AJFOne’s Customs 6/3 – Broken links????
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LATEST UPDATE 5/20 – Soundgarden – Flower
GUITAR: ghostbyob
DRUMS: MrBurpler
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
On “Flower” Cornell’s devilish delivery – guttural yet knowing, extending vowels like they’re made of Play-Doh – is a complement to his withering lyrics, which tell the tale of a young woman whose fast-living lifestyle results in dying young.
LATEST UPDATE 5/21 – Soundgarden – By Crooked Steps
GUITAR: Fbs13
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
Soundgarden’s famous odd time signatures evolve further on standout “By Crooked Steps.” Cornell soars above jackhammering guitar parts and straight-ahead drumming, a mismatch that somehow sounds natural while claiming new ground for the band.
LATEST UPDATE 5/22 – Soundgarden – Mailman
GUITAR: Mb1nightmare
There’s a slow grind among the sludgy sounds of “Mailman,” which features music by Matt Cameron. But Cornell sings as if the lyrics are an incantation, oscillating between a breathy tenor and measured high notes; “All your kisses / turned to spit in my face.” Cameron mans a mellotron that bends the space-time continuum of the song, and Cornell reaches up so high on the chorus (“I know I’m headed for the bottom / but I’m riding you all the way!”) the sound distorts around him. “When Chris sings high, he tends to sing harder and louder than just about anything on this earth,” producer Michael Beinhorn told Billboard in 1994. “He literally blew through a bunch of condenser mikes. I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
LATEST UPDATE 5/23 – Soundgarden – Dusty
GUITAR: Mb1nightmare
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Nothing’s gonna put me out/ It’s backing down and under/ I’m down on the upside now.” The de facto title track to Soundgarden’s final LP in their first incarnation was a good example of that album at its most compelling — knotty, mysterious folk-prog that returned grunge from its rainiest days much closer to its arid, Neil Young roots. Dust never sleeps.
LATEST UPDATE 5/24 – Soundgarden – Worse Dreams
GUITAR: Sunfire Cobra
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
The dreams of worldly success referred to here is transformed into a nightmare in “Worse Dreams”, which describes the soul desperately clinging to hold on and survive in the midst of all things swirling and falling apart. “Everybody in/Sit down and keep on holding on”, Cornell exhorts, as he notes how the “black clouds drown” and the “rain is walking”.
LATEST UPDATE 5/25 – Chris Cornell – Euphoria Mourning 2 pack
GUITAR: EchoOfMystery
VOCALS: Qweflol
Chris wrote this song while working on the movie Singles. In the film, Matt Dillon’s character, Cliff Poncier, peddles his tape of solo songs. The fictitious tracklist was devised by Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, who was also working on the film. Cornell recorded songs with those titles on a 4-track tape machine, which is what Cliff Poncier would have used. One of those songs is “Flutter Girl,” which Cornell turned into a heartaching song about a delicate girl he is setting free, as she is better off without him.
GUITAR: EchoOfMystery/Bansheeflyer
On “Moonchild,” Cornell affectionately describes how his wife (and former Soundgarden manager), Susan Silver, “gets really freaked out during the full moon.” Cornell and Silver were married from 1990-2004.
LATEST UPDATE 5/26 – Soundgarden – Halfway There
GUITAR: Sunfire Cobra
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Halfway There” is a matter-of-fact take on class stagnation: “Something to eat?/I would say you’re doing better than most, though maybe not as well as some,” Cornell observes.
As always thank you so much for all the customs you’ve done, and most especially early Soundgarden! What do you think about doing Entering, Nothing to Say, or Fopp sometime?
LATEST UPDATE 5/27 – Chris Cornell feat. Joy Williams – Misery Chain
GUITAR: ghostbyob
STANDARD KEYS: FujiSkunk
Chris contributed a song to the 12 Years a Slave soundtrack in 2013 called “Misery Chain” with Civil Wars vocalist Joy Williams. In a press release, Cornell talked about the inspiration for the track. “I was moved by this film and the story in a way that transcends any film experience I have ever had,” he said. “I was inspired to write a hundred different songs, but finally landed on one based on what I believe is an extremely important message I took from this man’s journey. Compassion, basic human rights and love must be our priorities above race, religion or commerce. Every generation needs a reminder of that simple idea.”
LATEST UPDATE 5/28 – Soundgarden 2 pack
GUITAR: nicholasp248
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“All Your Lies” is a straight up punk song. It has some good guitar work and vocals, with a fairly catchy chorus. It was covered by Metallica recently at the I Am The Highway: A Tribute To Chris Cornell celebration at The Forum outside of Los Angeles, CA on January 16th.
GUITAR: nicholasp248
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“I Awake” is distinctly somber and unnerving all the way. Its introduction is pretty twisted and the riffs are too creepy and heavy, almost descriptive of a nightmare, or even worse. Chris Cornell wailing “I love you, I love you!” over the chainsaw guitars makes me think of some kind of dysfunctional relationship reaching its limit… with things getting really tense. It’s a great overlooked track with remarkable development of moods around a simple riff.
LATEST UPDATE 5/29 – Soundgarden – Incessant Mace
GUITAR: naginalJJ/grubextrapolate
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Incessant Mace” is a straight up blues staying on a single chord progression throughout but that doesn’t stop it from being relentlessly catchy and allowing Matt Cameron to pull every drum fill out of his tool kit.
LATEST UPDATE 5/31 – Soundgarden – Kyle Petty, Son of Richard
GUITAR: ghostbyob
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Kyle Petty, Son of Richard” was a b-side to the single “Fell on Black Days”. The subject of the song was Nascar driver Kyle Petty. “I was driving the Mello Yello car at the time, and that was a big deal,” Petty said. “To have Soundgarden do a song and put you in it, man, that was huge.”
LATEST UPDATE 6/1 – Soundgarden – Down on the Upside 2 pack
GUITAR: DashRetro
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
Bruce Pavitt once likened grunge to “the sound and look of fresh money,” and truer words were never spoken; the Alternative Nation is full of Foreigners, playing secondhand, sugarcoated grunge-by-numbers. Such Bush-league copycats inspired Soundgarden to write a song called “Karaoke,”. The song feels a bit like an experimental cocktail combining 1 part fuzzed-out bass drudgery, 1 part rollicking Kiss era rock and a dash of distorted cacophony. It’s book ended by BRE sections so you have to survive the intro but it’s worth the trouble.
GUITAR: Fbs13
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Tighter and Tighter” starts off with a heavy guitar riff and harmonics, and then goes into a wah-guitar solo. The bulk of the tune is a moderately paced track bluesy rock jam that builds and builds towards the epic conclusion.
LATEST UPDATE 6/2 – Chris Cornell – Euphoria Mourning 2 pack
GUITAR: EchoOfMystery
KEYS: EmotionalFlight
The R&B swagger and soulful vocals of “When I’m Down” suggest Harry Connick, Jr., getting his groove on at Lollapalooza. It’s a beautiful haunting blues track that deserves a hell of a lot more attention.
GUITAR: EchoOfMystery
“Steel Rain” perfectly captures agony and despair; it connects to your heart and makes you want to share in the song’s pain.
LATEST UPDATE 6/3 – Temple of the Dog – Reach Down (Cornell month done!)
GUITAR: mrcoupdetat/Bansheeflyer
VOCALS: EchoOfMystery
“Reach Down” starts with a doomy and droning electric guitar riff above slow rhythms through the verse sections. Giving this eleven minute track much of its mass the extended duo guitar lead by McCready and Gossard, while the predominant lyrical theme is “reach down and lift up the audience”. Mike McCready’s guitar solo takes off into a psychedelic stratosphere that recalls the explorations of Hendrix and the grime-spattered riffing of Mudhoney. McCready recalls, “That was my first lead on an album, and I was so excited. I’d been in a studio before, but never to record an album or anything. I did that in one take! I soloed through the whole thing and ended up with the headphones wrapped around my face. I was totally flushed. The guitar work in that track represents one of my proudest moments.”
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