Posts Tagged ‘Soundgarden’

Soundgarden release video for the new track ‘Live To Rise’

Having recorded a brand new track for the astoundingly good Avengers Assemble movie, Soundgarden have just released the video to go with it!  Featuring the band along with a whole host of clips from the film, it is well worth checking out!

So to save you the effort of looking it up, here it is….

Chris Cornell announces the opening dates for his June 2012 European Tour. 

Rock icon Chris Cornell has announced his first headline UK tour dates in over three years.  UK audiences will be the first in Europe to get the chance to see Chris perform unplugged, up close and personal.  

This much-anticipated ‘Songbook‘ tour highlights works from Chris Cornell’s entire catalogue, including songs written for Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog and has already attracted universally positive reviews around the world.  As Jim Farber of The New York Daily News observed, “sometimes you don’t recognize the full power of a voice until you strip everything away from it.“ 

Chris Cornell has the ability to connect with listeners like few others of our time. Within this alternative setting, Cornell can easily interact with the audience and share insights about his music.  Familiar songs emerge in a new context, showing that great songwriting translates to any idiom. Ranked as “one of the best voices in music history”, Cornell has successfully maintained his own unique identity over more than two decades as a
multi-Grammy award winning musician, Golden Globe nominee and universally acclaimed singer, songwriter and lyricist. 

Here are just a few things people have had to say about ‘Songbook‘ in 2011: 

“A master class in the fine art of solo performance” – Boston Globe

“His talents as a storyteller and poet come through as loud and clear….music has few individuals left who can grab an acoustic guitar alone and
make a sold out crowd laugh, cry, feel, and dream.” – Artist Direct

“The intensity of his voice enveloped the room… a night of rare beauty.” – The Australian

“A perfectly guided tour of the nuanced poetry of songwriting led by a cordial host who gripped the focus of his audience.” – Pop Matters

 Chris Cornell’s headline UK tour comes to the following venues this June; further dates for mainland Europe will be announced shortly.

 SAT 16 JUNE    MANCHESTER LOWRY                             0843 208 6000

MON 18 JUNE   LONDON PALLADIUM                               020 7403 3331

TUE 19 JUNE    BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY HALL             0121 780 3333

WED 20 JUNE   NEWCASTLE CITY HALL                                     0191 277 8030

 TICKETS ON SALE 10.00AM FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY.

Buy online at gigsandtours.com <http://gigsandtours.com/>  |24 HR CC Hotline: 0844 811 0051

Currently on his acoustic ‘Songbook‘ tour of the States, Chris Cornell will be releasing an album of live Songbook tour performances on November 21st (UME).  The album features songs written by Cornell as well as a few covers and you can see the fulll track listing below.  In addition to being one of the most acclaimed voices in rock, Chris Cornell stands in a class of his own as a songwriter whose works have reached limitless audiences, the world over.  Familiar songs emerge in a new context, showing that great songwriting translates to any idiom.

Songbook Full Track Listing:

1. As Hope and Promise Fade

2. Scar On The Sky

3. Call Me A Dog

4. Ground Zero

5. Can’t Change Me

6. I Am The Highway

7. Thank You (Led Zeppelin)

8. Cleaning My Gun

9. Wide Awake

10. Fell On Black Days

11. All Night Thing

12. Doesn’t Remind Me

13. Like A Stone

14. Black Hole Sun

15. Imagine (John Lennon)

16. The Keeper  

Recently, Cornell wrote and performed ‘The Keeper’, the poignant original song for Relativity’s feature film Machine Gun Preacher (directed by Marc Forster) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this month.  The film stars Gerard Butler and is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to help the children of East Africa. 

The song is available via iTunes and a portion of the proceeds will go to Childers’s charity, Angels of East Africa.  Cornell has performed the song on The Late Show with David Letterman, PBS’s Tavis Smiley and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

You can watch the video in full below.

Chris Cornell has been heralded as one of the pioneers of the grunge era for writing a string of hits for Soundgarden, including the Grammy award-winning ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Spoonman‘.  In 1991, Chris formed Temple of the Dog, writing the classic song ‘Hunger Strike’ featuring a duet with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.  In 2000, Cornell joined former Rage Against The Machine members (Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk) in Audioslave and wrote a series of the band’s hits including ‘Like A Stone’, ‘Be Yourself’ and ‘Doesn’t Remind Me’.  Cornell’s career as a songwriter for film has included such songs as ‘Can’t Change Me’ and ‘Mission’, from the soundtrack to Mission Impossible II as well as hit theme song ‘You Know My Name’ for James Bond thriller Casino Royale, one of the most successful installments of the spy franchise to date.  His songs have been recorded by diverse artists from Johnny Cash to Alice Cooper.

As promised, here is the second part of the interview with Chris Cornell. Plenty more interesting revelations including a tease about a possible Temple Of The Dog anniversary celebration…..

PM: What inspired to do a solo acoustic tour?

CC: One day, who knows when, I came to the realisation that although I’m in a successful rock band and the music and albums are important to people, there are other musicians, Elton John comes to mind, who can sit down at a piano, perform song and it would just knock you over.   He doesn’t need anything else, he’s completely autonomous.   Spoonman, who we wrote a song about, could walk into a room anytime and with his spoons, talent and energy could entertain a group of people from ten to ten thousand.   And there was something about that which appealed to me and made me think ‘if I can’t do that then what good am I?’  What happens when it’s the post apocalypse and we don’t have any electricity?   It was just a weird thing where I felt like I can’t really call myself a musician or entertainer if I can’t pick up a guitar by myself and hold someone’s attention.  Plus it was something that really terrified me.  When I first quit drinking in my mid thirties I had an excess amount of energy, as you do, I had spent years anaesthetising myself.   So I made a list of things I’d never done, because I was intimidated by it, and started doing those things one by one and getting up by myself was a big one so I started doing it and got over the fear of doing it right away.   Then it became something people responded to positively and that I enjoyed doing.   I’d sit at home and entertain myself coming up with silly songs to do covers of, which is how ‘Billie Jean’ came about.

In the context of me sitting with a guitar and singing a song, it’s something that naturally happens.  In the context of a super aggressive rock band it’s not really that easy to do because there’s so much else going on.  Some songs are ‘that’s a great guitar riff and who gives a shit what the guy is singing about?’  And sometimes it’s not important what the guitar is doing, it’s just there to support the vocal and the lyrics and when that happens, it’s much easier to convey the emotion of the song, there’s nothing in the way.

PM: Do you think with the Soundgarden reforming that fans with have fewer expectations with regards to your solo career?
CC: I don’t know.  I already think about what expectation fans have with the new Soundgarden album and then quickly dismiss it.  With the solo carer; whatever the next thing I do is, it’s going to be different to the last thing I did…unless I do another album with Timbaland (laughs).

PM: Is there anyone else you would like to collaborate with?
CC: I was going to work with Daniel Lanois when I was making ‘Euphoria Morning’ but that kind of fell apart at the last minute.   But I am still haunted by the idea of working with him, I like what he does.   He still makes guitar-based rock exciting and interesting.

PM: Its 20 years since Temple of the Dog album was released are you planning to anything to commemorate the event?
CC: We’ve talked about it.   We’re going to do something at some point, I’m not sure when.  We all have great memories of the very brief experience that it was.  We only did one show ever where we played 10 songs, which was the whole album.

PM: How much did your using and sobriety inform your music?
CC: I think I talked about it when I was newly sober because that’s what you do.   As a songwriter I was never someone who spent time doing it on any kind of substance other than coffee.   If ever wrote anything, especially lyrically, when I was drunk or high on anything, I never kept it.  I always hated it.  So creatively nothing’s really changed for me.   The worst period for alcohol and drugs getting out of hand to the point where I was mentally ill was in my thirties.   Before that I was so wrapped up in the creative process with Soundgarden that I kind of managed being a drunk at the same time.   There was only about five years where I would really do anything, I didn’t care.  I know people who are drug addicts and have managed to live for decades that way.  I’m glad I only had five years because it’s such a hard life and it was really hard to recover from, just mentally.  I think Audioslave suffered from that because my feet hadn’t hit the ground yet.  I was sober but I don’t think my brain was clear. In the last couple of years of getting fucked up, I was getting really fucked up.  It took a while to gain perspective and I regret that.  I regret that it affected Audioslave.  It took me about five years of sobriety to even get certain memories back.

Even though I wasn’t a raging drug addict in my twenties and early thirties I was drinking all the time.  I only knew life as drinking to the point of being drunk almost every day and that affected me with my relationships.  Now I have a very close relationship with my wife that I’ve never actually had with another person.  I never thought that I was a person that could have a relationship with another human being where I wanted to be with them all the time.  I was so isolated before and I don’t blame that on the drugs and alcohol but when you take them away and you’re not fucking up your physiology you’ve got nothing else to do but figure out what the hell is wrong with you.  I was essentially making myself insane and while I was insane I thought everything is normal.

PM: Why are there so few Soundgarden live albums?
CC: It’s because we haven’t got many tapes of our live shows.   We brought Adam Kasper (who had worked on ‘Superunknown‘ and ‘Down on the Upside’) out on the road to record some shows with the idea of a live album and we broke up shortly after that was done.  I didn’t even remember there was any recording because I was staring to get drunk all the time.  Matt and Adam pulled the tapes out and started listening to them and it was just really surprisingly good.  I felt like it was a really different glimpse into the band.  The live versions of songs are much more expressive, moodier and darker.  We started getting a lot of attention as a live band before we actually released anything and then we never released a live album, which is kind of stupid.

PM: What are Soundgarden up to at the moment?
CC: Writing new material.  It’s really fun and different to anything we’ve done before.  It sounds like we just took a year off, doesn’t feel like we took thirteen years off, it just feels like a brief break.  Everybody has been super focussed and dedicated to getting into a room and writing music.  It’s been really fun and all-inclusive.  It’s really interesting to see after thirteen years what makes us sound like us.  I’m not sure if I have a better handle on it than I did before.  From day one when we started rehearsing for a show I realised that there’s something out of control that happens when we start to play.  I’ve played the songs with other people but it’s not the same.  It’s indescribable, hard to put your finger on but it has to be there and sometimes there’s too much of it.

PM: Finally can we expect any more ‘off the wall’ cover versions?
CC: So far I haven’t found anything as unusual or as interesting as ‘Billie Jean’, because it was such a retarded idea to begin with.  I may just do the original version of ‘Billie Jean’ as a dance track…everyone will be happy with that!

Peter Makowski (Copyright 2011)

This is my soundtrack to the week that was…check it out if you’re that way inclined on my Spotify playlist

Deftones – You’ve Seen the Butcher

I’ve not a clue what that’s a metaphor for but what a tune. Claustrophobic atmospherics, a grinding riff and a stunning vocal from Chino Moreno. Lovely jubly.

Lamb of God – Contractor

A vicious slice of metal, intensity personified. Look out for the pummeling kick drum coming out of the break down.

Bob Dylan – One More Cup of Coffee
Lyrically rich but also contains one of Dylan’s best vocals. He leaves behind the feret-in-need-of-a-locket for something that might be called gymnastic by his standards

E.L.O – Telephone Line

A lesson in song craft. Ok they may have been a poor man’s Beatles with spaceships but Jeff Lynne knew a thing about melody. Reminds me of my dad playing air guitar with what would have an 8ft guitar if it were real.

This Will Destroy You – Burial on the Presidio Banks

As recommended by Matt from Kodiak Jack/TapetoTape fame. An instrumental that rises to many crescendos before breaking your heart. Reminiscent of Mogwai and Isis. Lush.

Taking Dawn’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain

It’s got the harmonies, “that” bass riff and a rather spiffing double kick outro.

Soundgarden – Like Suicide

This has everything that is great about Soundgarden; hooks, depth and passion. Kim Thayil also plays one of my favourite guitar solos. Ever.

Bad Company – Feel Like Makin’ Love

Paul Rogers might just have the best voice in rock . Macho,this one’ll make you strut like it’s 1975 . Makes me want to grunt.

Amon Amaarth – Twighlight of The Thunder God

Viking metal, whats not to like..?

love and hugs

big g.

I’ll try to keep this relatively short and sweet. Not because it looks like the sun is coming out and it’s my day off today, but because I named Soundgarden as an all time favourite of mine in my article in the ‘When I hit rewind’ section of this site, and there is a frankly amazing interview by Pete Makowski with front man Chris Cornell in the ‘Interviews’ section. Soundgarden are in danger of taking this site over and they’ve barely lifted a finger as a band since 1997!

That said, Soundgarden’s first live album and first commercial release since ‘97’s greatest hits ‘A-Sides’ deserves a mention. It’s a collaboration of live tracks taken from their 1996 tour of the U.S which turned out to be their last until recently reforming.  According to the sleeve notes, the whole tour was recorded on analogue equipment – 3 sets of 24 track mobile trucks with 24 track machines running 20 seconds apart so as not to miss a note when a tape ran out.  A pretty big effort, but well worth it.

The songs captured on here show the band at their best. The sound is massive and shows the many different faces of Soundgarden: the heavy, slow, grinding Sabbath-like side, the scuzzy, punky side, the psychedelic guitars, the apocalyptic drumming, and the much talked about voice of Cornell which sometimes defies what one persons vocal chords should be capable of.

These influences are affirmed by a cover of The Stooges ‘Search And Destroy’ and The Beatles ‘Helter Skelter’ which leads straight into Soundgarden’s own ‘Boot Camp’. Two great choices as it can be easy to just lump Soundgarden’s sound with Led Zeppelin which would be very short sighted as this CD, along with any of their albums show that there is so much more to them.

All the classics are on here and they offer something more than the studio recordings. ‘Black Hole Sun’ is done as a solo effort from Chris Cornell, and ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ is frantic, fast paced, immense and enough to wake the dead!  The band thunder thorough ‘Nothing To Say’ and make these huge live shows seem like a walk in the park.  ‘Slaves & Bulldozers’ would put most bands live efforts to shame, such is the tightness of the bass and drums, the quality of Kim Thayil’s guitar and those incredible vocals.  ‘Fell on Black Days’ and ‘Rusty Cage’ are two more fantastic songs played fantastically well live, as are ‘Burden In My Hand’ and ‘Dusty’ from the bands last album ‘Down On the Upside’.

In short, this live album successfully spans the career of Soundgarden. It’s shows the musical ability of a band at their best in the same way The Who‘s ‘Live at Leeds‘ showed just what they were capable of live. It shows that the songs translate live just as well as the studio recordings. It makes me pray that they play in the UK so I can tick them off on my wish list of bands to see before I die.

Not very short and sweet in the end! But hey, you can’t just listen to an awesome album and say ‘Yeah it’s good, go and buy it.’

Kev says….