Soundgarden

peter rideout wrote: I really don't care for grunge. The gravelly vocals, and angry, depressing lyrics about broken relationships, disfuntionality and despair just irritate me, and bring me down. I'm no expert, but the stuff I heard on the radio tended to predictability, too: acoustic opening (giving me temporary, false hope there was still some beauty/optimism left in popular music) -- loud angry part -- acoustic part -- loud and angry again, etc. Just not my thing. After hearing so much praise, I tried to get into Soundgarden, Nirvana, etc, but I couldn't identify with it. (Still, I can understand why many, especially in these times, might like it.) Perhaps I was just too old/relatively settled in my life, for it. Maybe I'm not "macho" enough (I preferred the generally much more cheery/positve 80s music -- no, not the shallow "haircut" crap on the radio, either). I fouind the 90s to be piss-poor musically. For my tastes, a fun exception was Weezer -- they rock, they've understand melody and hooks, and they don't make me want to murder people, or blow my own brains out. Good time R & R. They lift me up! One of my least favourite popular bands today is Nickleback -- I find all their songs to be much the same. Is their singer ever NOT pissed off? Bleah!¨

This is , sadly, what happens when everybody thinks grunge is Nirvana. Just because the poor man couldn't take it and killed himself does not mean everybody wanted to do that(Well, Andy Wood, Shannon Hoon and Layne Staley did died, but with overdose not by suicide). Besides, "grunge" is a very bad representation of the Seattle sound during the nineties. That word was only used by some guy in a magazine to describe their music and everyone clung to the style. It is useless to avoid the word now, since evidently the word "grunge" stands for the "Seattle music in the 90's", so that is why many think the Cranberries is also grunge because they "kinda sound alike". To my fellow grunge mates(damn, see why it is inevitable??) Soundgarden will hardly sound the same as Nirvana, and Pearl Jam will never sound the same as Alice in Chains. The fact that everyone were buddies and came from the same city did not mean they played exactly the same notes. You can never corner the groups into their genre, as a prog listener you know that simply cannot be.

So, you should checkout Soundgarden. I really recommend it. They were very metalheads at first but clearly evolved in their late albums. Chris Cornell's voice makes me pee of happy emotions and Thayil's guitars are quite original and crazy. Matt Cameron was clearly the best drummer of grunge, and one of my favorites in general music.

I've only heard Superunknown, but I really enjoyed it. But I'd still have to say my favorite grunge band is The Melvins. They always seem to get overlooked for some reason.

TheProgtologist wrote: kingofbizzare wrote: I've only heard Superunknown, but I really enjoyed it. But I'd still have to say my favorite grunge band is The Melvins. They always seem to get overlooked for some reason. True...The Melvins were awesome. I prefer the early Seattle bands like Mudhoney,Green River and the best of them all............ Mother Love Bone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you recommend me a Melvins album to start with? Their discography is gigantic, and I always seem to pick the bad ones.

BTW: Love the bands you mentioned ... and I'd like to add Temple of the Dog, which cannot be mentioned too often.

mike enregalia wrote: Another great recommendation: Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning. A progressive album by my standards, although it would probably not fit in any progarchives genre. Not grunge at all, not heavy ... Post Alternative Rock with Chanson-Influences (the album even contains a French-lyrics version of one song), very acoustic-sounding, almost singer-songwriter.

Holy crap dude! That is my favorite album of all time! Seriously! That album made me fall in love with Chris Cornell's voice! I want to know more about the background band Eleven, their records are out of print, seems the only way to have one is via the net. Hell, I recommend the Euphoria Morning to all you guys!!!