A-Sides [Slimline]

Performer: Soundgarden
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Soundgarden: Chris Cornell (vocals, guitar); Kim Thayil (guitar); Ben Shepherd, Hiro Yamamoto (bass); Matt Cameron (drums, percussion). Producers include: Soundgarden, Drew Canulette, Terry Date, Michael Beinhorn. Engineers: Jack Endino, Crew Canulette, Lance Limbocker, Terry Date, Jason Corsaro, Adam Kasper. Includes liner notes by Jonathan Poneman. Ten years after crawling from the muck and mire of the Seattle grunge scene, Soundgarden's farewell compilation hits all the high points of an impressive career. Nirvana may have taken grunge public, but Soundgarden got there first. Starting with the grinding of SCREAMING LIFE's "Nothing To Say," A-SIDES demonstrates the band's evolution from muscular musical brutes to a unit whose might was tailored by an innovative use of hooks and melodicism. This collection finds them journeying all over the musical map, utilizing a more percussive assault ("Spoonman"), delving into the depths of psychedelia ("Black Hole Sun"), and even bringing their trademark aggressive style to the decidedly un-rock mandolin on "Ty Cobb," a song the Ramones might have written had they grown up in Kentucky instead of Queens. A-SIDES stands to prove that throughout their career, Soundgarden remained fervently ambitious in their musical endeavours.

Spin (1/98, p.113) - 6 (out of 10) - "...The post-break-up, best-of A-SIDES boasts the same heft, drama, and sex drive that convinced alternative-rock fans that Soundgarden were an acceptably ironic version of heavy metal; but it also suggests that they were too much of a retro hybrid to ever create a world of their own..." Entertainment Weekly (12/12/97, p.90) - "Until their unexpected demise earlier this year, Soundgarden kept the grunge flag flying longer than any of their peers, and as this memorial compilation demonstrates, they not only perservered but improved....A-SIDES presents the band in all its evolving, bridling-horses glory and thunder..." - Rating: A Melody Maker (11/22/97, p.44) - "...the true Godfathers of Grunge....Chris Cornell successfully dragged "metal" (for that is what it is) into the Nineties by sprucing it up a little and calling it 'alternative'..." NME (Magazine) (11/1/97, p.55) - 7 (out of 10) - "...Soundgarden...were the metal band it was OK, cool even, to like. And this near-complete compilation of singles will remind you why..."

Although Nirvana and Pearl Jam may have been the most commercially successful bands of the 1990s Seattle movement, Soundgarden was every bit as important and influential. Part Black Sabbath/part Ramones, Soundgarden helped unite both punks and metalheads--one of the first alternative bands to do so. Largely due to vocalist Chris Cornell's signature wail and guitarist Kim Thayil's thunderous riffs, the band gained a huge fanbase by the mid '90s. However, the group called it a day in 1997, with drummer Matt Cameron joining Pearl Jam and Cornell going on to record solo and, with the instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine, as a member of Audioslave.

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