Audioslave > a postmordem

I am a fan of Soundgarden. I have been for years. By that, I mean way before you did. I know you had Superunknown, but I am talking about old school Soundgarden. Back then, Chris Cornell hardly sang. He mostly screamed. Seriously, just screamed. Five albums of screaming. This is they guy who wrote a full chorus that goes 'I want to fuck, fuck, fuck you. Fuck you'. Seriously, it's on 'Louder than Love'.

Chis Cornell also turned us on to Pearl Jam. How so? Well. it's complicated... but go wiki yourself 'Temple of the Dog'. At the end of Soundgarden, we found out Cornell could sing. He could sing really well. Listen to 'Seasons' from the 'Singles' soundtrack.

So, they breakup and Cornell hooks up with Rage Against the Machine. a PERFECT match. As we say in the business, this is a supergroup. Rage has a similar chorus to the one mentioned above "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me". Just that, over and over and over again.

A supergroup of poets for our generation.  Man, this is going to be great, right?

well, anyway... that didn't quite happen. Nope. We got this:

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Yeah, stick it to the man! Fuck society! Your rules don't pertain to us, racists! Take your money machine and lawyer party and stick it up your bourgeois ass. The proletariat will rise to reclaim the land. Libre y Tierra para todo! Just wait.

wait. really? that is the chorus? that is their breakthrough song? You are telling me that we got Rage Against the Machine to make music with Soundgarden and we got 'Be yourself'? Seriously? I mean... really?

What the fuck is that? What is the next single? 'Pick up litter', 'rules are cool', or maybe 'pay your taxes, bro'?

There is a longstanding understanding that supergroups rarely pan out. There are lots of reasons. Mostly, super big egos... and super big expectations. Here are a few that kinda sucked:

• Free
• The Firm
• Blind Faith
• Audioslave
• Velvet Revolver

I mean, has it ever worked? Yeah. Temple of the Dog, and Traveling Wilburys. That's about it. So, be glad Audioslave broke up. I saw them perform, and outside of the coolest cover EVER performed live (a story for another time, if you ask)... Cornell can't sing anymore. Twenty years of screaming have nuked his range. Bummer, I really liked him. Plus, the wife thinks he is hotter than George Clooney. So, it gives me an excuse to sit and watch Cornell (hotter than Weiland, at least).