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Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
(Reuters) – As rock’n'roll reunions go, the current reemergence of Soundgarden after a 13-year split is sadly short of salacious intrigue.
The four members of the hard rock band, working on a new album and preparing to begin a monthlong North American tour in July, did not have to complete prison terms or rehab stints.
And, despite a report in the satirical newspaper The Onion, lead guitarist Kim Thayil was not working as a daytime supervisor at a Cinnabon baked-goods store.
Thayil, 50, who did indeed keep a low profile after the band fell apart in 1997 amid internal tensions, told Reuters on Friday that the foursome remained good friends.
They frequently saw each other socially in their Seattle hometown, including at bars, concerts and each others’ homes.
“Any acrimony was toward the band as a collective, not toward any individual,” he said. “We’re just too interconnected, going back to the ’80s with so many mutual friends and family in common.”
Still, with singer Chris Cornell pursuing an intermittent solo career and drummer Matt Cameron firmly ensconced in Pearl Jam, any chance of a reunion by one of the biggest bands of the 1990s “grunge” era seemed remote.
Cornell inadvertently dropped the first hint on the first day of 2010 when his cryptic tweet about the relaunch of the band’s website and merchandising efforts was misinterpreted as a reunion announcement. Thayil was inundated with calls from people who had read frenzied news reports on the Internet.
MOM, WE’RE NOT REUNITING!
“I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom,” Thayil recalled. “‘Are you going to believe what someone told you they saw on the Internet? Or are you going to believe what your son told you? … We’re not back together.’”
Still, Soundgarden’s belated move to fix its woefully neglected online presence generated interest from concert promoters. The band accepted some of their offers, and accordingly started dusting off its old songs in rehearsals around March 2010. It played a handful of shows last year including the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago.
“There never was a time when we said, ‘Hey we’re a band again’,” Thayil said. “(But) I think some time last fall … we realized we’re doing all the things that a band does now, not just designing a website.”
That was about the time that the band, at Cameron’s behest, entered the studio to turn the new song fragments generated during rehearsals into material for its first new album since 1996′s “Down on the Upside.” Thayil said the songs are in various stages of completion, with all members contributing ideas. The lineup is rounded out by bassist Ben Shepherd.
Soundgarden has a deal with the successor company to its old A&M Records label, but it is unlikely the album will come out this year.
“If we were to say, ‘Let’s get this record out by the fall’, I think it would put a lot of pressure on us and the quality would at some point suffer,” Thayil said. “And the more we enjoy it, the more our fans should end up enjoying it.”
Meanwhile, the North American tour kicks off in Toronto on July 2. A fall leg is probable, Thayil said, and the band is drawing up a “wish list” of international dates.
Beyond that, the future is uncertain especially since Cameron’s commitments to Pearl Jam take priority, and Cornell also has solo interests, Thayil said. That’s fine with him.
“The band is definitely handling its career situation in a lot freer way than it did before,” he said. “The way we’re doing it is diminished pressure for us. Probably consequently, maybe it’s diminished expectation!”
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
http://grungereport.net/?p=4669
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
Fuck. They can sugarcoat it but there's obvious tensions. Sounds like a repeat of the Down on the Upside sessions where Ben and Chris dominated it and basically cast aside Thayil and only let him bring one song to the table. Album's status goes from finished in May to "not this year". Fuck a second leg or foreign dates(no offense to overseas fans), we're gonna be lucky if they even make it through this summer tour.
PLEASE do not derail this tour until after the Frisco date.
This is not good news.
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
Or until after the July30th date at the Gorge. I'd kinda like to see that one James. 
Hopefully everything turns out alright with them. Obviously there is something else going on that we are unaware of.
I'm also hoping they road test a few new songs.
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
I'm also hoping they road test a few new songs.
I'm intrigued by this as well. Every time they are working on an album and tour beforehand, they play new songs to gauge crowd reaction. If they don't, chances of a new album drop considerably.
IF this tour gets a bit bigger, they will need something in stores to sustain it. With this latest news, that B Sides collection is sounding pretty good. That collection should have dropped right before announcing tour dates. While I like Live on I5, that release was a mistake as it has no legs.
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
I'd certainly be fine with them playing b-sides as well. I'd love to hear Kyle Petty or Kareoke live.
My wet dream is they play Overfloater. I think there's a slim chance of that though. I just hope the set is different from the last time I saw them. I'd like some of their newer stuff played and not mostly the older stuff.
They can also drop Big Dumb Sex from the setlist.
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
I'd certainly be fine with them playing b-sides as well. I'd love to hear Kyle Petty or Kareoke live.
My wet dream is they play Overfloater. I think there's a slim chance of that though. I just hope the set is different from the last time I saw them. I'd like some of their newer stuff played and not mostly the older stuff.
They can also drop Big Dumb Sex from the setlist.
Fans on the SG site bring up Overfloater so its certainly a possibility during a real tour. Definitely wouldn't be performed every night though.
B sides being performed is a total pipe dream unless they get an official release. Their discog is too strong and they have too many "must play" songs for buried treasure to get performed. An arena chant for Kyle Petty might cause it to occur, but there will be so many casual fans at these arena shows that almost none of them will have even heard Kyle Petty and definitely NOT Karaoke.
You guys at that Nudedragons club show should have been screaming bloody murder for those songs.
I love Big Dumb Sex and would like to hear it unless they drop it for something better. Not worthy of an encore tune though the way they did it at at those club dates.
- jimmythegent
- Rep: 30
Re: Kim Thayil Says Album Unlikely This Year
Fuck. They can sugarcoat it but there's obvious tensions. Sounds like a repeat of the Down on the Upside sessions where Ben and Chris dominated it and basically cast aside Thayil and only let him bring one song to the table. Album's status goes from finished in May to "not this year". Fuck a second leg or foreign dates(no offense to overseas fans), we're gonna be lucky if they even make it through this summer tour.
PLEASE do not derail this tour until after the Frisco date.
This is not good news.
I don't get any of that from this article.
I'm actually still convinced the album is coming this year - Kim didn't actually say it wasn't - and if anything, the reporter has misinterpreted what I read as "we are not putting pressure on ourselves with deadlines - it will be finished when we feel it's finished". I say good. That bodes well for another masterpiece.
Nothing more, nothing less - I feel the future for Soundgarden fans is very rosey.
