Top Ten: SOUNDGARDEN Songs

SOUNDGARDEN is a grunge/metal band seminal to the Seattle scene in the nineties and has recently resurrected to assault our ear drums with their hard rock genius. Their love for distorted guitars and their search for the perfect riff makes them stand out to me but their ace-in-the-hole is CHRIS CORNELL. As I stated this before on this site, CHRIS CORNELL is my favourite rock singer and so please take some time to go through these songs and see why I think that way.

Besides the 7 EPs and 4 compilation albums, SOUNDGARDEN has released 6 albums in their long career: Ultramega OK (1988), Louder Than Love (1989), Badmotorfinger (1991), Superunknown (1994), Down On The Upside (1996), and King Animal (2012).

10. Outshined - album: Badmotorfinger (LISTEN)

9. Big Dumb Sex - album: Louder Than Love (LISTEN)

8. Loud Love - album: Louder Than Love (LISTEN)

7. Spoonman - album: Superunknown (LISTEN)

6. Rusty Cage - album: Badmotorfinger (LISTEN)

5. Black Rain - album: Telephantasm (LISTEN)

4. Let Me Drown - album: Superunknown (LISTEN)

3. Hunted Down - album: Screaming Life EP (LISTEN)

2. Jesus Christ Pose - album: Badmotorfinger (LISTEN)

1. Black Hole Sun - album: Superunknown (LISTEN)



BONUS:

Since it's been so long since SOUNDGARDEN has been on the road, they decided to perform massively long, 1.5 hour sets, I guess to prove they still got the fire in them. Here's the concert set list of when they were in Toronto on January 25, 2013 - with no opening act, just pure grunge/metal rage from all over their discography.

Been Away Too Long
My Wave
Spoonman
Searching with My Good Eye Closed
Jesus Christ Pose
Let Me Drown
By Crooked Steps
Taree
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
Non-State Actor
Drawing Flies
Hunted Down
Ugly Truth
Live to Ride
Halfway There
Hands All Over
Room a Thousand Years Wide
Rhinosaur
Superunknown
Fresh Tendrils
Black Hole Sun
Attrition
Rusty Cage

ENCORE:

Outshined
Flower
Incessant Mace
Slaves & Bulldozers

The Playlist: Josie's Top 20 Edge Riffs

On my way home from a weekend road trip to Chicago (there will be something about this later), we caught local Toronto new rock station 102.1 The Edge and their top 20 "Edge" Riffs. 

If anyone knows anything about my taste in music - I am in love with the "riff".  A "riff" is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase that a song revolves around.  This musical idea is what gets in your head, what separates it from other songs, what makes a song special. The riff can make a good rock song into a legendary rock song.

Check out the list below.  While I don't necessarily agree with this list, it still has some pretty awesome songs.

SOUNDGARDEN - "Live To Rise"

SOUNDGARDEN's back with a brand new song "Live to Rise" which will be found on the Avengers Assemble: music from and inspired by the motion picture. I say brand new because the single they released two years ago "Black Rain" was actually recorded during the Badmotorfinger sessions back in 1991. 

[Only a SNIPPET - they are really on top of taking down full versions of this song]

As I said before in a past post, Chris Cornell is my favourite rock band singer and it's good to hear that his voice hasn't degraded too much from SOUNDGARDEN's 16 year hiatus. Check out that link to hear other examples of his work both in and out of SOUNDGARDEN.

CHRIS CORNELL - "I Will Always Love You"

Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, is my favourite rock singer. To commemorate the recent passing of Whitney Houston, he performed his rendition of her most famous single: "I Will Always Love You."

To see why he was such a great singer in his prime, check out some examples below.