Soundgarden: New Metal Crown

by Chris Nickson

A biography of the Seattle grunge band, from its beginning as a trio to the present-day quartet that attracts eighteen thousand fans to Seattle's Memorial Stadium

Genres: Music, Biography

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1995

About the author

I'm a novelist and music journalist, the author of many books set between the 1730s and 1950s in Leeds, as well as others in medieval Chesterfield and 1980s Seattle.

Above all, though, its Leeds I love, the people, the sense of the place changing with time. Yes, I write mysteries, but ultmiateoly they're books about people and their relationships, and the crime becomes a moral framework for the story.

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Content itself is great, but about halfway through the paperback book, there is a massive misprint - starting on page 83, the book skips to page 86 of Michael Chabon’s book Wonder Boys. The misprint continues for about 40 pages, then New Metal Crown continues on page 119. All the content that should have been there is missing, it does not pick up where it left off prior to the misprint.

Not sure if this problem carries over to digital versions of the book, but it was extremely disappointing to get engrossed in the history of the band and find out a decent chunk of the book is missing.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a starry-eyed slapdash hagiography, but got instead an excellent book that covers the history of metal, the history of Seattle scene that birthed Soundgarden in 1984 and an in-depth bio of the band dating from the very beginning. (Amazingly, it is over half the book before we even get to Badmotorfinger. Much to my delight, all parts of the band’s history up until the book's publishing are treated with equal importance.) Too many books have the band in question living in a bubble; this book only falls victim to this in regards to when Nirvana hit the mainstream.


The band name came from a wind sculpture in Seattle’s Magnuson Park, Douglas Hollis’ A Sound Garden. (1-2)

Original band was a trio: Kim Thayil, Hiro Yamamoto, and Chris Cornell (vocals and drums). (2)

The Showbox had been a bingo parlor (which it continued to be part-time in its first year as the Showbox) prior to being a club, purchased by two teenagers who pooled their money. Opened in Oct 1979 with an X concert, going on to host the Ramones and Husker Du among others in the punk scene at the time. (26-27)

Soundgarden came out of The Shemps, who had Yamamoto on bass and Cornell on drums and vocals. Yamamoto quit and Thayil joined. (34)

Though Thayil was born in Seattle, he was raised in Park Forest, IL “where he, along with Yamamoto and a slightly older friend, Bruce Pavitt, graduated from Rich East, an alternative high school.” (35)

“When he was fourteen, his parents divorced and Cornell dropped out of high / school, taking a job as a cook” (38-39)

When the original Soundgarden trio got together and jammed, they wrote three songs the first day and another five the second day. “Within a couple of months they had a total of fifteen original songs in their repertoire.” They went down to Olympia to make a demo tape. This was winter ’84. This demo is how they got gigs. It had a cover image of a medieval woodcut of people getting their heads cut off. (40)

Friends sent their demo tape to labels, garnering the first national attention from record companies. This was before they even signed to Sub Pop, but was not the direction the band wanted to go. (49-50)

Matt Cameron “achieved his first real notoriety by singing ‘Puberty Love’ in the movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” (53) In Seattle he joined Feedback, then Skin Yard, then Soundgarden.

Bruce Pavitt wanted to do more after the first Green River EP, but had no money. So Kim Thayil had the idea to introduce Pavitt to Jonathan Poneman.” (60)

“Most of those early [Sub Pop] singles were produced by Jack Endino, who’d quickly settled behind the console at the new Reciprocal Studios.” Possibly as many as 40 of the first 50 Sub Pop records, in addition to the first 10 or 15 C/Z releases. (63)

The Screaming Trees were on SST and got Soundgarden signed. (65)

The Hunted Down/Nothing to Say single on Sub Pop “provided the catalysts to enable Soundgarden to hit the road properly, rather than just play gigs in Seattle and in other parts of the Northwest—Which only a year before had been a giant step in itself.” (68)

A&M, Geffen and Warner Bros. expressed interest in band based off of the single. Thayil: “but it was important for us to establish ourselves” (70)

“in October 1987, four months after “Hunted Down”…the Screaming Life EP was out. (72)

“The sessions for the SST album took place during the spring of 1988.” (78)

Louder Than Love was recorded and mixed in just two months. (93)

When Hiro Yamamoto left, Ben Shepherd auditioned, but lost out to Jason Everman. Both had been second guitarists for Nirvana, though Shepherd never actually got to play with the band. Everman was given a credit on Bleach though he hadn’t played on it, perhaps as a courtesy for him fronting the $600 for studio time. (100-101)

“Louder Than Love hit the stored in September 1989” (103)

“The band that returned to Seattle from Europe in June 1990 was a battered unit.” They were grieving the death of Andrew Wood. And Everman was kicked out shortly after their return. (121)

Ben Shepherd had been an admirer of the band since the beginning. He made it into the band the second time around, a sort of dream come true. (125)

In September 1990, Cornell married longtime girlfriend and band manager, Susan Silver. (128)

Cornell, Cameron, along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready came together to record Temple of the Dog. (128) “IN the end Vedder made a significant contribution, sharing the lead vocals with Chris on ‘Hunger Strike,’ and singing background of ‘Pushin’ Forward Back,’ ‘Your Savior,’ and ‘Four-Walled World.’” (129)

“Until now Soundgarden had relied on their large backlog of songs to provide material for their records…the time for a change had come. They had a new bass player, one who was quite capable of writing, and they had new things to say.” (130)

To help with writing—he had felt a bit blocked—Cornell “went down to the coast, to spend ten days in a cabin without a phone.” (131)

Badmotorfinger was recorded at Bear Creek Studios.

“A&M issued the Temple of the Dog album in April 1991.” (133)

Singles filmed before grunge really took off.

The name Badmotorfinger was “a play of Ronnie Montrose’s Badmotorscooter album, the Beatles-influenced band Bandfinger, and Motorhead” (139)

“Axl Rose, the singer for Guns N’ Roses and a longtime Soundgarden fan, asked the band to open for G N’ R on its belated arena tour to promote the two Use Your Illusion albums.” (139)

“‘It wasn’t that we were lucky coming from Seattle,’ Chris pointed out, ‘It was because of us and a few other bands not changing and gaining success that any kind of scene exists there now.’” (152)

Soundgarden’s rejection of the heavy metal stereotypes of debauchery and such “earned Soundgarden the name Frowngarden from Gun N’ Roses crew.” (156)

During the Guns N’ Roses Europe tour, they did a session for BBC’s “Friday Rock” program on Radio One, “recording ‘I Can’t Give You Anything,’ ‘I Don’t Care About You,’ ‘Can You See Me,’ and ‘Homocidal Suicidal.’” (162)

During Lollapalooza, Soundgarden covered Body Count’s “Cop Killer.” (165)

Alice Cooper collaboration as well as the song “The Message” for Flotsam and Jetsam (172-173)

The band recorded 26 songs in the Superunknown sessions. (173)

“The major band indulgence was beer; they eschewed drugs and groupies, on and off the road.” (177)

Superunknown released on March 1, 1994. (183) It hit number one on the Billboard charts. (184) The album stayed in the Top Ten through the spring and summer. (185)

They were touring Europe when Kurt Cobain died.

“They were reportedly offered $200,000 to play 1994’s Woodstock II, and refused it.” (196)

Record “Blind Dogs.”

“Nineteen ninety-four had been the year of Soundgarden, They won and MTV Award, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video for “Black Hole Sun.” Spin’s year-end poll found them with a Top / Ten album, single and video (“Black Hole Sun”)…The Rolling Stone critics gave them two awards, including Best Metal Band, and they were nominated for four Grammys (Best Metal Performance, Best Rock Album, Best Song, and Best Hard Rock Song), winning two—Best Metal Performance for “Spoonman” and Best Hard Rock Song for “Black Hole Sun.” Four million copies” were sold. (203, 205)

Free vinyl flexidisc with Reflex magazine, includes “She’s a Politician” and “Christmas with the Devil” (Spinal Tap cover) (218)

[Norberto Fumagally · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about the history of Soundgarden up until right after they released their magnum opus Superunknown.
Goes into a lot of detail about the recent years, about which many (like me) might not know much.
It's also fascinating to read how the very knowledgeable author imagined the future of the band before they went on hiatus until 2011.