Soundgarden

SOUNDGARDEN'S debut EP, Screaming Life, was the first release on Sub Pop Records, and that's no small distinction. The quartet was the frontispiece, and it has remained a crucial touchstone for the fertile Seattle music scene and its particular blend of metal, punk, pop, and other musical conventions. That said, Soundgarden is one of the most distinctive and ambitious of all the bands that have come out of that scene. It may have had a strong hand in defining the sound that became known as grunge, but it has since expanded in a number of stylistic directions. As guitarist Kim Thayil has said, "Our interest is in entertaining ourselves. If we can please ourselves and entertain ourselves, then we've done our jobs."

The Soundgarden saga actually started in Illinois. After graduating from high school, Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto--along with future Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt--moved to Olympia, Washington, ostensibly to attend the Evergreen State College. The burgeoning music scene lured them to Seattle, where Yamamoto wound up rooming and playing in a band with drummer Chris Cornell. Thayil joined the duo during 1984, and the three musicians named themselves Soundgarden after a Seattle pipe sculpture that made noise when wind blew through it. Scott Sundquist came onboard as drummer a year later, freeing Cornell to sing out front; Sundquist was later replaced by Matt Cameron.

Loud, frenetic, and taking a page or two from Black Sabbath's book, Soundgarden appeared on a couple of local compilations before recording its own EPs Screaming Life (1987) and Fopp (1988). Despite courting from major labels, the group signed with another independent company, SST, for its 1988 debut album, Ultramega OK. Yamamoto then quit to go back to school in 1989, and was replaced by Jason Everman. The next year Soundgarden finally succumbed and signed with a major label, A&M, for its Louder Than Love album. It wasn't an instant success, but it did help to expand the group's grassroots following dramatically, and earned the band a Grammy award nomination.

A new bassist, Ben Shepherd, came onboard in 1990, and Soundgarden again increased its profile with the thundering, thrashing Badmotorfinger. With a few tracks--"Outshined," "Jesus Christ Pose," and "Rusty Cage" (which was covered in 1996 by, of all people, Johnny Cash)--earning MTV Buzz Bin exposure, Soundgarden lit off on tours with Guns 'N Roses and Neil Young, and earned a spot on the second Lollapalooza tour. An explosion seemed imminent.

And it was. After working on a few side projects--the Temple of the Dog tribute to Mother Love Bone's late singer Andrew Wood (which introduced the world to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder) and Shepherd and Cameron's side group, Hater--Soundgarden unleashed Superunknown, a sprawling, mature album that was also the group's commercial breakthrough. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and sold more than three million copies in the U.S., while the Summer of Love-styled hit "Black Hole Sun" was one of the top songs of the summer of 1994. Then awards rolled in, too: two Grammys; an MTV Video Music Award for "Black Hole Sun"; a Best Metal Band designation in both the Rolling Stone magazine reader and critics polls.

The follow-up, Down on the Upside, was nearly as good, embracing the same melodic variety and doom-laden lyricism as its predecessor. Though not quite as commercially successful, the album did find a ready radio audience for songs such as "Pretty Noose," "Burden in My Hand," and "Blow Up the Outside World," and Soundgarden did a second stint at Lollapalooza before starting its own tour. In February of 1997, the band wrapped up the Down on the Upside sojourn with two shows in Hawaii, before taking a break that was supposed to last through the summer. That break turned into a break-up two months later, as Soundgarden, amidst a flurry of side projects, decided to call it quits for good.

Soundgarden made a place for heavy metal in alternative rock. Their fellow Seattle rockers Green River may have spearheaded the grunge sound, but they relied on noise rock in the vein of the Stooges. Similarly, Jane's Addiction were too fascinated with prog rock and performance art to appeal to a wide array of metal fans. Soundgarden, however, developed directly out of the grandiose blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and the sludgy, slow riffs of Black Sabbath. Which isn't to say they were a straight-ahead metal band. Soundgarden borrowed the D.I.Y. aesthetics of punk, melding their guitar-driven sound with an intelligence and ironic sense of humor that was indebted to the American underground of the mid-'80s. Furthermore, the band rarely limited itself to simple, pounding riffs, often making detours into psychedelia. But the group's key sonic signatures -- the gutsy wail of vocalist Chris Cornell and the winding riffs of guitarist Kim Thayil -- were what brought them out of the underground. Not only were they one of the first groups to record for the legendary Seattle indie Sub Pop, but they were the first grunge band to sign to a major label. In fact, most critics expected Soundgarden to be the band that broke down the doors for alternative rock, not Nirvana. However, the group didn't experience an across-the-boards success until 1994, when Superunknown became a number one hit.

For a band so heavily identified with the Seattle scene, its ironic that two of its founding members were from the Midwest. Kim Thayil (guitar), Hiro Yamamoto (bass), and Bruce Pavitt were all friends in Illinois who decided to head to Olympia, WA, to attend college after high school graduation in 1981. Though none of the three completed college, all of them became involved in the Washington underground music scene. Pavitt was the only one who didn't play -- he founded a fanzine that later became the Sub Pop record label. Yamamoto played in several cover bands before forming a band in 1984 with his roommate Chris Cornell (vocals), a Seattle native who had previously played drums in several bands. Thayil soon joined the duo and the group named itself Soundgarden after a local Seattle sculpture. Scott Sundquist originally was the band's drummer, but he was replaced by Matt Cameron in 1986. Over the next two years, Soundgarden gradually built up a devoted cult following through their club performances.

Pavitt signed Soundgarden to his fledgling Sub Pop label in the summer of 1987, releasing the single "Hunted Down" before the EP Screaming Life appeared later in the year. Screaming Life and the group's second EP, 1988's FOPP, became underground hits and earned the attention of several major labels. The band decided to sign to SST instead of a major, releasing Ultramega OK by the end of 1988. Ultramega OK received strong reviews among alternative and metal publications, and the group decided to make the leap to a major for its next album, 1989's Louder Than Love. Released on A&M Records, Louder Than Love became a word-of-mouth hit, earning positive reviews from mainstream publications, peaking at 108 on the charts, and earning a Grammy nomination. Following the album's fall 1989 release, Yamamoto left the band to return to school. Jason Everman, a former guitarist for Nirvana, briefly played with the band before Ben Shepherd joined in early 1990.

Soundgarden's third album, 1991's Badmotorfinger, was heavily anticipated by many industry observers as a potential breakout hit. Though it was a significant hit, reaching number 39 on the album charts, its success was overshadowed by the surprise success of Nirvana's Nevermind, which was released the same month as Badmotorfinger. Prior to Nevermind, Soundgarden had been marketed by A&M as a metal band, and the group had agreed to support Guns n' Roses on the fall 1991 Lose Your Illusion tour. While the tour did help sales, Soundgarden benefited primarily from the grunge explosion, whose media attention helped turn the band into stars. The band was also helped by the Top Ten success of Temple of the Dog, a tribute to deceased Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood that Cornell and Cameron recorded with members of Pearl Jam. By the spring release of 1994's Superunknown, Soundgarden's following had grown considerably, which meant that the album debuted at number one upon its release. (A year before its release, Shepherd and Cameron released an eponymous album by their side project, Hater.) Superunknown became one of the most popular records of 1994, generating a genuine crossover hit with "Black Hole Sun," selling over three million copies and earning two Grammies. Soundgarden returned in 1996 with Down on the Upside, which entered the charts at number two. Despite the record's strong initial sales, it failed to generate a big hit, and was hurt by grunge's fading popularity. Soundgarden retained a sizable audience -- the album did go platinum, and they were co-headliners on the sixth Lollapalooza -- but they didn't replicate the blockbuster success of Superunknown. After completing an American tour following Lollapalooza that was plagued by rumors of internal fighting, Soundgarden announced that they were breaking up on April 9, 1997, to pursue other interests. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide