Hunted Down

I have been thinking a lot lately about how things used to be - and how things are now - when it comes to music. I should start this off with a disclaimer: I don't collect records as much as I collect music. I am not one to be looking for specific pressings of vinyl albums, first editions, misprints or anything like that (at least not for most artists), but I am a sucker for finding new music to explore. And today, that is easier than ever. I can get most music on Amazon - and what I can't get there, I can at least check out at YouTube first. There are long articles with detailed discographies available online, so I can always find out what just about any artist has released. And it is great! There is no doubt about that.

 I am ok with MP3 files - if the bitrate is 256 kbps or higher, I don't hear the loss so many complain about (especially vinyl fanatics), and so I have all my CDs converted to MP3 files and while Amazon still allowed it, I uploaded every CD I owned so that I can access it from the cloud, knowing it is music I paid for (I actually believe in doing my small part for musicians to be paid). I have the same relationship with music as I do with books: I have a nostalgic relationship to physical copies (I loved peering over vinyl albums while playing them for the first time just as much as I loved the smell of a new book as I cracked it open), but ultimately, it is the content that matters. The music on albums and the text in books. And If I can have all of them at my fingertips on my phone, tablet, and computer, that just makes it that much easier to always access this content.

However, I also think that something has been lost in all of this, at least for me. I miss the discovery of stumbling over something I didn't know existed as I explored record stores - or the hunting down of releases I knew were out there that I had to convince record stores to get. I remember waiting for Tori Amos' second album, Under The Pink, having to ask the record store to order it, because it wasn't really on their radar. I remember stumbling over Primus' Miscellaneous Debris getting excited that they covered Peter Gabriel on a release I didn't know excisted. I remember going to a late night record shop in Philadelphia in 1995 on my first visit to the US, finding out that aforementioned Tori Amos had released an album under the moniker Y Kant Tori Read, and purchasing it despite the dubious version of that particular release (it was technically out of print, but someone decided to print it anyway...). 

And I remember the sense of awe I felt when I on the same USA trip, this time in Baltimore, browsed through an outdoors record display for a tiny hole in the wall record shop - or maybe it was just one salesman sitting outside with some CDs to peddle - and I stumbled across a Soundgarden release called Screaming Life/Fopp. I was a huge Soundgarden fan, but I don't remember ever having heard about this. I picked it up, held it in my hands, and just looked at it. Was this legit? It sure looked like Chris Cornell... The names were right... Yup, I had to have it. So I bought it. I believe it was on heavy rotation on my DiscMan (remember those?) - and I truly enjoyed it. It might not be their finest moment, but Chris Cornell showed he could wail on the song I have chosen today... And Hunted Down fits, because that's what I used to have to do for albums. But not so much anymore. The only times it happens now is when I go against my interest in the music itself and also want to find a physical copy (such as it was with Tool's Fear Inoculum). But for the most part, the days of surprising finds are over. And while I do miss them, I still will have to say that having access to all this music isn't a bad thing either... Just sayin'. 

November 2 - Hands All Over

I think we'll stay in Seattle today. Soundgarden's first album on a major label was 1989's Louder Than Love, released on A&M Records. Their sound is still raw on this album, but not quite as raw as on their debut, Ultramega OK. For many bands this would have been a very transitional album, but Soundgarden hasn't really stuck to much of a formula, so just about all of their album shows a band in constant growth (although I know a lot will claim they peaked with Superunknown from 1994. However, it is a transitional album as far as lineup goes. Chris Cornell sings and plays the occasional guitar, Matt Cameron is rock steady behind the drum kit, and Kim Thayil lays down guitar tracks like no other. However, this was the last album to feature Hiro Yamamoto on bass - Ben Shepard joined in time for their next album, and that has been the line-up ever since.

While Superunknown ironically is their best known album, my personal favorite album of theirs is 1991's Badmotorfinger, which gets a deluxe edition release later this month, but I still have a very sweet spot reserved for Louder Than Love, and especially the song that was selected as a single from the album: Hands All Over. I love the rolling groove that seems to be able to go on forever - and Chris Cornell sings otherworldly here again...

February 29 - Slaves and Bulldozers

For this year's bonus day, I thought I'd go heavy. Really heavy. I still remember the very first time I heard Soundgarden. It was 1990, and my very good friend Sissel had come home after spending a year in Marietta, Georgia, where her father had worked during a sabbatical. She brought home three CDs that I really liked: Primus' Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Ministry's In The Land of Rape and Honey, and Soundgarden's Louder Than Love. While all these three albums had an impact, Soundgarden left the most lasting mark with me. I remember sitting in the den in the basement of my parents' house as Sissel brought out the CDs, and the song Hands All Over really blew me away!

In 1991, one of the albums I was most eagerly anticipating was Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, and it did not disappoint. If it hadn't been for U2's spectacular Achtung Baby!, it would easily have been my pick for album of the year (and what a year that was, with Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten also being released). At this point in their career, Soundgarden was seen as part of the grunge movement and lumped in with the other band from the Seattle scene; however, all three bands were clearly different - with geography as the only common denominator at this point in their career (the connection between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden can be traced to the Temple of the Dog project, but they were clearly different from Nirvana).

I purchased Badmotorfinger on cassette, and it was on very heavy rotation when I went to England that year - I can distinctly remember listening to it taking the tube around London on my way to St. Ives (I believe I already talked a little bit about that trip). For me, the highlight of the album is also the longest song, a sludgy and heavy song called Slaves and Bulldozers.