Originally a small grocery store, this building on 4230 Leary Way, Seattle Washington was most notably, Reciprocal Recordings, the space where Kurt Cobain and Nirvana recorded the “Bleach” album. The building is now mostly vacant aside from rats and old speaker cabinets. Soundgarden and Mudhoney also recorded here at Reciprocal. Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie was the last recording engineer to lease the space before moving his studio to Portland. The building is unlikely to stay standing for much longer, so go take a peak at it while you still can.
The main sessions for Nirvana’s “Bleach“ began recording with a five hour session on December 24, 1988. The band recorded again on December 29–31, and on January 14 and 24. Ultimately, producer Jack Endino billed the group for 30 hours of recording time. The old studio space, as Endino describes it as a “triangular, wedge-shaped building with a door at the pointy end and an air conditioner above the door.”
Here’s a link to the google street view…
raul Kurt Cobain, Nirvana Death Cab For Cutie, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Soundgarden
In December 2008, Chris Cornell reported via his official website that he had finally won back his collection of 15 guitars after a four-year court battle with his ex-wife. Cornell divorced Susan Silver, who managed his former band Soundgarden in 2004. But the pair remained locked in a bitter dispute over his musical instruments, which was finally resolved through the courts this year. Cornell was particularly happy that one of his guitars had been returned. He said, “(It’s) the Gretsch I played in the Black Hole Sun video (pictured below). I wrote the song thinking the band wouldn’t like it - then it became the biggest hit of the summer.”
Cornell wrote on his official website, “Speaking of guitars. I was just dusting off the 15 or so guitars that I recently had returned to me after the end of a very long lawsuit where someone had decided that maybe the tools of my trade and guitars I played on my entire catalogue should be in their possession forever.”
“It seems to me that some strangely desperate people involved in the music business forget that they are not the ones that write these songs, spill their guts and expose themselves to the public on the most personal level. We invent this s%*t and f*&king own it and no matter what, nothing will change that.”
Here’s Some shots of Chris Cornell & Susan Silver in happier times…
raul Quick Tidbit, Soundgarden Audioslave, Chris Cornell, Soundgarden
Jason Everman was on the cover of Nirvana’s first album”Bleach” and credited as guitarist but he did not actually play on any of the tracks. Everman was impressed by the band’s demo with drummer Dale Crover, and supplied the money for the recording sessions at Reciprocal Recording Studio with Jack Endino. Kurt Cobain said the credit was a token of thanks to Everman for paying a fee of $606.17 to record the album, Krist Novoselic explained, “We just wanted to make him feel at home in the band.” Everman in fact briefly joined Nirvana as a second guitarist playing a few live shows but his album credit as second guitarist was eventually removed in 2009 release of the deluxe version of “Bleach“.
Everman toured with Nirvana the summer of 1989 in support of “Bleach”. A two-song Nirvana session featuring Everman on guitar is available, albeit in separate releases. A Kiss cover called “Do You Love Me?” was released on a tribute album and “Dive” was released on 2004’s With the Lights Out. After Everman left Nirvana in July 1989 he joined Soundgarden the following year as Hiro Yamamoto’s temporary successor on bass.
raul Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Soundgarden Jason Everman, Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Soundgarden
Came across these Lego album cover remakes of several of our favorite albums by Oasis, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Soundgarden and Weezer on Flickr somewhere. Great job to those that made these…
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Soundgarden - Down On The Upside
Oasis - Definetly Maybe
Weezer - Red Album
The Strokes - Is This It (Import Version)
raul Oasis, Quick Tidbit, Soundgarden, The White Stripes Oasis, Soundgarden, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Weezer
A special marketing campaign preceded Audioslave’s final album Revaltions release, when the art concept was featured on Google Earth as a fictional utopian island, AUDIOSLAVE NATION, created in the South Pacific. Google Earth is the downloadable virtual globe program that maps the earth by pasting images obtained from satellite imagery over a 3D globe.
The utopian island of AUDIOSLAVE NATION wass located in the Indian Ocean between South America and New Zealand at approximately 42 degrees longitude and -137 degrees latitude. Fans can access http://www.audioslave.com/audioslavenation to start planning their trip.
Despite the exposure to other forms of media and the positive critical buzz for their third album, Audioslave did not tour behind the release but the AUDIOSLAVE NATION website still works!!!
raul Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden Audioslave, Brad WIlk, Chris Cornell, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, Tom Morello
Black Sun is a 1969 sculpture by Isamu Noguchi located in Seattle, Washington’s Volunteer Park. The sculpture looks down from Capitol Hill to the Space Needle and is the inspiration for the Soundgarden song title, “Black Hole Sun.”
“Black Hole Sun” was the third single released from the 1994 Soundgarden album, Superunknown, and most likely their most popular song. Coincidently, we had a previous post here on feelnumb.com about Soundgarden naming their band after this actual Sound Garden in Seattle’s Warren G. Magnuson Park.
A Real “Sound Garden”
raul Soundgarden Chris Cornell, Soundgarden
There are two versions floating around of almost the same song by two different groups but the groups are almost one in the same…
“Times of Trouble” by Temple Of The Dog and “Footsteps” by Pearl Jam.
“Footsteps” was written by Eddie Vedder as part 3 of the Mini-Opera at the same time that Chris Cornell was putting his “Times of Trouble” lyrics to the same Stone Gossard riff. So both songs eventually emerged. Technically speaking, Vedder’s came first. As Vedder says, “Chris has his version and I have mine…”
Pearl Jam - Footsteps - Eddie Vedder
The Pearl Jam “Footsteps” version was first. Eddie Vedder got of Stone Gossards songs that Jeff Ament and Mike McCready had recorded… just the music. At the very same time, they were putting together the Temple of the Dog thing and Chris Cornell heard that song and really, really liked it and semi-rearranged it to fit some words that he had and consequently there were two versions that were being worked on at the very same time.
Temple Of The Dog - Times Of Trouble - Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell from Soundgarden recorded his own vocal track over this for the Temple Of The Dog song “Times Of Trouble.” Temple Of The Dog was formed by Stone Gossard and Mike McCready as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the lead singer Mother Love Bone, the band they were in before Pearl Jam
raul Pearl Jam, Soundgarden Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog
Soundgarden was formed in 1984 by Chris Cornell, Hiro Yamamoto and Kim Thayil. They named themselves after this wind-channeling pipe sculpture, “A Sound Garden,” located on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property next to Magnuson Park, Seattle.
“A Sound Garden” was created in 1982 by Doug Hollis. It is a towering installation on a hilltop overlooking Lake Washington. It is constructed with a number of metal tubes on weathervane-like apparatus that catch the wind and moan eerily. The pipes and reverberating metal create eerie but soothing music as the wind passes through.
Here’s the google earth view link of “A Sound Garden.”
Magnuson Park 7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Seattle; free (206-526-6163)
Warren G. Magnuson Park
raul Music, Soundgarden Chris Cornell, Soundgarden
