Nudedragons Live in Seattle, pt. 1

Oops!

Someone sent me this brand new Soundgarden recording last week and it’s been sitting on my desktop since, where I almost forgot to post it.

When Soundgarden split up in 1997, it seemed pretty unlikely Seattle’s godfathers of grunge would ever reunite. “I haven't received any phone calls from anyone in Soundgarden about a reunion since we broke up, nor have I called anyone,” Chris Cornell said in 2007 interview with MTV News. “We were happy with how it ended. There was no unfinished business.”

Before and since, various other members of Soundgarden had also nixed the possibility of a reunion. However, in March 2009, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd teamed with Tad Doyle (of Tad fame) to perform a handful of Soundgarden songs at a Tom Morello show. Then in October, Cornell joined his three former bandmates at a Pearl Jam show, where they played together on “Hunger Strike.”

Then came a New Year’s Day tweet from Cornell: “The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” Since, the band has been in a flurry, rehearsing for their upcoming headlining slot at Lollapalooza, and possible U.K. festivals.

On April 16, the band played what Cornell called “a rehearsal, really” for about 1000 fans at the Showbox in Seattle. The show was billed under the pseudonym “Nudedragons,” an anagram of Soundgarden. I have no idea of the original source for this, but it sounds like an audience recording. On a scale of 1-5, I’d put the sound quality at about 3-3.5. The band sounds great and you might even forget Chris Cornell put out an album like Scream.

Since there are 19 tracks, I’m going to split this over two posts and of course I’ll zip up each post for your shopping convenience. (Because of RapidShare upload limits, the two zip files are going to be split differently than the two posts – just be sure to tune in tomorrow and you’ll get everything.)

Intro.mp3
Spoonman.mp3
Gun.mp3
Searching With My Good Eye Closed.mp3
Rusty Cage.mp3
Beyond the Wheel.mp3
Flower.mp3
Ugly Truth.mp3
Fell On Black Days.mp3
Hunted Down.mp3

Unzip part one here.

Labels: grunge, live music

posted by aikin @ 10:08 AM