comes from the indie rock world doing a Michael Jackson song. You can clearly see that the judges are giving this guy credit for it on national television. My fans were like, ‘Wait a minute! That’s Chris Cornell’s moment.'” Your indie rock fans, Chris?
Apparently, our commenters aren’t the only people who, upon hearing about Audioslave’s breakup, wondered if Chris Cornell would be giving Kim Thayil a call in the coming weeks: Any chance of a Soundgarden reunion? I seriously doubt it. More »