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Soundgarden

#41
From all my experience listening and watching Soundgarden, you will want a white P bass with a black pickguard. You will want a good fuzz pedal, and a Wah. 400+ watt amp and an 8x10 cab. With this set up, you will get close to achieving the sound you're after.
 
#43
4001 said:
Oh, that's right, I need to play with the bass at my knees to make it an offocial tribute band.

Do I need to take the same drugs that the band were taking at the time that they recorded the music to make my performance more authentic?

Lots of us have had jobs that we wouldn't put at the top of our 'dream job' list, but we showed up to do them.

Or can only true, dyed in the wool, hardcore fanboi types be in tribute bands?
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Anybody can be in a tribute band. I would only suggest if you are going to do Soundgarden then respect it. You don't have to play the bass like a monkey or abuse your mind/body with drugs. What you will need is a dang good drummer.


What I would expect from a Soundgarden Tribute band:

Cool band name like Citizen Dick.
Dress the part - flannels, cutoff shorts, etc. Draw a distiction between their early recordings and their commercial ones. Cover all. Soundgarden fans covet their early non-commercial releases. Check this out: YouTube - Deep Six 06 Soundgarden - Heretic <- fans will eat this up.
First song I would tackle is Gun from Louder Than Love. This song does not have a tempo but rather speeds up and slows down. If your band/drummer cannot do this then just give up and pick another band to emulate. Also as the bassist you should at least be able to name one other Soundgarden bassist besides Ben. (hint Hiro or Jason)

Also the guy who said to start with an easy song is dumb. Start with the difficult ones first. Save the easy ones for last. Don't ignore the commercial stuff but really that should be an afterthought as that is when they started to almost suck.

Also Matt Cameron is a cool dude so I hope your drummer is cool.

Also thanks for posting this thread. Made me pull out my old vinyl.
 
#46
4001 said:
I've spent pretty much of all my playing years hearing, listening to and learning songs EXACTLY as they are played (or as close to them as humanly possible) and the same sound too.
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but

Hawkbone said:
Get the new live album, Live on I-5. if you can learn that and come close to reproducing it live, I for one would pay to see your show. Also, compare their live and studio versions of songs - no need for you to be slavish about a note for note reproduction of their studio versions when they weren't obsessed with that themselves.and skidrawk does have a point - being a successful SG tribute band bassist probably requires a bit more passion than owning their most commercially successful album. Doesn't mean you aren't worthy though, just that you have a lot of homework to do. Good luck!
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If you won't listen to me then at least listen to Hawkbone. DO NOT try to replicate their studio sound. Instead get inside Late 1980's Seattle. Go rent the movie "Singles." That is the definative movie of how U.S. mainstream viewed the Seattle music scene of that era. Sell the lifestyle. Say yes to getting into the music onstage. No I'm not saying to wear your bass to the floor. Jason or Hiro didn't play like that, only Ben. But you should bang your head, move, and live out the stage act. Raw music.

This thread makes me want to start my own Soundgarden Tribute. I don't know if I could still sing Cornell though. I bet I am closer to most.
 
#47
pnut166 said:
+1000. Covering a few of their standards here and there is one thing. Tackling their entire catalog as a tribute band is a whole other animal altogether. Will be quite a challenge to do it good.
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Seven tunes learned inside and out.
I'm not sure how much of the Soundgarden catalog the band wants to do as we will be doing material from Temple of the Dog and some Audioslave as well.

Pretty pumped up to play this stuff.
The music is coming along nicely.
 
#52
Just curious, how are your guitarists dealing with the zillion and a half tunings that Soundgarden used? If I remember right, they had some stuff in standard tuning, some in drop D, drop B, and some really wacky ones like "Somewhere" (all six strings tuned to E, think).

You could do all this with a 5 string bass, but I've always though a Soundgarden cover band would be a massive PITA for a guitarist.
 
#53
Handyman said:
Just curious, how are your guitarists dealing with the zillion and a half tunings that Soundgarden used? If I remember right, they had some stuff in standard tuning, some in drop D, drop B, and some really wacky ones like "Somewhere" (all six strings tuned to E, think).

You could do all this with a 5 string bass, but I've always though a Soundgarden cover band would be a massive PITA for a guitarist.
Click to expand...

And since they are doing more of a Chris Cornell tribute thing... throw in "Seasons"

tuned FFCCCC

YouTube - &#x202a;Chris Cornell - Seasons - Live&#x202c;&rlm;
 
#54
I'm the bassist in Seattle's Alice In Chains Tribute, JAR OF FLIES, & the Soundgarden Tribute, OUTSHINED.

I'm friends with all of Alice In Chains (including Layne Staley's mother) & most of the Soundgarden members. There's a reason people start tributes & it's because they feel a deep connection w/ the music. The pay can be nice, but do us all a favor....be in a tribute because you love the music FIRST.

If you're only doing it for the $$$, it will shine through in your performance. I've seen a lot of tributes & only a handful are any good for this reason. The shows are only a fraction of what they SHOULD have been.

And yes, I did my research on both bands before joining them years ago & I still have to with each new song we learn. For Soundgarden, there's around 20+ tunings for their entire discography & the bass has many tunings as well.
 
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#56
Handyman said:
Just curious, how are your guitarists dealing with the zillion and a half tunings that Soundgarden used? If I remember right, they had some stuff in standard tuning, some in drop D, drop B, and some really wacky ones like "Somewhere" (all six strings tuned to E, think).

You could do all this with a 5 string bass, but I've always though a Soundgarden cover band would be a massive PITA for a guitarist.
Click to expand...

I think they have their hands full.:D:smug:

Our first rehersal is this coming Thursday, I think.
We had an inital meeting and discussed the whole band 'idea' and agreed to learn a handfull of tunes to start and see where we all are musically. I have been practicing this stuff for about a month now, three hours a day. I think I'll be ready for the first batch of tunes.
I know that the guitar players are aware of the tunings. They aren't slouches so they know what their job is.
I'm looking forward to the first rehersal.

I'm more concerned about the vocals.
Cornell's style is dangerous, to put it one way..
 
#59
Soundgarden, Cornell have always performed when I have seen them. As mentioned before, they do not play it "by the record." They have always been "better than studio" every time. I can't even describe it. You just don't see the same energy when you watch their youtube videos or listen to the albums. I listened to Louder Than Love a few month before catching them live and to be honest I listened to it once and shelved it. It just didn't grab me. Then I saw them open up for Danzig. They caught me off guard and I had to pull LTL out again for another listen. Then I "got it." I'm glad they are together again. If anyone ever gets a chance to see them live, I cannot stress how amazing it is to be there.
 
#60
Will see SG for the 1st time this summer. Have seen Cornell thrice, and thought he was awesome each time, despite being visibly sick when I saw him in April. The video of Nude Dragons doing Beyond the Wheel last year should quell any questions about how his voice is these days, can he still hit the highs, etc. IMO he is singing better and more consistently than ever.

Back to the topic at hand, you will need a better than average singer for sure, but I think it's doable.
 

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