Chris Cornell

Hands down, my favorite rock singer of all time is Chris Cornell. Chances are, I will cover various albums from his illustrious career over the course of this blog, but for now I'm going to talk about Cornell and his career in general.

Chris Cornell was born in Seattle in 1964. In 1984, 20 years later, he formed Soundgarden with friends Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto. This makes Soundgarden and I the same age. No wonder I love them so much. An interesting note: Chris Cornell started out as the drummer. Eventually Matt Cameron settled in and took over the drum kit; clearly the band recognized Cornell's vocal talent. Soundgarden signed to the famous indie label Sub Pop, which has a very strong association with the Seattle "grunge" sound. Several years later, they were the first band out of that scene to sign to a major label.

Soundgarden's early years were comprised of albums such as the dual EPs "Screaming Life" and "Fopp," their debut LP "Ultramega OK" (which was nominated for a Grammy), and "Louder Than Love" (their major label debut). It wasn't until "Badmotorfinger," however, that they began to attain truly notable mainstream success. That album, bolstered by hits like "Outshined," "Jesus Christ Pose," and "Rusty Cage," rocketed them into the limelight. That album happens to not only be my favorite Soundgarden album, but one of my favorite albums of all time. I will definitely cover it on this blog at some point, and talk about its influence on me.

Despite being the first to the major label party, Soundgarden's success was eclipsed in the early years by Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Indeed, while "Badmotorfinger" came out the same year, 1991, as "Nevermind" and "Ten," the latter two albums enjoyed success on a whole other level. Not to say that they were bitter rivals. In fact, Cornell collaborated with the members of Pearl Jam on the Temple of the Dog project, a tribute to their late friend, Andrew Wood of the band Mother Love Bone. This album resulted in the hit song "Hunger Strike," which is a duet between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. I still remember when I first heard that song on the radio: "Hey, that sounds like the guy from Soundgarden . . . and the guy from Pearl Jam. How can that be?" When I confirmed their identities my mind was just about blown. That song is still one of my favorites.

It wasn't until 1994 that Soundgarden truly took the charts by storm with "Superunknown." This is the album that cemented the band's status as rock royalty, particularly due to the smash hit "Black Hole Sun." Other hits like "Fell on Black Days" and "Spoonman" showed that Soundgarden weren't just a one-hit wonder. It was "Black Hole Sun" that first introduced me to the band and to Cornell's amazing voice. I was hooked from first listen.

Unfortunately, Soundgarden's follow-up to "Superunknown," titled "Down on the Upside," did not replicate the former album's success. Although it did give us the classic song, "Burden in My Hand," which is one of my absolute favorite songs. After that album Soundgarden broke up. By the time I actually discovered them in 1999, they'd already been broken up for three years or so (I was a bit late to rock music).

Chris Cornell pursued a solo career for a while, including the wonderful album "Euphoria Morning." "Can't Change Me," the single from that album, is another one of my all-time favorite songs (anyone seeing a pattern here?)

Cornell was pretty quiet for a few years, until a rumor started that he was possibly going to collaborate with the former members of Rage Against the Machine, who were without a singer since Zack de la Rocha left the band. This was practically too good to be true! I hadn't been much a fan of RATM at the time. While I loved their instrumentals, I wasn't that much a fan of the rap vocals (they've since grown on me). So pairing my favorite vocalist with them sounded like the makings of the best band ever!

When the supergroup finally came to fruition with Audioslave's first album, my expectations were more than met . . . it was an awesome album! While their second and third albums couldn't quite measure up, they were still solidly one of my favorite bands and I was able to see them live twice. To my pleasure, they tended to cover several Soundgarden songs, which was the second best thing to seeing Soundgarden live. Here's one of my favorite Audioslave songs, "Show Me How to Live."

Chris Cornell also had the honor of contributing the theme song for the movie that brought James Bond back into movie audiences' good graces: Casino Royale. The song, called "You Know My Name," did not disappoint. While it didn't quite dethrone "A View to a Kill" as my favorite James Bond theme, it's definitely up there!

Chris Cornell's solo career hasn't been quite as . . . consistently high-quality as his work with Soundgarden. None of his solo albums after "Euphoria Morning" really had the same magic, and he made the questionable decision to work with Timbaland for one of them. Fortunately, a few years ago Soundgarden reunited, and I was finally able to see them perform live. This was after I had already seen Audioslave twice and Chris Cornell solo twice. What an amazing show! The band later put out their first album since "Down on the Upside": "King Animal."

Chris Cornell is one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation. From Temple of the Dog to Soundgarden to his solo work to Audioslave and back to Soundgarden again, Cornell's career has given rock music some of its most enduring classics. If you want to sample the best that the "Seattle Sound" had to offer, you can't go wrong with sampling any of Cornell's amazing work.

"Burn it Black" by Injected

Today I found out that Jade Lemons, former guitarist for the band Injected, passed away this week of a drug overdose. In honor of Jade, I wanted to dedicate this entry to Injected's one and only album, "Burn it Black."

"Burn it Black" was released on February 26, 2002. 2002 was a big year for me. It was the year I graduated from high school and started college. Hence, I deeply associated the songs from that album with my year in the dorms.

Injected were composed of singer Danny Grady, guitarist Jade Lemons (RIP), bassist Steve Slovisky, and drummer Chris Wojtal. They were a group of high school friends from Atlanta that found success on the local scene and make their big move toward rock stardom in 2002 with their debut album. They scored a couple of minor hits on alternative rock radio with "Faithless" and "Bullet," as well as songs on the soundtracks for the movies "Spider-man," "The Fast and the Furious," and "The Scorpion King." They were also featured on the MTV Campus Invasion Tour. All the makings of success, right?

Well, for some reason that success was short lived. From what I've read, it sounds like there was a change in management at their record label, Island Records. The new management did not support them, and their second album (the tracks for which had already been recorded) went unreleased. They were dropped from their label and ended up breaking up and going their separate ways. The recorded tracks for the aborted second album, "The Truth About You," were eventually leaked online.

The original line-up of Injected reunited at least once for a charity show in Atlanta. They still have a dedicated following online, and I am one of their long time fans. I wish I could have seen them live! They ended up giving some of their songs from the second album for other bands to record. Butch Walker, who produced "Burn it Black," used the song "So At Last" on one of his albums. A band called Upside took "Monday" (one of my favorite songs) and "Daylight." Probably most notably, David Cook of American Idol fame made a minor hit out of "Barbasol" (also known as "Spun Again").

But back to where it all began, "Burn it Black." That album gets me revved up like few albums do. Injected were great at mixing super catchy, heavy guitar riffs with great, melodic singing.

Track 1, "When She Comes" gets the album going on a high note. I love the way the riff starts fairly quietly for a seconds before the rest of the band joins in and the song explodes into a high energy, head-bouncing good time. There's something about the way the spiraling guitar chugs along in this song that gets the heart pumping!

The album doesn't slow down as it moves into Track 2, the title track "Burn it Black." This is one of the most frequent songs on this album to get stuck in my head. It's a pretty straight forward rocker, with that special Injected magic that makes it both catchy and heavy. This song is also the one that made it onto the soundtrack for "The Scorpion King."

Track 3, "Bullet," is one of the singles from the album. However, I'd say it is one of the least representative-sounding songs on the album. As the loudest, most aggressive song on the album, I really think it was chosen as a single to try to cash in on the nu-metal fad. I think this was a miscalculation, as Injected really isn't a nu-metal band. They are a bit too traditional rock and roll to be lumped into the macho posturing and manufactured aggression that defined the nu-metal genre. Not to say that "Bullet" is a bad song. Far from it. It's got one of the album's catchiest choruses, and some ferocious guitar. But I think it hurt Injected's general appeal because it caused them to get lumped in with the hundreds of nu-metal wannabes clogging the music marketplace at the time. End rant.

Track 4, "Faithless," is the other single from the album. This one was a better choice for a single, and it also appeared on the soundtrack for "The Fast and the Furious." It's catchy as hell, with a great soft-loud verse-chorus dynamic. If any one song can be credited with getting me into Injected, I'd say it was either this one or Track 6. More on that song in a minute. But first . . .

Track 5, "It Only Hurts a While." Another highlight (the first half of this album is full of them), this could be called a power ballad of sorts. The emotion of this song really makes it stand out. It's loud and beautiful at the same time.

"Faithless" may have introduced me to Injected, but Track 6, "I IV V," was arguably the one to sell me on them. From the first seconds of the song when the drums fade in, to quickly be joined by the rhythmic pounding of the guitar riff, the listener is treated to the sweetest of rock and roll ear candy. The chorus is catchy and a bit more singable than that of "Faithless." Why this was not a single, I'll never understand. It at least made it onto the soundtrack of one of the biggest movies of the year, the very first "Spider-man."

The second half of the album isn't quite as strong as the first half, but that just means it's "great" instead of "amazing." Track 7, "Sherman" is a straight-forward heavy rocker. Track 8, "Used Up" is another one where the guitar riff and the chorus compete to dominate my head space. Tracks 9 and 10, "Ms. Fortune" and "Bloodstained," slow things down a bit, but still keep the music rocking. Track 11, "Lights Are Low," offers up one more fast-tempo rocker before the album slows down for the closing track, "Dawn."

Listeners who stick around for the hidden track, "Ride the Snake," will be pulverized by Injected's hardcore offering. Normally I can't stand screamed vocals, but somehow I like this song. Maybe because it's the only one on the album, and I can tell they boys are just doing it for fun. This isn't the genre they want to completely inhabit.

It's a shame that Injected weren't able to find more success from the music industry. In my humble opinion, the talent was there. Perhaps it was a matter of timing. They were playing a brand of rock that was out of style during the days of Nickelback and Limp Bizkit.

Now that Jade Lemons has unfortunately passed away, maybe more people will be introduced to the music that he and his band brought to life. Whatever the rest of the band is doing these days, I wish them much success. Please send warm wishes to them and to the rest of Jade's family and friends!

David Bowie

Another overdue entry for a late, great rock star. First off, I admit that I am not as familiar with David Bowie's work as I am that of Scott Weiland. I started listening to Bowie much later, after I began delving deeper into the back catalog of rock music. The only album I own is his greatest hits, and I've only begun listening to his full albums over the past year, as many of them came up on the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die," which is a list I am gradually making my way through.

Even still, David Bowie holds a special place in my heart for several reasons, which I will discuss here.

My first exposure to David Bowie was not his musical works, but rather, as an actor in the movie "Labyrinth."

He played Jareth the goblin king in that movie, spending the entire film messing with a teenage Jennifer Connolly. The most memorable part for me was the song, "Magic Dance," particularly the first several lines, which became a long-standing inside joke between my cousin and me:

Jareth: "You remind me of the babe."
Goblin: "What babe?"
Jareth: "The babe with the power!"
Goblin: "What power?"
Jareth: "The power of voodoo."
Goblin: "Who do?"
Jareth: "You do. You remind me of the babe." (song commences)

If you haven't seen "Labyrinth," check it out, but be prepared for weirdness. It's full of Jim Henson puppets, with Connolly and Bowie being the only human actors (that I can recall).

Of course, David Bowie is most known for his music. The number of classic songs that he gifted us with during his long career is staggering. "Changes," "A Space Oddity", "Young Americans", "Modern Love," "Golden Years," "Fame", "Let's Dance", "Rebel Rebel" . . . the list goes on and on.

Being introduced to the music of an artist through a body of hits that already exists in its entirety is a much different experience from following the progression of an artist's career in real time (such as has been my experience with the band Incubus). It is easy to forget that the collection of songs are the result of years of progression, growth and change. This became apparent to me as I listened to several of Bowie's albums in chronological order this past year.

He started off as a teen-idol type of artist. Check this out:

Later on he became fascinated by the idea of performing as various characters, such as Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke.

He would go on to experiment with various musical styles, including music inspired by German "krautrock" during his so-called "Berlin trilogy" of albums. He continued to release music for the rest of his life. "Blackstar," his final album, was released just two days before he died last month.

Bowie's music, even though I began listening to it relatively recently, still has much personal significance to me. I associate it strongly with my first (and so far, only) romantic relationship. My ex and I discovered our shared appreciation for Bowie on our second date, and on several occasions we would sing along to Bowie songs in the car together. "Changes" on the freeway, "A Space Oddity" on Mulholland Drive. In addition, "Under Pressure" was our go-to karaoke song, with me always singing the Bowie part. Now that more than three years have passed since we parted ways, the pain of losing that relationship has diminished (though not disappeared, but does it ever?), so I feel like I can appreciate these memories once again.

David Bowie was, hands down, one of the most creative and interesting rock musicians of all time. I definitely plan to delve into his material even more now.

Scott Weiland

This long-overdue entry is in honor of one of my favorite rock musicians, who sadly passed away at the beginning of this month: Scott Weiland.

Scott Weiland was the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, one of the most popular rock bands of the early to mid-1990s.

Rising to prominence at the tail end of the "grunge" era, Stone Temple Pilots sometimes got labelled grunge and sometimes "post-grunge." I have never been fans of either term. "Grunge" mostly describes a cultural movement, bound by time (early to mid 1990s) and geography (based in Seattle), whereas "post-grunge" describes the bands that were influenced by this initial movement and went on to take the style and sound of grunge bands and make it more "mainstream." So "grunge" usually refers to bands such as the so-called "Big Four" of the Seattle scene: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Post-grunge usually refers to bands that came a bit later and weren't necessarily from Seattle, such as Foo Fighters, Silverchair, Live, Bush, and Fuel. Personally, I am a fan of all of these bands, and chances are I will cover others of them on this blog at some point.

But this entry is about Scott Weiland. So I'll start by talking about STP and what their music means to me.

My first exposure to STP's music was their big hits that were played on KROQ 106.7, particularly "Plush" and "Interstate Love Song." The first STP album I listened to was Core, which in addition to "Plush" also had other hits such as "Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", and "Creep" (not to be confused with the Radiohead song). "Sex Type Thing" was one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar. "Wicked Garden" has long been one of my favorite songs of theirs, ever since I first heard it in a car commercial. Even today, I still picture an SUV crashing through glass when I hear Weiland shout out, "Burn! Burn burn! Burn your wicked garden down!" Core was a great album, but at the time of its release it apparently got a lot of flack from critics. They accused STP of ripping off the sound of other bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Rolling Stone magazine voted them Worst New Band in 1994 in the very same issue that the reader poll rated them as Best New Band. To be fair, judging from their early videos, they really were aping the macho, aggressive, dark persona that a lot of rock bands were doing at the time.

STP started to lighten up on their second album Purple, which also happens to be my favorite album of theirs. Classic songs like "Interstate Love Song" (another of my favorite songs to play on guitar), "Big Empty" and "Vaseline" are found on this great record.

Their third album, Tiny Music: Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, was about as weird as its title suggests. Here was the band really trying to set themselves apart. Its a good album overall, with some great songs like "Tripping On a Hole In a Paper Heart" (which has my favorite STP guitar solo) and "Big Bang Baby" as well as some . . . weird songs like "Art School Girl."

As I understand it, the band went on a bit of a hiatus between their third and fourth albums, largely due to Scott Weiland's drug problems. They finally put out the aptly titled No. 4 in 1999, which was the year that I first started becoming a serious fan of rock music. I remember the music video for "Sour Girl" playing on MTV, with Sarah Michelle Gellar as some sort of weird angel of death, making out with Scott Weiland in some kind of nightmarish landscape populated by mutant Teletubby creatures. Yeah . . . While some of the songs on No. 4 are a little over the top grunge-metal, as if the band were trying to recapture their hard rock cred, overall it is still an excellent album.

The same can't quite be said for their two remaining albums. Shangri-La-De-Da was their fifth album, and the last before their first breakup. I remember being disappointed in the album, but even more disappointed that they broke up before I got to see them.

Scott Weiland went on to join some of the members of Guns N' Roses to form the supergroup known as Velvet Revolver. I actually liked them quite a lot, and went to see them in concert twice. Once they were the sole headliner, with Hoobastank opening for them (not the best pairing . . . apparently they did not get along and Doug Robb from Hoobastank wrote the song "If I Were You" as a critique of Scott Weiland's attitude). The other time I saw them, they were co-headlining with the newly reformed Alice in Chains.

After VR broke up, STP got back together and I finally got to see them live. It was a great show down at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. However, I never got around to buying their comeback self-titled album. The reviews had been mixed, and by that time I had become very selective about the albums I purchased. I have listened to it though, and some of the songs are quite good.

For me, STP's music will always represent my days in high school, learning to play the guitar and exploring the world of rock music that had just recently opened up to me. My love of their music gave me something in common with another kid in my English class, who went on to become one of my best friends. I recently reconnected with this friend, having been inspired to reach out to him after I heard the news of Scott Weiland's death. Just last night, I attended this friend's wedding. 

Something about STP's music really spoke to me during a formative time of my life, and I will forever consider myself a fan. The music world has lost one of the greats of his generation.

RIP Scott Weiland!