Well, it’s time to hand the reins to our first guest blogger. Bill’s friends have been lucky enough to read his 10 albums in 10 days posts and he’s been kind enough to let me post them here so that more people can enjoy them. I’ll be posting one a day until he runs out. Then I’ll be asking him to write more. Enjoy.
10 albums, 10 … blah blah blah. You’re supposed to not say anything, but we all not that’s not going to happen with me. Clinton Bishop does a brilliant job with his blog Fell in love with a girl at https://fellinlovewithagirl799382749.wordpress.com, so consider this my audition for a guest review. Rosie Cuddihy tagged me, but I’m not tagging anyone else because they’re either doing it, done it, or have such bad taste in music that no-one needs to suffer any more. I’ve heard the music you come to love as a teenager stays with you throughout your life. Something to do with it being the time you assert your independence as a person. Many of these albums come from my teens and early 20’s. Not all are on my Desert Island disks playlist, but all have been at key points in my life. So pull up to the bumper baby, and here we go.
I came to age during grunge. Growing up in the country , before JJJ had spread its wings to become the “National Yoof Network™”, meant Rage and The Afternoon Show on the ABC to get a fix of music outside of Barnesy and Farnsey. My brother and I would set the VHS to extended record overnight Friday and Saturday, and then make audio cassettes by cuing up the playback through the home stereo. It’s how we discovered Nirvana, exploding out of the speakers with the teenage angst that paid off well. Which was great until it all went south and Kurt decided it was better to burn out than fade away. Others were there: Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers… and Soundgarden with Badmotorfinger, which I discovered sometime around 1992.
It’s angry, it’s heavy and when the opening of “Rusty Cage” kicks in I get a tingle. “Jesus Christ Pose” is a seriously badass track: mental offkey guitars, rolling bassline, and THAT voice. Chris Cornell appears as a shirtless banshee, wailing and screaming. The album is raw, dark and strange. The time signature changes, the detuned bass heaviness, Chris’ vocal range… oh yeah. I was hooked. I was captivated. I wanted more. I was beyond excited to see them at the Big Day Out in 1997, and it broke my heart to see them so disinterested in playing or even intereacting with the crowd of each other. I can’t say I was shocked when they broke up not long after. Losing Chris to suicide last year sent me in a bit of a downward spiral* – I enjoyed his solo stuff and that first Audioslave album is pretty damn good. Arguably, Superunknown is a better album in terms of flow and singles, but Badmotorfinger is my favourite. I’m feeling outshined…
Released: September 24, 1991
Length: 57:42
Label: A&M
Producer(s): Terry Date; Soundgarden
Key tracks: Rusty Cage, Outshined, Jesus Christ Pose
*possible easter egg
fell in love with a girl 