helterskelter.ca

SOUNDGARDEN
1991 - Badmotorfinger.
1994 - Superunknown.
more SOUNDGARDEN.
way more Helter Skelter.

October 22, 1991 - 2021: 30 years of: Badmotorfinger.

"I'm looking California ...and feeling Minnesota"

The heaviest Seattle has to offer. Deadly and downtuned, this heaviness ain't from Birmingham, but from this new fresh vibe from the Northern West-Coast. Their third record, again produced by Terry Date, is a major stepping-stone for this hip-movement, but way more of a major statement of heaviness by the alternative, to alternative: SOUNDGARDEN.

The race is on, they're gonna break their "Rusty Cage". Fast opener with metal overtones and segment two is a tuned to B sludge worship breakdown, at a time when sludgemetal and breakdowns weren't even a thing. For your viewing pleasure: Rusty Cage, the video ...a different kind of art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBZs_Py-1_0 The all-star aligned diesel-pumping single "Jesus Christ Pose" is a trendsetter on it's own. Part alternative, part metal, part industrial-vibed ...all freaking heavy. And once you realize, this cut is build upon a Matt Cameron 5:51sec drum-solo, it makes the magic even more epic. For your viewing pleasure: Jesus Christ Pose ...the epic-leptic 3D effect video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14r7y6rM6zA And now, one of the heaviest number of the entire nineties, the war-cry of a generation: "Outshined". Dropped-tuned to D and down to business, this mid-paced monster is a fat-chugged wall of sound, not created by Tony Iommi. Hammering for a full 5:11sec, this deadly mix of low-end guitar and plucking bass and offset drum-patterns are matched by Chris Cornell's melodramatic tone ...a dead-locking combination. This humongous track also includes one of the greatest lyric-lines ever written in modern-rock: "I'm looking California ...and feeling Minnesota". For your viewing pleasure: "Outshined" ...the dirty video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNh-iw7gsuI DIY punk and brass-knuckles appear on the hyped "Face Pollution", a punch that includes horns and lots of high-pitched attitude, just like the other exterminator: "Drawing Flies". More metal is evident on the gigantic "Room A Thousand Years Wide" and the extra SABBATHian-doom of the heavy-machineries of "Slaves & Bulldozers".

The later 1992 Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas EP features a perfect reprise of BLACK SABBATH's immortal "Into The Void" as well as a DEVO and ROLLING STONES cover ...talk about variety.

A Titanic rocknroll-facelift was initiated on September 24, 1991 with the release of NIRVANA's Nevermind CD. Within mere weeks, Seattle was now the hot-bed for alternative-rock and migrated the music-industry's interests away from Los Angeles. ALICE IN CHAINS and PEARL JAM were also now million-selling acts, yet SOUNDGARDEN had a long lead start in the underground, dating all the way back from Autumn 1987 ...making them the oldest of "Grunge's Big Four".

Touring with the circus AKA Lollapalooza Summer 1992, along ICE CUBE, MINISTRY and the CHILI PEPPERS made them a new household name and soon after, boosted the sales up to the RIAA-certified 2x Platinum plateau. If Seattle is from another world, then SOUNDGARDEN is from another universe.

Also opening for GUNS N' ROSES, just like ALICE IN CHAINS did for 1991's Clash Of The Titans thrash-tour, this would highlight the fact that hardrock and metal bands didn't care having a different scene tagging along with them. As we all found out rapidly, that this new scene would forever overturn the hardrock-dominance upside-down.

Time for some face pollution ! ...this fertile GARDEN shall later be ready to harvest, in 1994, with the supernova of sounds: Superunknown.

RIP Chris Cornell (1964-2017)

*
Badmotorfinger = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVNdGnVMb4&list=PLBnJv6rImVe-JeEm8G3ndrQbKnHlPg_qx
Interview in 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwgtXrDWAVY
Live at MTV in 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ILONgJCLc
Live in Paris in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlKQ-IvNdf0
Motorvision = full VHS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wlqaZeSdR8
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkJlr0pW0a4

March 8, 1994 - 2024: 30 years of: Superunknown.

Grunge's last Grand Slam.

The weird one strikes big time. After 1991's Badmotorfinger CD extravaganza and Lollapalooza 1992's Summer extravaganza ...Seattle's unorthodox audioslaves provides another extravaganza for the 90s. Feel SOUNDGARDEN's black hole.

Loud and abrasive as both "Let Me Drown" and the metalized "My Wave" opens up the celebrations. The lethal cool title-track for "Superunknown" and the short 1:34sec punkrock "Kickstand" are fine bursts of rock-energy. The dark bar-blues "Fell On Black Days", the southernism of "Head Down" and heavy bohemian build-up of the morbidly heavy MTV-single "Black Hole Sun" ...are all evidences that this unit is at the alt-rock Pole Position.

More mega-metal ala SABBATH crushes the competition with the apocalyptic doom of "4th Of July", the mid-paced drive of "Mailman" and the hyperactive primal-groove of "Spoonman" ...definitively 1994's coolest track.

Polished and refined, this rock-band is now spearheading heavyrock into new territories, with more non-standard dropped guitar-tuning and signature high-melodies pitched vocals.

RIAA-certified 8x Platinum, Superunknown is more than a full hour of supersounds ...it unknowingly became the last massive commercial foot-print of the scene. As Kurt Cobain would unexpectedly pass-away in April 1994, forever closing the lid on Seattle.

SOUNDGARDEN would deliver one more slab of heaviness before a decade and a half of silence: 1996's Down On The Upside CD.

"All my friends are Brown and Red."

*
Spoonman = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0_zzCLLRvE
Black Hole Sun = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mbBbFH9fAg
Fell On Black Days = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzrJ4GRF7s
My Wave = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEbYxEXM2cE
Superunknown = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fELbXTDl5Ao&list=OLAK5uy_kJxFpCNIHxeAUoovlRmuOOTZGZAuE79yY
Artis: the Spoon-Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEGuEuxm8M
MTV Interview in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igylZAq6k4
Live in Berkeley in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AINBpkizDk
some band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY2Tmx6-JE0

more SOUNDGARDEN:

Grunge