Why Soundgarden Broke Up, The First Time.
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With the release of their fourth studio album, 1994’s Superunknown, Soundgarden were on top of the world. In 1994 alone Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden would all have number 1 albums.If you include late 1993, Nirvana had one too with their unplugged record As Soundgarden released their follow up in 1996, Down on the Upside, the band were teetering on imploding. Maybe it wasn’t surprising given that things had changed for the big seattle bands - alice in chains was limping along due to substance abuse, nirvana was done, and Pearl Jam were still embroiledi n their battle with Ticketmaster and still not doing music videos. Soundgarden were coming to terms with their success. In today’s video, let’s talk about why Soundgarden fell apart the first time.
Formed in Seattle in 1984, Soundgarden would blend metal and punk rock resulting in a sludgy sound. In 1987 they released their Screaming Life EP through fledgling Seattle label Sub Pop. They would release 1988’s Ultramega Ok on SST Recorde.. Then Soundgarden became the first major Seattle band from that era to ink a deal with a major label, signing with A&M Records. They released their major label debut in 1989 with Louder Than Love and returned in 1991 with Badmotorfinger, a record still held up as their best work by many fans. It was also by the early 90’s the band cemented their classic lineup with frontman Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Sheppard and drummer Matt Cameron. Though they were hailed as one of the big 4 bands from Seattle and the more experienced their peers - Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains enjoyed success much earlier than they did.
Thayil would tell Revolver "
"I remember the Nirvana guys wanting to be on Sub Pop, saying we were their favorite band," he continues. "The first time I met Kurt Cobain, I told him how much I loved their 'Love Buzz' single, and he said, 'Well, consider yourself our biggest influence.' These were the things that were important to us at the time."
Following the release of their third album 1991’s album Bad Motorfinger, guitarist kim Thayil recalled hearing several songs Chris Cornell had demoed for their follow up superunknown. These songs included spoonman, let me drown and black hole sun. He recalled thinking that there’s probably a few singles amongst those songs. It was at a metallica gig before superunknown came out that the guitarist spoke to metallica’s manager Cliff Bernstein who told him Soundgarden was following the same career path as metallica, telling him their next album would be their breakout hit and he was right. 1994’s Superunknown was massive, selling an impressive six million copies stateside and giving the band some of their most popular songs - black hole sun, spoonman, fell on black days, and The Day I Tried to live.
The tour for superunknown represented the first time the members of Soundgarden would do their own headlining shows with an extensive stage production. Drummer Matt Cameron would tell Greg Prato “For the most part it was pretty fun. Then towards the end of that tour, Kurt Died and i think the whole fabric of the group was starting to unravel a bit.”
Thayil would clarify that at this point in the band’s career, there wasn’t really any interpersonal tensions but rather it was stressful always being on the road and dealing with emotions without their support system especially after Kurt Cobain died adding “it wasn’t fair. We didn’t get to drive and be around our family during that period. We were supposed to be on the road and that’s when it sucked. People dying out the seattle music scene wasn’t supposed ot happen.”
Maybe foreshadowing the upcoming problems the band would face, the last date of the superunknown tour did not go well. Thayil would recall to greg prato Our last show was at memorial stadium in seattle - a really bad show. Chris’ voice was having a really fucked up time. When the show was over he just walked off stage got in a car and took off”
When it came time to begin working on their follow up album 1996’s Down on the Upside, the roles in teh band were slowly shifting. The group’s then manager and wife of Chris Cornell Susan Silver