Video: Soundgarden "By Crooked Steps" Directed By Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters (duh) directed the new Soundgarden video for "By Crooked Steps". In the video, Soundgarden are a grizzled old Segway gang who take over the local bar where some hipster is DJing on his computer. They take to the stage and rock n' roll mayhem transpires. It ends with them being arrested by deadmau5, who is a protector of DJs worldwide. Don't you think someone would have killed them off by now otherwise? It all makes sense.

By Crooked Steps from mgy1980 on Vimeo.

Soundgarden Set List

I wasn't at last night's Soundgarden show at Hammerstein Ballroom but a couple of friends were there. The set included some of my favorite tracks ("Flower", "Beyond The Wheel", "4th of July", etc.), which were absent from last week's show. Hopefully, tonight's set list will be just as good. Now I just need someone to hook me up with tickets (they start at $80 on StubHub).

*Photo by Zach Timm.

Soundgarden Played Terminal 5

On on Wednesday I went to Terminal 5 for the American Express concert featuring Soundgarden. Some people are acting weird because AMEX sponsored the show but if that means $15 tickets for Soundgarden then I don't give two flying fucks who sponsors it. Soundgarden is one of my all-time favorite bands and I've only seen them once before a couple summers ago in Philly. That was one of the best shows I've seen in years so I had high hopes for this one.

The show started a little after 8pm with the band jumping into "Been Away For Too Long" which is a decent track from their new album. From there they went to "My Wave," which is a track I love so things were looking up but the band never really picked up steam. The Philly show was chock full of harder and heavier songs from the early years but this set was mostly the singles. It's still great music but that's not what I want to see at a show. I'm sure AMEX had something to do with the lackluster set list. Check it out after the jump, you'll notice songs like, "Slaves and Bulldozers" "Beyond The Wheel" "Mailman" "4th of July" "Superunknown" and so forth are absent, all of which they played in Philly.

NYC Tonight: Soundgarden, Heliotrope, Mountain Goats

Bored? No friends? Drinking on the couch... again? Don't fret, Chet. It's a big city full of fun people looking to hang out with schlubs just like you! Here are a few suggestions on radical happenings in the city tonight.

• Soundgarden at Terminal 5, 7pm (Sold Out): This will be awesome and I will be there. Try and get in somehow. 
• Heliotropes, Gang Signs, Blackout at Union Pool, 9pm (Cover???): I haven't heard much by Heliotropes but what I have heard is fucking awesome. Never seen them live. If I wasn't going to see one of my all-time favorite bands tonight I would be here. 

• John from Mountain Goats at Studio X, 6:30pm (RSVP): Don't know what this is but John is cool in my book. It's a GQ event so it might be heavy on the douchery. Worth a shot though. 

Soundgarden Released A New Track

Here's "Been Away Too Long" by Soundgarden. Aside from Cornell's voice this sounds absolutely nothing like a Soundgarden song. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I don't love it but it could be a lot worse given Cornell's track record as of late.

Chris Cornell Has A New Album & Video, "The Keeper"

Chris Cornell is guilty of making one of the worst solo albums ever. He is also guilty of making one of my all-time favorite solo albums, Euphoria Morning. So what can we expect with this one? Well, the good news is he's back in Soundgarden and playing guitar again. He also has ditched Timbaland (thank you big baby Jesus)! And furthermore he did a solo acoustic tour recently.

Based on the first single/video, "The Keeper", we might have a proper follow up to Euphoria Morning. The new solo acoustic album comes out on November 21st.

Soundgarden Announce Summer Tour Dates!

YES, YES, YES!!! Soundgarden has announced that they're playing shows this summer. They're calling it a tour but so far it's only four shows and the closest one to NYC is in Philly.

The tickets go on sale on Monday for fan club members and April 22nd for the rest of you poor bastards. All pre-sale tickets are being sold in pairs, which is annoying, and range from $119-$149 per pair. That's expensive but I've always said I'd gladly shell out $200 to see Soundgarden so this ain't so bad.

I am so excited for this. I loved Soundgarden growing up but I never got to see them live - this is a dream come true!

• 7/2/11: Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
• 7/13/11: Philadelphia, PA @ Festival Pier at Penn's Landing
• 7/18/11: Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
• 7/22/11: Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum

Link:

Soundgarden Announce Summer Tour

For Soundgarden fans, this is a moment they’ve been waiting for: since the band’s final show in Hawaii in 1997, fans have hoped that Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd, and Kim Thayil would once again take their exalted rock show on the road. This summer, Soundgarden will do just that.

The band has recently confirmed that they are in the studio in Seattle, and are writing and recording what will be the first newSoundgarden album in over 15 years. In the meantime, they will take a break to play a city near you. Today, four shows from their Summer tour are announced, with more to come in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned to www.soundgardenworld.com for updates. Come experience the noise!

Soundgarden Played Conan Last Night...Wow!

First off, congrats to Conan on the new show. I've already laughed more times than I did the entire time he was on The Tonight Show. It's good to have old Coco back. It's also good to have Soundgarden back!

Last night Soundgarden played their new old song "Black Rain" on Conan. It was unreal how fucking good it was. I'm completely blown away that Cornell can hit those high notes. He generally stopped singing in the range after Badmotorfinger and I just didn't think he had it in him to pull that off live. It's simply stunning. These mothers better fucking tour and play NYC soon. I will gladly pay upwards of $200 for a chance to see them live and that's saying a lot because, if you know me, I bitch about any show over $7. Long live Soundgarden!

Click here if the video doesn't load (there's also another song)

New Soundgarden Track Streaming + New Album

The song is called "Black Rain" and it's not actually new. They originally recorded it during the Badmotorfinger sessions but never released it. I have no idea why they didn't because it's fucking awesome. Some might say it's a cop out to simply release an old track and bunch it in with the new stuff but I say fuck it. We're talking about Soundgarden here, one of the best ever. They can do anything they want...besides let Cornell release another solo album. Soundgarden will be releasing a new album called Telephantasm on September 28th, you can pre-order it here.

Link:

Soundgarden

Black Rain by soundgardenworld

Soundgarden Played A Secret Show In Seattle

Last night Soundgarden played a secret show in Seattle under the name NudeDragons. Word is they played a 2-hour set. So far it doesn't appear that any video has surfaced but I'm sure that will change soon.

Link:

MTV 

Soundgarden Reunion Confirmed!

The rumors of a Soundgarden reunion have been flying around for about a year now. With the embarrassing failure that was Chris Cornell's solo career it's no surprise he's running back to Kim and the gang. In fact, Kim Thayil and the rest of Soundgarden already have reunited, just without their douchey front man.

Well, it's been confirmed by Chris Cornell that there will in fact be a reunion after all. As much as Cornell irks me I fucking love Soundgarden. Overall, they were the most consistently excellent band of the 1990's. Not only that but they've been around since 1984 and more or less invented Seattle grunge. They were also the first band from that scene to sign to a major thus opening the door to bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and the slew of imitators.

The good thing is they're all relatively young still and since Soundgarden lasted longer then the rest of the Seattle bands (excluding Pearl Jam) it really hasn't been all that long since they've played together. Officially it's been 12 years which isn't very long for band who's members have been actively performing (Cornell - Audioslave & solo. Thayil - Boris, SunO))) & more. Cameron - QOTSA, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam & more. Shepherd...well, not much actually).

Frankly, with the exception of Rage Against The Machine this is the most exciting reunion in a very long time. However, given the shit bomb that was Cornell's solo album I'm worried about any new music they may be tempted to produce. I mean do we really need a Timbaland produced grunge album?

Anyway, I'm super excited about this and can't wait to see them live. I've never had the pleasure of catching Soundgarden in person and they truly are one of my all time favorite bands. Is it just a coincidence that plaid is cool again?

Link:
Soundgarden official reunion page
Spinner: Soundgarden Reunion

Rusty Cage


Fell On Black Days


My Wave


4th Of July (No video for this one but my all-time favorite by them)


Pretty Noose


Flower


Loud Love

What's Kim Thayil Been Up To?

We know what Chris Cornell has been up to these past few years but I for one am more interested in Kim Thayil. So what's up Kim?

1999: No WTO Combo w/ Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) & Krist Novoselic (Nirvana)


"FUCK Cornell!" Soundgarden fronted by TAD w/ Tom Morello


Probot

After the demise of Soundgarden, Thayil went on to contribute guitar to work by Pigeonhed and Presidents of the United States of America. More recently, he contributed guitar to the track "Blood Swamp" from the 2006 SunnO)))/Boris album Altar, for which he also wrote liner notes. Thayil also plays lead guitar on a track called V.O.G. by Ascend, which features Gentry Densley (Iceburn, Eagle Twin) and Greg Anderson (Sunn 0))), Engine Kid, Goatsnake). Ascend's record, titled Ample Fire Within, was released in 2008 by Southern Lord Records. -via Wikipedia

So basically he's been jamming here and there with people but not really doing much. Thayil, dude, we need you homey. Start a real band and start writing some crazy shit - like "Flower" stuff. You can still shred so get at it. We need to counteract this Chris Cornell nonsense.

Hey Chris Cornell, WTF!?!?

So I just headed over to the Chris Cornell MySpace to take a listen to the new tunes. Now I expected it to suck - frankly everything he's done since Euphoria Morning has. In fact lots of people thought that sucked too. But I'll stand up for it, sure it's no Soundgarden but it's pretty damn good in my book.

I kinda lost ya with Audioslave, it sounded good on paper but then I heard it and well, not my thing. That James Bond shit was pretty awful but it was for a soundtrack and I'm guessing you didn't have full creative control so I let it pass.

And that brings me to my experience on MySpace this morning. I have no words to describe what entered my ear holes. It's without question some of the worst shit I've ever heard in my life. Now if you told me some 15-year old kid made this shit then I probably wouldn't be saying that but the fact it comes from one of the great singers of rock n' roll disturbs me greatly.

Dude, you're what 45 now? I understand it's the whole midlife thing but seriously man. You're an amazing musician (he really is, great on guitar and drums) and I didn't hear a single guitar or anything resembling an actual instrument. It's just you singing to some shitty beats Timbaland had laying around from his Justin Timberlake sessions.

You're better then this man. I mean dude, SOUNDGARDEN! If not the best, at least the most consistently good band from the Seattle scene. Please for the love of God call up Thayil and write some real shit to make up for this.

Maybe 15 year olds will actually dig this shit and you'll get your platinum stamp but honestly they're going to see right fucking through this. You're just some old dude that used to be in some band their dads listen to.

I read something on a message board that made me feel a little better. Someone mentioned Robert Plant in the 80's and it made me feel a little better. He had the same story really - amazing singer in amazing band goes solo and makes some "hip" shit. But look at him now, back to making killer fucking music again.

If you keep this up then you deserve to be remembered forever as the shitty pop guy. But if this was just some twisted midlife crisis then I forgive you. Please go back to music with guitars. You're embarrassing yourself.

Link:
Chris Cornell MySpace





Same dude... How?




He's capable of this!