Friday's Rockin' Roundup - Chris Cornell Edition

As I am sure most of you reading this are aware, there was sad news in the music world this week as we learned of the passing of Chris Cornell. Details surrounding the death were still being investigated as of this writing, but evidence and reports point to an apparent suicide. I was stunned when I heard the news and deeply saddened since. I know I did not personally know the man, but his music and his voice brought so much joy to my life. I was a huge Soundgarden fan during the height of their fame, and the first Audioslave album navigated me through some dark times in my life. Eventually I will write the Reflections On…Audioslave post that I have on my “to write” list, which will explain that navigation in much more detail.

Since hearing the news of his death, I have been listening to a lot of Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Chris Cornell solo work. Each song I listen to holds a special memory in my head and a special place in my heart. I was fortunate enough to see Soundgarden live once, with Nine Inch Nails (another post that I should write), and I am now more grateful than ever that I got to see him perform live. Superunknown, Down on The Upside, and the aforementioned Audioslave were all soundtracks to my life at one point or another.

This edition of Friday’s Rockin’ Roundup is dedicated to Chris Cornell. He was a vocal talent unlike any I’ve listened to and he will be missed. May he rest in peace.

Here’s the Chris Cornell Tributes that rocked:

New York Times Obituary

The New York Times wrote a detailed obituary on this legend that is worth reading. Their tribute to Chris Cornell is a touching remembrance on all the joy that Cornell brought to people across the world.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post also gave a touching tribute to the legend that follows his career from the early days in Seattle all the way through the current tour.

Gizmodo’s Take on Cornell’s Passing

Gizmodo posted their take on the passing of Chris Cornell, but also on the unexpected passing of celebrities in general. The article discusses the “strange new ritual” that fans go through when remembering a fallen hero---diving through the internet for social media posts in the celebrities’ final moments. An interesting quick read that reflects how tributes have changed over the past decade.

USA Today Collects Tweeted Tributes

USA Today gathered a lot of the early tweets from musicians that paid tribute to Cornell. It’s clear that he meant a lot not just to fans, but also to his peers.

A legend has passed. He will be missed, but his music will be remembered for ages

Temple Of The Dog To Tour For The First Time Ever

Temple of the Dog — the Seattle supergroup featuring Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, and drummer Matt Cameron(who plays drums with both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) — has reunited and will tour for the first time ever since forming in 1990. The band will play five cities, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, in November.

A special ticket pre-sale for fans signed up to the Ten Club, Soundgarden, and Chris Cornell email lists begins immediately and runs through July 27^th. Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 12:00 PM local time on Friday the 29^th. $1.50 from each ticket sold will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and an additional $1.50 will benefit Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation.

The tour marksthe 25^th anniversary of the release of Temple of the Dog’s first and only album, a self-titled set that was released by A&M Records on April 16^th, 1991. “We wanted to do the one thing we never got to do… play shows and see what it feels like to be the band that we walked away from 25 years ago,” Cornell says of the 2016 tour.

On September 30^th UMe will release a special Temple of the Dog 25^th anniversary reissue collection of their landmark album,newly mixed by Brendan O’Brien. The collection will be available in four configurations, including a four disc Super Deluxe, a double LP, a two CD Deluxe, and a single CD. Physical pre-orders are available today along with a detailed list of the contents of each configuration HERE.

Temple of the Dog came together from the ashes of Mother Love Bone following the death from a drug overdose of its frontman Andrew Wood, Cornell’s close friend and roommate. Cornell wrote future TOTD songs “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and “Reach Down” to help process his grief, “but the songs didn’t have any destination,” he says. “I was compelled to write them and there they were – written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy. My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute.”

Mother Love Bone’s Gossard and Ament began playing with McCready, and they brought in Soundgarden’s Cameron to drum on demos. Because this was a collaboration, and a tribute, there was no commercial expectation for the Temple of the Dog album. It would be, Gossard would later observe, “the easiest and most beautiful record that we’ve ever been involved with.” Adds Cornell: “Temple was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it. We weren’t concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made.”

Gossard, Ament, and McCready were also simultaneously forming a new band, which more than six months later would be known as Pearl Jam. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was vying to lead the project, came into the studio to sing background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell thought another song, “Hunger Strike,” needed a duet, Vedder was enlisted. “Hunger Strike” became a hit single, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.               

Temple of the Dog performed live only a handful of times, most notably in Seattle, in November and December of 1990. Those shows have become some of the most legendary Seattle concerts of all-time. Their 2016 shows mark the first time the band has ever toured. (Cornell joined Pearl Jam in 2014 at the Bridge School show and for two nights at PJ20 in Alpine Valley, WI, and the Temple line-up played “Reach Down” and “Call Me a Dog” at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in January 2015.)

“This is something no one has ever seen,” Cornell says of the official reunion. “We wanted to stop and recognize that we did this and pay homage.”

Temple of the Dog’s upcoming tour dates are as follows:

11/04  Philadelphia, PA      Tower Theater

11/07  New York, NY           Madison Square Garden

11/11  San Francisco, CA  Bill Graham Civic Center

11/14  Los Angeles, CA      The Forum

11/20  Seattle, WA               Paramount Theater

Chris Cornell Reissues First Solo Album - Due Out August 14th

When GRAMMY-winning, GOLDEN GLOBE® nominated singer/songwriter and rock icon Chris Cornell was about to release his 1999 solo debut on Interscope/A&M/Geffen Records, he was dissuaded from his first choice for the title, Euphoria Mourning, and reluctantly dubbed it Euphoria Morning. Now, 16 years later, Universal Music Enterprises is correcting that admitted misjudgment, re-releasing the re-mastered album under its original name on August 14, for the first time on vinyl as well as reissuing digitally and on CD.  Euphoria Mourning will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl and include a download card featuring 320 kbps MP4 audio ripped directly from the vinyl.

“The title of the record has been restored to its original spelling,” notes Cornell. “Which was changed before release after I listened to some bad advice.”

His first release outside of his work as lead singer with Soundgarden, Euphoria Morning, as it was then called, was a collaboration with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven, who appeared on the album, co-wrote five of the tracks and were credited as co-producers, engineers and mixers with Cornell.  The album’s first single, “Can’t Change Me,” was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 GRAMMY® Awards. “Flutter Girl” was reportedly an outtake from Soundgarden’s 1994 album, Superunknown, while Cornell revealed later on during a 2007 solo tour that “Wave Goodbye” was written as a tribute to Jeff Buckley, who tragically drowned in Memphis in 1997.  “Can’t Change Me,” the first single, peaked at #5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #7 on the Modern Rock Tracks tally.