Rest in Peace Chris

Written by Phil Saunders after the release of King Animal in 2013:

When I first interviewed Soundgarden it was 1988, long before the Grunge craze. I was still fairly early in my long career in campus radio (10 years), but I loved this band. Though I am a self-described music nerd, I didn’t care that they were from Seattle, on Sub Pop records—which at the time was barely out of its cassette-only status, or that bands like the Screaming Trees and Melvins were among their friends. In fact, Nirvana was still a blip on the music scene, having just released Bleach, which was being largely ignored for its scattered atonal blend of punk and metal.

(For the record, I loved Bleach for this chaotic and explosive style…it was an exciting time to be on the inside of what became the last major gasp of corporate rock heading towards a major decline that from which we now know it will never recover.)

I was living in Toronto at the time. And, like any self-respecting young man, raised on hockey, Macintosh taffy, and classic rock, was firmly indoctrinated in the ways of Rush and their dark lord Neil Peart. So when I got on the phone with Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil, I was more than thrilled to have them pose the first question.

“Hey,” said Thayil. “This is Toronto right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Yeah,” I responded, rather taken aback.

“We love Rush,” said Cornell.

Then it hit me. That’s why I so enjoyed Soundgarden’s frenetic, yet clearly Y chromosome rock. Strident, atonal and complex, their references to Sonic Youth and Melvins only heightened my love of their first full-length Ultramega OK on the venerable SST Records, already responsible for my love of such monolithic bands as The Minutemen, Meat Puppets, and Hüsker Dü.

But Soundgarden didn’t really fit. In fact, this band of rockers never really fit the music categories, despite being accessible, melodic and yes, beautiful to look at, in the case of Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron especially.

Now, 15 years since their last release and nearly 25 since that fateful interview, Soundgarden are an established brand, associated with the heyday of the Seattle grunge scene. But those of us who know and were there to watch the surreal experience that was 1991’s music underground become mainstream seemingly overnight, Soundgarden didn’t really fit that period either. In fact, I recall being told back then that Outshined, the first single off Badmotorfinger, was pointing squarely at this frustration. Bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains had clearly "Outshined" Soundgarden.

Then came Superunknown, perhaps their greatest and most successful commercial release. I recall being asked to craft a top ten list for the London Free Press that year and included high up on that list, below Girls Against Boys and Jesus Lizard, Soundgarden’s mainstream classic, with the ominous words, “…why I still love classic rock.” Ominous perhaps only in retrospect because let's face it, Soundgarden was still not getting a lot of mainstream radio play in Canada, though they were rising quickly on the charts in the U.S.

So when I heard that King Animal was on its way, the first album of fresh material since 1994, I was a little giddy. I managed to get to Seattle over the holidays and purchase it at Easy Street Records, the venerable Nexus for the grunge music revolution of 20 plus years previous…I even managed to get it free, with a loyalty card that was full of stamps thanks to regular visits over the years while living in Victoria. This makes it another freebie, making Screaming Life and Ultramega OK the only releases for which I paid full price, the rest I got free for being among their biggest supporters over the years (yes, rock writers don’t make much money, but we get tons of free stuff).

On the way back from Seattle, I listened to the CD twice through and then started perusing YouTube to check out their recent live performances to promote the release, after all, it has been a couple of months since it came out.

Low and behold, I saw them perform Incessant Mace (an ill-fated name for my first blog a few years ago) and Smokestack Lightning, both from UltramegaOK…the same album they were promoting in 1988.

It suddenly made sense…why I so love this new album. Let’s face it, Chris Cornell’s alcoholism, Ben Sheppard’s drug addiction, and Matt Cameron’s Pearl Jam addiction are well known now, but what is great about King Animal, is it is truly like they never left. The sound is crisp, inventive and the songwriting is solid.

As Ian Blurton recently said in an interview about the reunion of Change of Heart in response to the trend of reunions, “I think we’re better…I mean look at Jesus Lizard…we are better musicians now, it’s inevitable that we’d be better a decade later…as long as we’ve played, we’re bound to get better.”

King Animal isn’t better than Superunknown, but it is better than UltramegaOK, in fact, it is more interesting musically than anything this band has put out. I’m elated, relieved and although the perfection of Superunkown will never be surpassed, I’m hearing Bad Motorfinger and Down On the Upside, their last release, with new ears. This band may never have fit the mold of music fashion, but they always fit my mold and maybe, after another 20 years, they’ll be called on stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by this year’s inductees Geddy, Alex and Neil. Clearly, they would be in good and deserved company. Let’s start the online petition now.