Badmotorfinger

Infobox Album |
Name = Badmotorfinger
Type = studio
Artist = Soundgarden


Released = October 8, 1991
Recorded = March 1991 – April 1991 at Studio D, Sausalito, California; Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington; and A&M Studios, Los Angeles, California
Length = 57:48
Label = A&M
Producer = Terry Date, Soundgarden
Reviews =
*Allmusic rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Agcx1z82ajyv8 link]
*Robert Christgau (B-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=soundgarden link]
Last album = "Louder Than Love" (1989)
This album = "Badmotorfinger" (1991)
Next album = "Superunknown" (1994)
Misc = Singles
Name = Badmotorfinger
Type = Studio
single 1 = Jesus Christ Pose
single 1 date = 1991
single 2 = Outshined
single 2 date = 1991
single 3 = Rusty Cage
single 3 date = 1992

"Badmotorfinger" is the third album by the American alternative rock band Soundgarden, released on October 8, 1991 through A&M Records. After touring in support of its previous album, "Louder Than Love", released in 1989, the band began the recording sessions for its next album with new bassist Ben Shepherd. The music on the album maintained the band's heavy rock sound while featuring an increased focus on songwriting when compared with the band's previous releases.Huey, Steve. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Agcx1z82ajyv8 "Badmotorfinger"] . Allmusic.]

The focus on the Seattle grunge scene helped bring attention to "Badmotorfinger". The singles "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" were able to find an audience at alternative radio and MTV. "Badmotorfinger" became the band's highest charting album at the time on the "Billboard" 200. The band supported the album with tours of North America and Europe, including opening for Guns N' Roses on that band's Use Your Illusion Tour. In 1992, "Badmotorfinger" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The album has been certified two times Platinum in the United States.

Recording

This was the band's first album with bassist Ben Shepherd, who replaced previous bassist Jason Everman following the band's promotional tour for the album "Louder Than Love". The album's recording sessions took place from March 1991 to April 1991. It was recorded at Studio D in Sausalito, California, Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, and A&M Studios in Los Angeles, California. The band again worked with producer Terry Date. The album was mixed by Ron St. Germain.

Soundgarden chose to work with Terry Date again as it had on its previous release "Louder Than Love". Frontman Chris Cornell said the band chose to work with Date again seeing as the band had a good relationship with him and did not want to go through the pressure of trying to find a new producer. [Harris, Mike. "Sound Saboteurs". "Riff Raff". November 1991.] Cornell said that Shepherd brought a "fresh and creative" approach to the recording sessions,"'Garden of Eden". "Kerrang!". August 31, 1991.] and the band as a whole said that his knowledge of music and writing skills redefined the band.Neely, Kim. "Soundgarden: The Veteran Band from Seattle Proves There's Life After Nirvana". "Rolling Stone". July 9, 1992.] Before joining, Soundgarden had been Shepherd's favorite band. [Myers, Caren. "Garden of Earthly Delights". "Details". April 1994.] Compared with "Louder Than Love", the band took a more collaborative approach to the writing process. [Linx, Anna. "Soundgarden: No Hype Allowed". "The Music Paper". July 1994.]

Music and lyrics

Steve Huey of Allmusic said that the songwriting on "Badmotorfinger" "takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency." He added, "It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision." Guitarist Kim Thayil jokingly called it the "Heavy Metal "White Album"." Cornell said, "I think there's songs on the new record which are almost more commercially viable because they have that memorable feel to them, and I think if anyone expected us to come out and make something more commercial than "Louder Than Love", then I'm glad that they were surprised.""Colour Me Badmotorfinger!". "Raw". October 30, 1991.] Cornell also added that the album is more representative of how the band is live. Shepherd contributed the song "Somewhere" and collaborated on the musical composition of several other songs on the album. Thayil said that Shepherd's contributions helped make the album "faster" and "weirder."Nicholson, Kris. "Angry Young Men". "The Music Paper". February 1992.]

On the opening song, "Rusty Cage", Thayil uses a wah pedal as an audio filter, producing an unusual guitar sound. In describing the song's riff he said that it "almost sounds backward."Gilbert, Jeff. "Primecuts: Kim Thayil". "Guitar School". May 1994.] Soundgarden utilized alternative tunings and odd time signatures on several of the album's songs. "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Outshined" were performed in drop D tuning. On "Rusty Cage", "Holy Water", and "Searching with My Good Eye Closed", the bottom E string is tuned all the way down to B.Woodard, Josef. "Soundgarden's Kim Thayil & Chris Cornell". "Musician". March 1992.] On "Mind Riot" every string is tuned to one of several E's. Soundgarden's use of odd-meter time signatures was varied as well; songs like "Jesus Christ Pose" are in typical 4/4 time, "Outshined" is in 7/4, and "Rusty Cage" utilises both 4/4 and 19/8 time. Thayil said that he didn't "push for weird time signatures," but rather "push [ed] to get the quirkiness out of things."

Cornell said that he tried to not get too specific with his lyrics and was more interested in "creating colourful images." ["Sound and Vision". "Rock Power". March 1992.] Thayil suggested that it is "like reading a novel [about] man's conflict with himself and society, or the government, or his family, or the economy, or anything.""Soundgarden". "Guitar for the Practicing Musician". December 1992.] "Jesus Christ Pose" was written about famous people who exploit the symbol of Jesus' crucifixion as to suggest that they're persecuted by the public. [Magnuson, Ann. "Sub Zep?". "Spin". February 1992.] Cornell said that "Outshined" is about going from "periods of extreme self-confidence" to "plummeting in the opposite direction." [Friend, Lonn M. "Heroes... and Heroin". "RIP". July 1992.] "Holy Water" was written about people who force their beliefs unto others. Thayil wrote the lyrics for "Room a Thousand Years Wide", and said that the song is about "experience in general." "New Damage" subtly criticizes the right-wing government of the United States. ["Soundgarden: Are These Men from Seattle the Future of Metal?". "Kerrang!". December 7, 1991.]

Release and reception

The album became a breakthrough hit for Soundgarden. "Badmotorfinger" peaked at number 39 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. It was the band's highest position on that chart at the time. It was released in the same year as Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Pearl Jam's "Ten", all of which helped to break grunge into the mainstream. "Badmotorfinger" eventually achieved double Platinum status.cite web
url=http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&artist=Soundgarden&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25
title=Gold and Platinum Database Search
accessdate=2007-02-12]

Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B-. He called it a "credible metal album" while also criticizing the album's lyrical writing. [Christgau, Robert. [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=soundgarden "Soundgarden"] . robertchristgau.com.]

"Badmotorfinger" included the singles "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined", and "Rusty Cage". The three singles gained considerable airtime on alternative rock radio stations, while the videos for "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" gained considerable airtime on MTV. The song "Jesus Christ Pose" and its music video was the subject of widespread controversy in 1991, and the video was removed from MTV's playlist. "Room a Thousand Years Wide" was released previously as a single in 1990, but not to promote the album. It was released (with the song "HIV Baby") as a 7" through Sub Pop's "Single of the Month" club a full year before the release of "Badmotorfinger". The song was re-recorded for this album. "Rusty Cage" was covered by Johnny Cash on his 1996 album "Unchained". It also appeared on the fictional radio station Radio X on the videogame "" and in the 32-bit version of "Road Rash".

The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1992. [cite web| url=http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1992/grammys.htm |title=34th Grammy Awards - 1992 |publisher=Rockonthenet.com |accessdate=2008-02-20] It was also ranked number 45 in the October 2006 issue of "Guitar World" on the magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time."100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". "Guitar World". October 2006.]

Imagery and design

The cover art was designed by guitarist Mark Dancey from the Sub Pop band Big Chief. Thayil suggested the title "Badmotorfinger" as a joke on the Montrose song "Bad Motor Scooter". ["Superuninterview". Promo CD. A&M Records. 1994.] Regarding the title, Thayil said, "It was sort of off the top of my head. I simply like it because it was colorful. It was kinda aggressive, too...It conjures up a lot of different kinds of images. We like the ambiguity in it, the way it sounded and the way it looked."

Tour

Following the release of "Badmotorfinger", Soundgarden went on a tour of North America that ran from October 1991 to November 1991. Afterward, the band took a slot opening for Guns N' Roses in North America on the band's Use Your Illusion Tour. Soundgarden was personally selected by Guns N' Roses as its opening band. [Sherry, James. "Soundgarden". "Metal Hammer". December 1991.] This was Soundgarden's first arena tour. Afterward, the band took a slot opening for Skid Row in North America in February 1992 on the band's "Slave to the Grind" tour. [Jones, Alison F. "Pounding for Pot: Soundgarden's Matt Cameron". "High Times". July 1992.] Soundgarden then headed to Europe for a month-long headlining theater tour. Afterward, the band then returned for a tour of the United States. Soundgarden rejoined Guns N' Roses as part of the Use Your Illusion Tour in the summer of 1992 for a tour of Europe along with fellow opening act Faith No More. Regarding the time spent opening for Guns N' Roses, Cornell said, "It wasn't a whole lot of fun going out in front of 40,000 people for 35 minutes every day. Most of them hadn't heard our songs and didn't care about them. It was a bizarre thing." ["I Don't Care About Performing for 20,000!". "Raw". September 15, 1993.] The band would go on to play the 1992 Lollapalooza tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Ministry, among others. The band later released the video compilation "Motorvision", which was filmed at the Paramount Theatre in 1992.

Track listing

#"Rusty Cage" (Chris Cornell) – 4:26
#"Outshined" (Cornell) – 5:11
#"Slaves & Bulldozers" (Cornell, Ben Shepherd) – 6:56
#"Jesus Christ Pose" (Matt Cameron, Cornell, Shepherd, Kim Thayil) – 5:51
#"Face Pollution" (Cornell, Shepherd) – 2:24
#"Somewhere" (Shepherd) – 4:21
#"Searching with My Good Eye Closed" (Cornell) – 6:31
#"Room a Thousand Years Wide" (Cameron, Thayil) – 4:06
#"Mind Riot" (Cornell) – 4:49
#"Drawing Flies" (Cameron, Cornell) – 2:25
#"Holy Water" (Cornell) – 5:07
#"New Damage" (Cornell, Thayil, Cameron) – 5:40

"Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas"

A limited edition of the album was released in 1992 with a second disc containing the EP "Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas" (or "SOMMS"). This EP includes three covers, a Soundgarden original, and a song recorded at a concert. The title is a palindrome. For its cover of Black Sabbath's "Into the Void", the original lyrics are replaced by words of protest by Chief Sealth, which fit the metre of the song. "Into the Void (Sealth)" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1993. [cite web| url=http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1993/grammys.htm |title=35th Grammy Awards - 1993 |publisher=Rockonthenet.com |accessdate=2008-02-20]

#"Into the Void (Sealth)" (Chief Sealth, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward) – 6:37
#"Girl U Want" (Gerald Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh) – 3:29
#"Stray Cat Blues" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 4:46
#"She's a Politician" (Cornell) – 1:48
#"Slaves & Bulldozers" (live) (Cornell, Shepherd) – 8:38

Outtakes

"Cold Bitch", which surfaced as a B-side on a promo version of the "Outshined" single, was recorded during the "Badmotorfinger" sessions. "Cold Bitch" was one of Shepherd's favorite songs that the band recorded. [Masters, Drew. "Soundgarden". "M.E.A.T." magazine. March 1994.] The song "Birth Ritual" was worked on during the recording sessions, but wasn't completed. It would eventually see release on the "Singles" soundtrack. "No Attention", which later appeared on the band's 1996 album "Down on the Upside", was attempted during the "Badmotorfinger" recording sessions. Thayil said that the recording of "No Attention" that came out of the sessions didn't work. [Genovese, Robin. "Soundgarden". "Chart". June 1996.]

Personnel

*Chris Cornell – vocals, guitar
*Kim Thayil – guitar
*Matt Cameron – drums
*Ben Shepherd – bass guitar
*Scott Granlund – saxophone on "Room a Thousand Years Wide" and "Drawing Flies"
*Ernst Long – trumpet on "Face Pollution"
*Damon Stewart – narration on "Searching with My Good Eye Closed"
*Terry Date, Soundgarden – production
*Larry Brewer – production assistant
*Ron St. Germain – mixing
*Howie Weinberg – mastering

Chart positions

;Album

References

External links

* [http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/releases/bad.shtml "Badmotorfinger" on the Unofficial Soundgarden Homepage]