At #92 in the countdown of my top artists of the past four years is my favorite 90s Seattle grunge band. It’s not Alice in Chains, or Pearl Jam, or even Nirvana, so who does that leave? This band was formed in 1984, a few years before any of the other three bands mentioned above. They disbanded in 1997 because they just couldn’t get along. The lead singer released a solo album and then went on to start another band, Audioslave, with former members of Rage Against the Machine.

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#92: Soundgarden

I don’t know why I couldn’t get into Audioslave. I think maybe it’s because the lyrics of Audioslave songs aren’t as depressing as the lyrics of Soundgarden songs. Yeah, I listen to Soundgarden when I’m feeling depressed, because it’s like they understand what I’m going through.

Video: Soundgarden – Fell On Black Days

Do you ever feel that the words you say or write don’t live up to the ones inside your head? As a writer, I’ve been there. Soundgarden has been there too.

Video: Soundgarden – The Day I Tried To Live

In this next video, Soundgarden offers a solution to all the world’s problems…

Video: Soundgarden – Blow Up The Outside World

If you don’t like that solution, then here’s another possible solution: the sun turns into a black hole and sucks everything living, dead, animate, or inanimate into it, and just be done with it all.

Video: Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun

Don’t want to do away with everything? Want to deal with life’s problems in a more localized fashion? Just get a good length of rope and a stout limb.

Video: Soundgarden – Pretty Noose

Have you ever felt that you could have, should have been more than what you are now, that you have talents and skills that should have helped or dazzled the world in greater ways than they have so far? Do you ever feel that you should be more renowned for the great things you should have done in this life, but have failed to do? Have you ever felt that you should be wildly famous, your name a household word, your face familiar to every person on the planet, and yet you now feel like a nobody, supremely unknown to most of the people on the planet? Then this next song is for you.

Video: Soundgarden – Superunknown

But even Soundgarden could express the hope for salvation from life’s woes.

Video: Soundgarden – Spoonman

So in 1997, Soundgarden disbanded, lead singer Chris Cornell released a solo album, then started up Audioslave. And then in 2010 there’s an announcement that Soundgarden is getting back together. They performed live for the first time in over 12 years back in April, 2010. In September, 2010, they released Telephantasm, an album of collected songs from the past. And coming up on March 22, 2011, they will be releasing a new live album, Live On I-5.

Telephantasm includes this unreleased song from the 90s.

Video: Soundgarden – Black Rain

What will Soundgarden sound like now? We can check out an April, 2010 performance and see… (BTW, what is NUDE DRAGONS an anagram for?)

Video (Live Recording): Soundgarden – Beyond the Wheel

I can’t say that I’m all that impressed by the above rendition of Beyond the Wheel, but it will be interesting to see what their new live album is like. I’m not going to pre-order it, but wait and see what some of the songs sound like before I put out any money for it. If it does well, I wonder if the band will consider releasing a studio album of new songs. From what I’ve read, it sounds like there’s at least some possibility of that. I think I’d prefer that over a live album. There aren’t too many live albums that I care for that much. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how things go. I can live with that.

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Reader Recommended Related Videos

Dekh (see comments) has suggested some related videos from Rage Against the Machine. Unfortunately, I can only embed one of them on this site—the other two suggested RATM videos are either blocked for the US (the country where I reside) or had embedding disabled. Here’s the one RATM video suggested by dekh that I was also able to watch and embed.

Video: Rage Against the Machine – Bombtrack

And here’s the video dekh mentioned by Nine Inch Nails. This is one of my favorite songs, though I listened to it more during the 90s than I have during the past four years.

Video: Nine Inch Nails – Broken

More Soundgarden:
Soundgarden World – Official Site of Soundgarden

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