Total Fucking Godhead / The Soundgarden Thread

[VinylGuy]

Blasting Ultramega Ok on vinyl right now...is there anything better than the Flower intro?

[Kevin Davis]

"Ultramega OK" is my third favorite after "Superunknown" and "DOTU." I only got it a couple years ago but I have no issues with the sound -- to me it just sounds like a lot of those low-budget '80's SST/Sub Pop albums (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., "Bleach," etc.). I kinda like that about it, actually -- on "Louder Than Love" the sound acquires this testosterone-laced "muscle" that is less appealing to me, as strong as some of those compositions are.

"Badmotorfinger" is my least favorite too -- it has higher highs than "LTL" but is a less satisfying listen overall.

[VinylGuy]

These days:

1- DOTU
2- SUPERUNKNOWN
3- ULTRAMEGA OK
4- KING ANIMAL
5- BADMOTORFINGER
6- LOUDER THAN LOVE
7- SCREAMING LIFE

[Fuzzcharger]

Im not sure how i feel about the early days. I mean, i love them but im still really really crazy about SU-DOTU-KA. Badmotorfinger is a masterpiece for me, and yes, i do believe the metal approach disminish its greatness.

What about Louder Than Love and Ultramega Ok?

I think BMF was their song writing peak, but agree the production stinks. The SU production is perfect. King Animal surprised me as to how good it was but it also felt like Soundgarden doing a very solid but slightly less exciting version of SU and DOTU. The early stuff I can take or leave with the exception of a few songs. That early part of the catalogue still has that 'really good local band" vibe but is nothing I'm sure dozens of other bands around the USA with less photogenic front men were doing at the same time.

#teambadmotorfinger

[VinylGuy]

Im not sure how i feel about the early days. I mean, i love them but im still really really crazy about SU-DOTU-KA. Badmotorfinger is a masterpiece for me, and yes, i do believe the metal approach disminish its greatness.

What about Louder Than Love and Ultramega Ok?

I think BMF was their song writing peak, but agree the production stinks. The SU production is perfect. King Animal surprised me as to how good it was but it also felt like Soundgarden doing a very solid but slightly less exciting version of SU and DOTU. The early stuff I can take or leave with the exception of a few songs. That early part of the catalogue still has that 'really good local band" vibe but is nothing I'm sure dozens of other bands around the USA with less photogenic front men were doing at the same time.

#teambadmotorfinger

BMF is a very good album but i dont consider it their writing peak by no means. Its the first with Ben, and you can sense his melodic sensibilities but its not until SU and DOTU that the band really outgrow his earlier material and maybe, his peers.
Is there another band from the 90s as diverse and interesting as Soundgarden?

[matt reeder]

Im not sure how i feel about the early days. I mean, i love them but im still really really crazy about SU-DOTU-KA. Badmotorfinger is a masterpiece for me, and yes, i do believe the metal approach disminish its greatness.

What about Louder Than Love and Ultramega Ok?

I think BMF was their song writing peak, but agree the production stinks. The SU production is perfect. King Animal surprised me as to how good it was but it also felt like Soundgarden doing a very solid but slightly less exciting version of SU and DOTU. The early stuff I can take or leave with the exception of a few songs. That early part of the catalogue still has that 'really good local band" vibe but is nothing I'm sure dozens of other bands around the USA with less photogenic front men were doing at the same time.

#teambadmotorfinger

No, there was nobody out there that sounded quite like Screaming Life-era Soundgarden in 1987. That's why people were so blown away by them. But they couldn't have sounded like that for more than a couple of years before they had to grow up.

Look, I love Badmotorfinger but there's always been a few things about it that I really don't like, and the production is at the top of the list. The studio version of "Searching..." is offensively terrible...just unbelievably bad. Why they decided to record that song in B rather than just sticking with the drop D version they played live is beyond me. What were they thinking? I've never understood it. I've also always hated "Holy Water".

I feel like nobody is talking about Louder Than Love here. I've always ranked it above BMF just because Ugly Truth > Hands All Over > Gun is maybe my favorite 1-2-3 to start an album ever. But that's another album that needs a remaster, and they should have found a way to get "Fresh Deadly Roses" on there, too.

[matt reeder]

Is there another band from the 90s as diverse and interesting as Soundgarden?

Smashing Pumpkins.

[VinylGuy]

Those three are the reason why i love SG.

And Full On Kevin´s Mom.

[matt reeder]

Those three are the reason why i love SG.

And Full On Kevin´s Mom.

[VinylGuy]

Is there another band from the 90s as diverse and interesting as Soundgarden?

Smashing Pumpkins.

SP as diverse as SG? They didnt go from, lets say...a song like Hunted Down to Birth Ritual to Limo Wreck i think.

[matt reeder]

Is there another band from the 90s as diverse and interesting as Soundgarden?

Smashing Pumpkins.

SP as diverse as SG? They didnt go from, lets say...a song like Hunted Down to Birth Ritual to Limo Wreck i think.

They did light acoustic, heavy metal, psychedelia, gloom pop and pretty much everything else. Listen to Gish through Machina - they pretty much do everything. Hell, just listen to the Aeroplane Flies High box set, where they do everything they ever dreamed of in one release. Whether or not you think it's good is another question, but no other band from the 90s could even touch Smashing Pumpkins in the variety category.

To get back on topic:

[VinylGuy]

Fair point.

I love this one from the Nudedragons show.

[fyfe79]

I made up a best of cdr for my car recently and to my surprise I didn't put any BMF material on there. The whole album sounds quite 'stodgy' for want of a better word. I guess the blu-ray remix way solve some of the production issues but as it's only in the super deluxe set, I guess I won't be finding out.

It's an unusual album in their catalogue. Hiro's influence can be heard all over the earlier stuff, and without his art-house influence following his departure, the band went down a more metal direction on BMF with Ben's melodic tendencies (Somewhere, not withstanding) not really evident. Then Superunknown followed which showcased Cornell's increasing role within the band and Ben's growing confidence as a fully fledged band member.

I've always thought of BMF as something of an outlier in the bands reportoire.

[Fuzzcharger]

I made up a best of cdr for my car recently and to my surprise I didn't put any BMF material on there. The whole album sounds quite 'stodgy' for want of a better word. I guess the blu-ray remix way solve some of the production issues but as it's only in the super deluxe set, I guess I won't be finding out.

It's an unusual album in their catalogue. Hiro's influence can be heard all over the earlier stuff, and without his art-house influence following his departure, the band went down a more metal direction on BMF with Ben's melodic tendencies (Somewhere, not withstanding) not really evident. Then Superunknown followed which showcased Cornell's increasing role within the band and Ben's growing confidence as a fully fledged band member.

I've always thought of BMF as something of an outlier in the bands reportoire.

No Jesus Christ Pose or Rusty Cage on a best of??

[Kevin Davis]

Smashing Pumpkins were way more diverse than Soundgarden. So were Pearl Jam. So were lots of bands. I like Soundgarden a lot but diversity isn't among their core virtues; they did an admirable job of growing within the guidelines of a particular aesthetic and never really repeating themselves, and by "Down On the Upside" they were really starting to incorporate a broader range of styles and textures into the mix, but it still doesn't really compare to a band that was including "Thirty Three" and "Bodies" on the same album, or "Habit" and "Around the Bend."

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

Well, we have to discuss about what diversity means...i think going from a blasting rocker to a ballad its pretty common for a rock band. Its a by the books move, its classic rock in its core. One of the things i love about SG is their absence of ballads....they have a lot of mid tempo songs, or more introspective songs, but not a single ballad. I love that.

Maybe we can agree that the right word is complex? They are far more complex that Pearl Jam.

[bada]

1- SUPERUNKNOWN
2- DOTU
3- BADMOTORFINGER
4- LOUDER THAN LOVE
5- SCREAMING LIFE
6- KING ANIMAL
7- ULTRAMEGA OK

[VinylGuy]

Surprised to see Ultramega ok that low.

[bada]

Yeah that's the problem with lists. I love all those albums.