Pitchfork

Remember in April of 1997 when grunge finally died? Yeah, it was when Soundgarden broke up. You have to admit that ten years was longer than this band needed to be around, but since they were only world-famous for five of them, it was never what one could call 'overkill'.

This A-Sides disc compiles all of their hit songs, and it's chronological, babe. It starts off with "Nothing to Say", "Flower", "Loud Love", "Hands All Over", and "Get on the Snake", songs that will only be recognized by diehard fans and the cool crowd that saw them live "before they sold out". Not surprisingly, this first handful of songs sounds infinitely better than most of their later music. It's harder, rougher and it has a lot of personality and character. The Led Zeppelin influence is also much more blatant in this phase.

Moving onto Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden, I remember 1991. It was the year Guns 'N' Roses came to Minneapolis on their Use Your Illusion tour with Soundgarden opening. Now, I didn't go to that show (proud to say), but I knew people that did. They told me about this awful opening band that they couldn't boo off the stage fast enough. Were they talking about Slash's Snakepit? Fuck no; that'd have been an awesome perception to their bandana-covered skulls. They were talking about the future of grunge music: Soundgarden. A year later, everyone owned Badmotorfinger and Guns 'N' Roses took second stage permanently.

1993. Soundgarden releases Superunknown and almost exactly one month later, Kurt Cobain kills himself. The two incidences weren't connected, though, and "Black Hole Sun" became the most overplayed song of the year on modern rock radio according to Billboard figures. It was probably the most overplayed video on MTV, too. I have that fucking video memorized. This was the album that really launched Soundgarden's career into full speed. They were releasing singles off this record for like a year and a half after its release. That's Alanis numbers.

Of course, by 1996, grunge was damn near dead and buried, save for a few one-hit wonders here and there. It was over. Gone. But these guys still released Down on the Upside to critical indifference. It spawned its share of minor successes, but would never prove to come anywhere near the platinum-status Superunknown. I think they knew it was over. A-Sides includes a new song, "Bleed Together", which was recorded during the Upside sessions. What this song does in terms of airplay will clearly determine the path of the upcoming Pearl Jam record. If it's a hit, Pearl Jam has a chance. If not, they're goin' down with the ship. Let's see what happens.