I'm a Soundgarden fan, and I have been since the beginning. Back when my radio career started at CKUL way back in 1989, I remember when Louder Than Love came into our station. That album was passed around through many hands of the serious music fans there. This was long before the internet, when you shared music by actually sharing it. We'd say, "You have to hear this album!", and we listened to this album, which didn't sound like anything we had ever heard before.
Soundgarden, along with Green River, were the first band I'd heard from the up and coming grunge scene in Seattle. The heavy guitar sound mixed with the punk leanings of the band appealed to my ears at the time, given my interest in punk at the time, and the use of feedback in the guitar sound had never really been done before. Nirvana, of course, would take this sound even further in a couple of years, but for the time, Soundgarden were unique. Louder than Love got the crap played out of it at CKUL in 1989, at least by those who were digging into the underground. It was because of Louder than Love that I dug into the grunge scene and became a huge fan, both of the mainstream acts, and lesser known bands like The Treepeople, Tad, The Fluid, Naked Raygun and more.
Soundgarden were the first grunge act to sign to a major label, in 1989, to A&M Records, but were one of the last grunge bands to really make waves in mainstream music. In 1987, they released their first single, "Hunted Down" for the fledgling Sub Pop label, and Sub Pop used it as its hold music on its phone lines, allowing them to get discovered by A&M. With that came the seed to make Sub Pop into an actual record label, which, of course, spawned the entire grunge explosion.
Their first full album, Ultramega OK, actually came out in 1988 on SST Records, a legendary punk label home to bands like Black Flag. Chris Cornell said that SST didn't really understand the grunge sound, and produced the band like a punk band. They had a heavy punk sound, like the Stooges, but filtered through a Sabbath-esque guitar virtuosity, and the unique addition of feedback to the guitar sound. The album is an anomaly in their catalogue, a truly punk sounding album that sticks out oddly in their catalogue. Strangely, for me, as a fan, I didn't hear Ultramega OK in it's entirety until the late 90s.
Of course, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, The Screaming Trees and other hangers on like the Stone Temple Pilots came next. Soundgarden put out Badmotorfinger in 1991, and with the rise of other grunge bands, they began to get some play on radio and on MTV. "Rusty Cage", "Outshined" and "Jesus Christ Pose" were the stand out singles, though MTV banned "Jesus Christ Pose" for it's controversial religious imagery. This lead to a stint at Lollapalooza in 1992, and a re-release of Badmotorfinger with the EP Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas, which remains a holy grail of sorts for my collection, since it's hard to find and has a Devo cover on it that I really want.
It wasn't until 1994's Superunknown that the band really became well known. "Black Hole Sun" was a huge hit and the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts. The album was compared to Nirvana's In Utero, which was released the same year, in terms of darkness, lyricality and the albums' struggles with themes of depression and death. Ironic given that Kurt Cobain killed himself soon afterwards, and Chris Cornell took his own life just last night.
Down on the Upside came out in 1996 and saw the band moving away from heavier guitars and into more textured, melodic hard rock. They did a stint at Lollapalooza in 1996 after being invited by Metallica, then broke up in 1997 due to internal tensions and "being eaten up by the business", again, much like Nirvana was.
Chris Cornell released a solo album in 1999 called Euphoria Morning, then formed the supergroup Audioslave in 2001, with three members of Rage Against the Machine. They released three albums until Cornell left the band in 2007, leading to the band breaking up. Cornell released his second solo album, Carry On, in 2007, and the strangely out of character album, Scream, in 2009, which was produced by Timbaland, of all people.
Soundgarden reunited in 2010. A compilation came out called Telephantasm, with a new song called "Black Rain", which also debuted on Guitar Hero (member Guitar Hero?). In 2012, the album King Animal came out. By this time, Soundgarden had a real mainstream rock quality to their music, and this album didn't appeal to me at all. It's the only Soundgarden album not in my collection.
2014 saw a three CD rarities collection called Echo of Miles came out, and the band began working on their new album. Cornell also released another solo album, Higher Truth, in 2015.
Chris Cornell committed suicide on May 17th, after a show in Detroit. He was found with a band around his neck in his hotel room. He was 52.
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