No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Temple of the Dog

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Out of tragedy came a collaboration between two of Seattle's most legendary acts. Lead singer of Mother Love Bone Andrew Wood passed away from a heroin overdose in 1990. His former roommate was none other than Chris Cornell, who wrote a couple of songs as a tribute to his late while touring Europe with Soundgarden. Cornell reached out to former Mother Love Bone bandmates Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard to make a record out of it, who had just recently invited Eddie Vedder to rehearse for their newly formed band Pearl Jam. The result was Temple of the Dog, a snapshot of two massively successful rock bands months before both hit mainstream success. Tracklist Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike Temple of the Dog - Your Savior Third Person Lurkin - The Silver Key David Bowie - God Knows I'm Good This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.com. The camaraderie and the healthy competition part, I found later was unusual. And it was Johnny Ramon that actually pointed that out to me later talking about, I think the friendship you saw between Pro James and Soundgarten, for example, and saying, I've never seen that before, New York wasn't like that, we hate each other, we would screw each other up.

At every turn, if you could, you would mess the other band up. The best thing about it is, I think, that you learn from each other, and you're inspired by each other. For me, Temple of the Dog grew out of that. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gems that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Quentin.

Got my brother Travis with me as always. And for our sidetrack today, we are covering a supergroup called Temple of the Dog. So last week we covered Pearl Jam and their debut album from 91 called 10. And this is a band that kind of formed surrounding the death of the lead singer from Mother Lovebone. That's right. Yeah. Kind of like a tribute to him. There's a shared connection between Chris Cornell, which is the lead singer of Soundgarden.

and as we mentioned last week, both Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam were in Mother Lovebone. So, you know, obviously they knew him very well. And their lead singer Andrew Wood had OD'd, I think that year, actually. I think it was in 1990 when he passed away. And it's also worth mentioning. I mean, it's pretty much the entire Pearl Jam lineup. So it's Mike McReady on,

lead guitar. I don't know about the drummer. Matt. No, yeah, that's him. Matt Cameron. Matt Cameron. Okay. Yeah, so basically it was Pearl Jam plus Chris Cornell.

I think Matt Cameron was a drummer back in the beginning for Soundgarden. So there you go. I mean, that's just the, that's the Seattle music scene, right? If you think about it that way. Right. It's members from Green River. Right. With Jeff and Stone.

You've got Sound Gardens, Chris Carnell. So yeah, Chris Cornell was actually a roommate of Andrew Wood. So he died in 1990 of a heroin overdose. The day that Cornell got back from a tour, from a Sound Garden tour, right? So he wrote these two songs for his friend Andrew when he went on tour in Europe a few days later. And the two songs were reached down and say hello to heaven. Both ended up on this record. So basically what happened was he gets home from a tour.

Andrew dies the same day from a heroin overdose. A few days later, he's back on the road touring in Europe. And he writes these two songs on the road, basically. So he had the idea that like, you know what, let me get a couple of the guys from Mother Lovebone to record this with me just as an idea of putting it out as just like a single, like a two-track, two-side single,

EP. And then they pull in the rest of the the rest of the group. Cool. The way that Eddie Vedder gets involved with this record is, you know, he had already flown up from San Diego to rehearse

for, as we mentioned, they were then called Mookie Blaylock So he came up there to rehearse and he just happened to sit in on one of the rehearsals with Temple of the Dog and provided backing vocals. That's cool. So that's kind of cool. So it's really interesting when you think about it because when we listen to the record now and when the record became a success, Pearl Jam had received popularity at that point. Like Tannin came out just a little bit later. So like it's one of those records that kind of became more and more popular.

and that's probably helped with the fact that this was a mashup of Soundgarden, which had already been successful with Chris Cornell on the vocals. And then essentially all of Pearl Jam, which became huge just a few months later, you know. So anyway. Cool. Let's listen to some tunes, man. Or A tune.

Let's listen to this one short and sweet, brother. Let's listen to A tune. So the song that we played in for the intro was, of course, Hunger Strike, which is the biggest, probably the most well-known song from this record. So you probably recognize that. We're going to jump down to close to the end of the record, and it's called Your Savior, track 8. And it also features Eddie Vedder with the background vocals.

So here we go. Great track, man. Yeah, it's solid. And, you know, Chris Cornell, just like Eddie Vedder, just an iconic vocalist. You know what I mean? Like his probably one of the greatest rock vocalist of all time, you know. It was a really cool guitar riff too throughout the song.

Yeah, the guitar solo too, obviously. Dude, I'm looking at the album cover here. I wonder if Jeff made this one too. You know how like I was saying with 10, they had a hand in the art direction and everything? It definitely looks handmade. Yeah. Very 90s.

Yeah, definitely. him. So, Rolling Stone gave it four out of five stars. And the author, David Frick, who I think we've all heard of David Frick, like very well known. Oh, yeah. He said that for hunger strike and reach down alone, two of the singles, Temple of the Dog deserves immortality. Those songs are proof that the angst that defined Seattle Rock in the 90s was not cheap

sentiment, at least in the beginning. Nice. Which is interesting, right? Because I guess what he's implying is like, if he's saying at least in the beginning, it was genuine. You know what I mean? Versus, you talk about all the bands that were called grunge that perhaps didn't deserve

to be for whatever reason, that it was more manufactured, you know? Yeah. With hunger strike and reach down, they're more like the songs are a little bit more sentimental, like more it's less about the testosterone and more about genuine emotion and whatnot.

And hello, I mean, we talked about this last week with Pearl Jam, all the themes that he would talk about, depression, suicide. Right. So anyway, but yeah, so with this song, Your Savior, yeah, the guitar riff that permeates throughout the song is just killer. The guitar solo is great. Really cool. Drumbeat's great, and I like the change up towards the very end. I see why you wanted to play the whole song through. Yeah, exactly.

Lots of different changes throughout the song, which is really cool. So anyway, yeah, so this was a record we probably could have done a whole episode on, but it made for a perfect sidetrack for Pearl Jam. And we can circle back and cover Temple of the Dog at some point. We might find our way back to the 90s Grunge here. Oh, we're going to find our way back, dude. By the time we're done with this little stint here, we will have covered maybe 10. artists, maybe less than that, maybe eight bands, depending on how many we end up doing.

Because I think next week is no doubt, which I'm super pumped about. Yeah, me too. And then it's sidetrack for that, and then it's blink one I two. And then who knows what happens over that. So, yeah, we'll make our way back to the 90s for sure, dude. But yeah, that's it, man. That's our sidetrack here for Temple of the Dog. Like I said, great record.

one of those kind of iconic records you know they put out one one album you know and then yeah clearly pearl jam becomes pearl jam after that so yeah and from what i'm reading here like they've only they only have like one legit full live performance yeah uh it was minus better but they performed in Seattle at the Offram Cafe, which is what I mentioned last week when we covered Pearl Jam, which is now called El Corazon. But they've done some one-off performances. If by chance Soundgarden and Pearl Jam are performing together, they'll do like little tiny temple of the dog sets within those sets, which is kind of cool.

But yeah, dude, that's just one of those moments where they just all happen to come together and they're in the right mindset. and yeah, it's awesome that it exists. It makes you wonder if it would be, if it would have became as iconic had Pearl Jam not seeing success, you know, because it's like nobody would, nobody would know or give two shits about Eddie Vedder backing bubbles.

It would have just been a thing that Cornell did with some guys from Green River. Yeah, right. Or mother bone, right. Mother love bone, exactly. So, well, that's it dude uh i'm about to jump back on my couch and watch some uh flot of the concords with my wife dude we've been watching so much tv lately

you ever get into flat of the concords dude you know i hate any sort of group like that that does you know corny ass you should watch the show to dude no can't do it i can't get into it i just can't get into it well the episode that has uh the iconic business time song. We watched that one last night. She's so fucking funny, dude. And you know what, man? Even though it's a joke song,

any time I press play on that song, business time, you know what it makes me feel like doing? Getting down to business? Getting down to business, dude. And, uh, yeah. And you know who's really good at helping that in that arena? I know exactly here, dude. I'm not, do I look like a dummy?

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Both work. Because we've been saying Adam and Eve.com this whole time. That is not the official address. What? It's Adam Eve.com. Oopsie. But it redirects you. So they own both.

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plus another item for you both to enjoy. And then you get six free tantalizing movies to help you spice things up in the bedroom, dude. I'm talking T and N, movies, dude. You know what I'm talking about? Oh yeah.

So again, hop on to adamenead.com, find yourself something nice. Type in no filler into the promo code box, and you will get that item for 50% off. You're also going to get free shipping with every item, plus 10 free gifts to go with the purchase. That's fucking awesome, dude. You should watch Flight of the Concords, man. It is fucking hilarious. And I really hope I'm reaching out to our, to our fans. Give us a tweet and say, Travis, watch it, bro.

No, dude. You don't think anyone's going to chime in and say, yeah, you should watch a lot of the concords. It's hilarious. No, dude. Not feeling it. I just can't get into, I can't get into, I mean, what's the official, dude? I know, dude. I mean, I keep calling a joke song.

Like, what is the official term for that? I don't know, man. they're legit musicians no that's great I mean that's fine then write right legit songs let me see let me see because we're talking about like Weird Al

Flot of the Concourse Right It's like I mean weird owl is very much Comedy rock Comedy rock Yeah I can't get into comedy rock I can't do it I just can't do it man Sorry to hear that man

Do you like comedies? I love comedies Do you like rock? The marriage of both of those Well this is exactly dude Thank you just I understand the words right out of my mouth.

But just because I like two things doesn't mean I like them together. You know what I'm saying? Hey, it's your loss, dude. I just, I don't find myself chuckling when I listen to these songs. Because like, I feel like it's too much. Have you ever watched a comedy and then, or even a movie, any movie? And then you're suddenly aware of the writer. You know what I mean?

You're like, okay. Yeah. I see what you're doing here. You know what I mean? I'm too aware, like, I'm taken out of it. I feel like that's what happens to me when I listen to comedy rock. I'm just like, Well, what if you listen to any song and you're reading the lyrics and you're like, I see what you're doing here.

Do you ever do that? No. Just enjoy it, man. But that's the point is that, like, it's very much centered around the lyrics when it's comedy rock because it's all just jokes, you know? There's no deep, there's nothing deep about. about them. There's no meaning behind them. They're not all music has to be deep.

I know. Especially when it's comedy. But I'm just saying like. And when there's a TV series surrounding it. Right. It's just, it's too, it's too heavy-handed than me, you know?

That's fine. And most of this is going to get cut out. Let's just don't know to our watch your hurts, dude. Let's move right along. Yes. I got a doozy for you. Uh, I'm going to let you go first this time, though.

Okay. So, what did you got? This is as fresh as it gets. I was listening to this earlier today. Oh, you're talking about the strokes? No, no, no. I'm not going to do the strokes. But we can talk about that later if you want.

Well, no, no, no. Let's just say right now, if anyone listening right now, if you haven't heard the new Strokes album and you're a fan of them and you've been waiting, just waiting for them to release something good again, because in my opinion it's been years, listen to their new album. The new abnormal just came out. Travis and I are both big fans,

and we are longstanding strokes. fans. Yeah, I mean, we've been, we've been fans since the beginning, literally since the beginning. So Q and I were talking earlier about this record and how it sounds exactly like if we were to consider, look into the future 10 years ago back when they were still making good records and say, I wonder what they're going to sound like in 2020. This is what I would expect and hope them to sound like. You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's really great. It's a really good effort. good stuff. Anyways, man. That's my little strokes side track. What you heard lately, friend. Okay. So this, I love it when this happens.

So this is a artist that I used to listen to years ago on band camp. And he had a Spotify, he had a Spotify page, but like none of these records were on there. And suddenly they just showed up on Spotify. and it's been years since I've listened to this. So anyway, what I'm talking about, who I'm talking about is he goes by the name third person lurkin. Have you heard of this guy, Q? I don't think so.

Like I said, it's Ban Camp is where I found him. So like very, very independent. He's on like the small UK record label called Dusted Wax. Cool. Anyway, this is trip hop down tempo. Like the perfect, like quintessential down tempo sound is what this is, right? But it's really well done. It's kind of got dark tones to it.

More like, you know, really super laid back, almost kind of atmospheric and ambient. Cool. With like a dark kind of spin to it. Anyway, so this record came out in 2010, so a decade ago. Again, the guy's name is third person Larkin. The name of the record is the nameless city. It's got dope-ass album art. Yeah, like it.

And the track we're going to listen to here is called the Silver Key. Yeah, dude, what's not to like about that? Yeah. Like I said, just classic down-tempo kind of sound. And that whole record, you know, you push play and it's that vibe the entire time. And it's great, man. It's just awesome. Yeah.

Great music to, if you work at a computer all day, it's great music to have on. If you're a coder like me, if you're a developer. Yeah. And for us, dude, this kind of music, that down tempo stuff has just had a special place in our hearts for, like, the majority of our, like, years of actually becoming fans of music. Yeah. I think we may have touched on this on, like, our Tosca episode. where like down tempo we discovered downtimbo together and it was like the perfect timing to because like you said this is when we were trying to branch out beyond you know the rock and roll that we the indie rock

and stuff like that that we were really into back then and down tempo was this entirely different world yeah it was taking it was taking jazz which is something we were familiar with from our dad growing up flipping it on its head and and merging it with like hip hop and rap type beats and stuff like that which yeah so like yeah you know we discovered it at the perfect time and I'm I agree with you like it's been there the whole time it like I've never not I go in and out of like seeking this stuff out you know what I mean yeah like there's there's times where like I'm I'm fully into it and I'm seeking out new artist and looking at and listening to bands and stuff that I used to listen to back then and then there's other times where I'm like

I don't want to hear this again for a long time, you know. But I, you know, like I said, this guy, I probably listened to him a decade ago when he was first putting this stuff out. And now he's, his entire discography is on Spotify. So anyway, pull it up, push play. If you like that kind of stuff, all of his music is great. So, all right, Q, what you've been heard in lately? So I finally pushed play on David Bowie's Space Oddity album for the first time, and I dedicated an evening to it. My God, dude, such a awesome record.

So this is his second full-length album. It's actually, technically it's just a self-titled. It's just called David Bowie. And he also released an album in 1967, a couple years before this one. called David Bowie. But this album has, over the years, it's been released under several different titles, also known as Space Oddity.

So it's got the first track on the record is Space Oddity. Everyone knows that song. Ground control to Major Town. Yeah. So it was one of those things where I'm like, you know what, dude, I don't know enough about David Bowie's music. And he is one of the greatest artists of all time.

Dude, considering that we are part of a music podcast network, I know, man. You know, we probably shouldn't, probably shouldn't say that online. Well, I'm saying it loud and proud, dude. And I'm just going to continue to dive deeper because this was such a great listen all the way through. There's just so many great moments in this album. We're going to name off a couple tracks that I really enjoy, but we're just going to play

one of them. I really like to track two unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed. I'm just say I've never heard a harmonica rock that hard ever. Letter to Hermione is the next track. Really, really pretty song. The one that sticks out for me that I thought about a few days after listening to it is the second to the last song on the record. We're going to play the whole song, dude.

It's called God knows I'm good. And a cash machine was spitting by my shoulder. And I saw the multitude of faces on his stretch and clean As the merchandise exchanged and money roared. And a woman hot with worry slyly slipped a tin of a stewing steak Until the paper bag at his side And her face was white. with fear in case her actions were observed

so she closed her eyes to keep her conscience blind crying god knows i'm good god knows i'm good god knows i'm good god knows i'm good god may look the other way knows i'm good god knows i'm good god knows i'm good god may look at a day and she moved to war the exit clutching tightly at her paper bag, the aspiration trickled down her forehead. And her hearted left inside her,

as the hand laid on her shoulder, she was led away bewildered and amazed. Her deaf and ears, the cash machines were shrieking on the counter, as her escort asked her softly for her name. And a crowd of honest people Rush to tell A tired old lady Who had fainted till the whirling wooden floor

Knows I'm good God knows I'm good God knows I'm good God So I've never I've never heard that side of Bowie before Which is kind of funny

Because like, you know I'm sure he's got plenty of songs like that Yeah that's yeah And I'm, you know what, let's put this on record, dude. For me, I only really know Bowie's singles. And that's the thing, right, me too. That's what we're all about on this podcast. So I'm, I don't care if we do it on this podcast or if I do it on my own time.

I'm, I'm diving into Bowie, dude, hardcore. It's fucking time, man. Sure. Yeah, no, I mean, we need to, I mean, at some point we're going to do a David Bowie episode, obviously. Oh, yeah. It's David Bowie. Oh, yeah. Probably get a two space audity, man.

But that's the thing. That's why I want to dive into it and see what else. got, man. Yeah. But yeah, this was 1969. His second full-length album, he would have been, he was 22 at the time. God damn, dude. I love the lyrics in the song.

It's about a lady that steals a can of stew from a store because she can't afford it. She gets caught and she just cries out or thinks, you know, like, God knows that I'm a good person. Maybe he'll look the other way today. and forgive me for what I've done. Man, it just fucking got me the first time I heard it, dude. Like, beautiful song. Yeah, that's great, yeah. Yeah.

So that's what I listened to this weekend. And let's fucking wrap it up, dude. Yeah, dude. All right. So. It's a sidetrack. This is a sign track. So we mentioned this earlier.

Next week, we're going to switch it up from the grunge. And I'm Pomp's man. I'm so excited. love. Some of the songs on this record are just like quintessential 90s rock songs. And it's, you know, it's Gwen Stefani, dude, you know? Yeah. I mean, what more do you want? We're talking about tragic kingdom came out in 1995 by No Doubt. And no doubt, it's going to be a great episode. No doubt. It's going to be fun to dive into this. Yeah. punk band.

I mean, they're one of the few that found such success. But that's a thing, man. That's one of the, one of the things about the ska sound, you know, it's linked with the 90s in such a quirky kind of way.

Like, you know, the sky, the freaking, the horns, man, you know? I never got into it,

man, but no doubt I've always, I've always been into, no doubt. And I say that, but, I, again, this is another one of those moments or another one of those bands that I never really dove into farther than the singles. So this is going to be a first, first listen for me all the way

through for this album. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Yeah. But like as far as far as ska bands, dude, never got into it. The only other band I can think of off the top of my head, Mighty Mighty Boss tones. Right. Exactly. But that's that's exactly what I'm talking about. Like there there are those those ska songs that that made it into the mainstream like the impression is what is it the impression that I get by mighty mighty boasts everybody knows that song man and it's it's a great song dude and a random ska song comes to mind that was on tony hawk pro skater yeah i don't know if it was mighty mighty bozstone but it probably was but yeah exactly so um it's just one of those things where the generation that came after us probably look at the ska fad that happened for a little bit

in the 90s and are like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Well, dude, that's the cool thing. It'll be fun to find, maybe find something a little bit more obscure in the ska vein from the 90s for our side track. Yeah. Yeah. I'm totally down for that. Yeah. That's our challenge, Jay. Let's let's dig deep for that one. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to listen to this record. I'm with you. This is going to be my first, my first listen through from start to finish for Tragic Kingdom here. But, I mean, who doesn't know some of the singles on this record, man? Just a girl. Don't speak. Leave a message and I'll call you back. Was that on Tragic Kingdom? I think that was Spiderwebs. Yeah, that's track one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great fucking song, man.

I know, dude. I'm pumped. I can't wait. All right, dude. So, as always, you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network. We are part of the family. There, you can find a lot of other great music-centered podcasts. You can check us out on Pantheon Podcast.com or hop under our website, no-fillerpodcast.com. There you can find our show notes and track lists, all that fun stuff.

on that you can stream our episodes directly from our website and you can find us on pretty much any other podcast app. And until next time, we'll be shouting at you next week with some no doubt coverage. Until then, wash your hands. Stay safe. All that fun stuff. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis. You'll take care.