Post Random Music-Related Thoughts You Have

[LoathedVermin72]

All of Ben Shepherd's side projects > SG

[VinylGuy]

Ben´s the man for sure.
I think he is the main reason of why Soundgarden went from a cool and weird hard rock band to the psychedelic punk grunge piece i adore.

[Birds in Hell]

For context, I also like RATM way, way, way more than SG. SG is a band of very talented musicians making music that isn't as interesting as they are.

Yeah, I don't care for RATM even a little bit.

They've always been a very unappealing band to me, even when I was a moody teenager.

[Kevin Davis]

I like a handful of Audioslave tunes, and in general I think RM tends to overrate Soundgarden a bit, but man -- there isn't one Audioslave album I'd take over even my least favorite Soundgarden album (not counting "King Animal," which I haven't heard since it came out).

I loved RATM as a teenager and saw them in 1999, but they sound mostly ridiculous to me now. I don't care for them as musicians at all; for the most part I think Cornell was too good for them.

[zeb]

Guys, spenno is right. RATM is basically a moody teen soundtrack band. Audioslave weren't far removed from that and had maybe five good songs. I'm sure that all of the gang from Audioslave would acknowledge that they've never made a better album than Superunknown.

[LoathedVermin72]

We already had this RATM discussion recently, guys. But yeah, Soundgarden are so mature and sophisticated compared to them.

Is this really how you want to couch your argument?

[BurtReynolds]

Yeah you're never too old to rage against the machine.

[Kevin Davis]

It's not lack of maturity that puts me off RATM, unless we're talking lack of musical maturity -- the same meatheaded dropped-D riffs, unimaginative rhythm accompaniment, Morello and his grab bag of guitar wizard tricks. There's just nothing there that excites me or stimulates my imagination. The harmonic range is the thing I immediately miss when I listen to Audioslave in comparison to Soundgarden or "Euphoria Morning." Most of my favorite Audioslave songs are the ballads for this reason -- there's just more for Cornell to do in them, as opposed to just riding along the umpteeth version of that dropped-D riff that Morello has been recycling since 1992.

Of course, I pretty significantly prefer Audioslave to the stuff Cornell went back to releasing after they broke up, so who knows.

[VinylGuy]

I like Rage, specially Timmy C, but i agrew with KD.

Tom Morello is wonderful live, and at the time it was really something new, but he seems to be trapped into the same tricks...and the band seemed forced to play pretty much the same kind of music too.

Thats why i think their pairing with Cornell was cool, because it expanded their sound, and they were getting into new ground with Revelations, my guess is that they could have made a pretty cool 4th album.

[Kevin Davis]

Watching Morello with Springsteen was really the breaking point for me, watching him stand onstage at Madison Square Garden and rifle through his bag of parlor tricks, one after another, in the middle of "Tom Joad." "Oh, now he's doing the police siren thing"; "okay, here comes some of that deedle-deedle-deedle Yngwie Malmsteen showboating"; "okay, now he's doing that string-scratch fake turntable thing." Nevermind that none of these things were the least bit appropriate for the material -- it was like a carnival act, and I've seen him do it all before.

[zeb]

Most of my favorite Audioslave songs are the ballads for this reason -- there's just more for Cornell to do in them, as opposed to just riding along the umpteeth version of that dropped-D riff that Morello has been recycling since 1992.

You can see what Cornell was trying to bring to the band - particularly in their ballads - but apart from the rare triumph you can tell that the RATM remainders didn't really have a good grasp of what they should be doing. RATM + a Cornell wail here or there is not going to get the job done, and I think Cornell knew that it was going to be a case of diminishing returns from that third record onwards.

[Jorge]

Do fans of Watch the Throne call themselves Ye/Hova's Witnesses?

[zeb]

Too good not to tweet, plat.

[Jorge]

No it was a sincere question, it's too obvious to be a fresh thought.

[zeb]

Google says yes. At least the Hova part.

[bodysnatcher]

I'm genuinely surprised. I just assumed that everyone knew that Soundgarden was one of the best bands of all time.

I genuinely assumed that everyone thought Audioslave was kind of a joke, until now. I had no idea they were held in high regard.

[LetMeSleep]

I'm genuinely surprised. I just assumed that everyone knew that Soundgarden was one of the best bands of all time.

I genuinely assumed that everyone thought Audioslave was kind of a joke, until now. I had no idea they were held in high regard.

Held in high regard by editors of sports montages.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

It's not lack of maturity that puts me off RATM, unless we're talking lack of musical maturity -- the same meatheaded dropped-D riffs, unimaginative rhythm accompaniment, Morello and his grab bag of guitar wizard tricks. There's just nothing there that excites me or stimulates my imagination. The harmonic range is the thing I immediately miss when I listen to Audioslave in comparison to Soundgarden or "Euphoria Morning." Most of my favorite Audioslave songs are the ballads for this reason -- there's just more for Cornell to do in them, as opposed to just riding along the umpteeth version of that dropped-D riff that Morello has been recycling since 1992.

I know the comparison is silly in terms of message and coolness factor, but for me RATM was part of that first wave of post-gen-X hip-hop and hardcore-butt-metal influenced bands that had no appeal at all, and thought that being musically creative and melodically effective was for pussies. It was the first type of "new" music that I associated with pimply high schoolers with no musical taste. When I worked at a record store, I used to sell them Insane Clown Posse CD's by the truckloads.

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

Me too.
I want a full r&b, soul and funk album with them.