Dear Friends,
Michael S. scored some amazing football tickets and, as it turned out, my dad got to join us for the game. It was a great Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals won the game, which was really pretty exciting for the majority of it, and we got to see it up close.
We were just off the 50-yard line in the 8th row. It was just high enough to get a decent vantage point for most of the action, but low enough and close enough to get a different feel for the NFL game than I had ever gotten before. TV makes the game look way faster than it is when you are sitting (or standing) that close.
Kyler Murray is really small, too. Up close it is way more obvious how little he is compared to most of the other players. It’s no wonder he doesn’t see the open receivers sometimes. There is no way he can see over some of the big linemen.
*****
We also had a really good Freeze practice in the morning. We are going to tear the roof off the venues this weekend in California. This band is really good. Holy hell. I’m proud of what we are doing.
*****
I have no expectations for the work day today other than it will be good to be with the kids. We are starting out in division and also inferences, so they will be a bit confused today. I’m hoping some of the preliminary work I have done with division will help.
I struggle sometimes at the beginning of these units because math always came so easily to me when I was a kid. This stuff just seems, at least to my initial thoughts, like something you should just know. It should be obvious that five can go evenly into 40, so why does 40 divided by 5 (or similar questions) just mystify the majority of my students?
There will be fretting this week. Probably some handwringing, too, but that’s okay. We will get through it and then, after Christmas, they can forget all of it until March.
*****
It occurred to me that if I had heard the Screaming Life EP that Soundgarden did for Sub Pop in 1987, my first band may have been a bit different. I was blissfully unaware that such a record even existed back then. Had I known about it, I would have probably wanted Religious Skid to sound more like Soundgarden, especially since some of the guys who played in the band over those early years would have really liked what Soundgarden was doing back then.
One of the best things about Screaming Life is that it is powerful and raw and a band just throws all caution to the wind and going for it. It was the first Soundgarden CD that I owned (and it also contained the Fopp EP, too) and I still love it. The late, great Chris Cornell just rules on this record. When “Hunted Down” begins, you can’t help but be won over by two things: the riff and the Cornell.
What an amazing first song to put out there into the universe. I was blown away when I popped the CD in for the first time back in 1990. I liked Soundgarden a lot, right from the get-go, and went to see them when they played with Prong and Voivod in February of 1990 and it was fucking great. I was in a weird place that night, and I can’t remember why, and I thought for sure I was going to get in a fight with someone in the pit. Strange energy in the room, I guess, but Soundgarden was amazing.
“Hunted Down” is just savage. The riff, as previously mentioned, is just huge. It makes me want to play heavy music. It’s that simple. Matt Cameron’s drums perfectly punctuate the intro of the song after a few bars of the killer guitar from Cornell and Kim Thayil. This one also features Hiro Yamamoto on bass, who was an original member of the band but left in 1989.
“Entering” almost sounds like “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in the beginning, but blooms like the majestic mountain flower that it is around the fifty second mark. If Soundgarden would have never topped these first two songs in their career, I would have still loved them. This one, again, is Cameron just killing it. It’s a given that Cornell ruled. I wish that guy was still alive and doing his thing.
“Tears to Forget” is a super punk rock sounding song and I really like it, too. The energy on it gets me going. The guitar riff kind of sounds like something Scratch Acid would have done, too. It’s got an edge.
“Nothing to Say” kind of foreshadows their great song from Badmotorfinger, “Slaves And Bulldozers.” They are very similar animals. I loved it when Soundgarden got doomy and heavy. “Nothing to Say” doesn’t seem like it is going to be much when it first starts, but it certainly packs a huge wallop.
“Little Joe” doesn’t do much for me anymore. I remember kind of liking it back in the day, but this style of song just never did a whole lot for me. They can have one clunker, I suppose, on their first EP. “Hand of God” was a solid ender, though. It’s way more interesting that “Little Joe,” that’s for sure.
When Fopp starts, I used to lose interest a bit, but it has grown on me over the years. “Fopp” as a song is just kind of there. It’s heavy and funky and Thayil’s guitar is pretty choice. Lyrically, though, I think I like the original better.
“Kingdom Come” is a bit more my speed. So is the Green River cover, “Swallow My Pride.” It’s probably my favorite thing from the Fopp songs. Soundgarden makes the song their own while still paying homage to the mighty Green River.
If you aren’t familiar with this compilation of Soundgarden’s first two EPs, do yourself a favor and check it out today. You still have time. It’s not too late.
*****
See you tomorrow.
AI sucked at this one. I wanted the players to be seals.
댓글