What, they never heard him sing before?

From Wiki:

Though never released as a single, [Slaves & Bulldozers] has been applauded for Chris Cornell's outstanding vocals on it. Producer Rick Rubin played the song for the former instrumentalist members of Rage Against the Machine, to showcase Cornell's strong vocal ability before he joined them to form Audioslave.

On a semi-related note, I was listening to a wicked Tom Morello solo and wondered why the Grammy's rarely reward individual instrumentalists. The always shitty Grammy Awards pick a Best Male and Female Vocal performance for various genres and they also have the vague Best Rock Instrumental Performance. How about separate awards for the guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist, et al? I know the Grammy's are mostly about glorifying pop-centric front men/women -- maybe they can hand these awards out the night before, a la the Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.

Music, Part 1.

It's been a while since I posted, thanks to Civilization IV. Anyway, I went to the Audioslave show at Lowell last night. My expectations were pretty tepid, due to a general lack of enthusiasm for their music, my growing antipathy towards going to shows, and seeing one of my idols, Chris Cornell, slowly fading from relevance and, it seemed, talent.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised. Some highlights:

-Cornell was 'on' from song one. His voice, raspy and off-key in these older days, was clear and powerful. I couldn't help but smile like a goofy bastard. He still knows how to work the crowd, although he's a lot less confrontational and sarcastic than he used to be. It's the kinder, gentler, older, tanner, soberer Chris Cornell.

-Morello being Morello. Guitar at his chest, fingers flying, feet stomping, pulling-the-power-cord-out-and-rubbing-them-over-the-strings-to-create-some-crazy-noise. I'll always marvel at his mastery of the guitar.

-Brad Wilk wearing a gorilla mask for most of the show.

-A choice selection of Soundgarden/Rage Against the Machine/Temple of the Dog songs. Disappointingly, the Soundgarden/Temple of the Dog reception was a little underwhelming. It seemed like only half of the audience recognized 'Rusty Cage'. I think five people recognized 'Slaves & Bulldozers' (two of them being me and Jon). The pop for RATM was crazy though. Probably the most fervent reaction of the night. Morello/Cummerford/Wilk were excellent playing Cornell's stuff. As for Cornell rapping...

-The first encore, which had solo, acoustic Cornell. Beautiful. The crowd kind of fell asleep though.

A couple of gripes:

-The crackhead couple in front of us who were way too enthusiastic about everything.

-There seemed to be too much of a concerted effort to play the 'hits'. It would've been nice to hear some Audioslave non-singles ('Yesterday to Tomorrow,' 'Give', 'Hypnotize'), although I generally did like the setlist. And I wouldn't have sacrificed any of the SG/RATM songs to hear them.

-Finding out from my brother, right before the show, that Theo resigned. With text messaging though, it's difficult to tell if he meant 're-signed' or 'resigned'. Unfortunately, it was the latter.

'Mezmerize'

Buy this album now. A lean, mean 36 minute album with pulverizing riffs and Serj Tankian's amazing vocals/lyrics. If you buy this album tomorrow or later, and you have money left over, then you might want to pick up Audioslave's 'Out of Exile'. Might. If you have leftover cash. A C+ offering from our favorite superband.