Hey! Soundgarden made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! In celebration, we bestow upon them the second-highest honor in rock music, an Avocado Night Thread.

Taking their name from a Seattle public art sculpture, Soundgarden is the third of grunge’s “Big Four” bands to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Which is late as heck, considering that they were the first of the four to form, joining up in 1984 and appearing on the seminal C/Z release Deep Six in 1986.1Honorable mention to Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, who appeared on Deep Six as members of grunge pioneer Green River, also formed in 1984. But Pearl Jam qua Pearl Jam was still several years away. ::pats self on back for using the word qua, brings nothing but class to this joint:: Soundgarden would also become the first of the Big Four to sign a major label deal, with A&M in 1989.

Soundgarden’s original 1984 lineup was a trio consisting of singer/drummer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell would eventually move out from behind the drums, with former Bam Bam and Skin Yard drummer (and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes vocalist) Matt Cameron taking over the kit in 1986. Yamamoto left the band in 1989, with bassist Ben Shepherd rounding out the band’s final lineup.

No one knows what grunge is/was, but under one interpretation it is/was a fusion of punk and metal, and Soundgarden leaned towards the metal side, at least initially. But whatever these Seattle bands were doing, it was something new, and Soundgarden would hardly be constrained by the traditional metal genre. The band released five full-length studio albums between 1988 and 1996, including Ultramega OK, Louder Than Love, Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, and Down the Upside, before going on hiatus until the 2010s. They released their sixth and final studio album, King Animal, in 2012.

1994’s Superunknown was the band’s biggest album, reaching number one on the charts and being certified 6x platinum. (1991’s Badmotorfinger and 1996’s Down the Upside also hit platinum). The biggest hit off of Superunkown was “Black Hole Sun,” the video for which was omnipresent on MTV in 1994 and is about ::checks haunted memory:: creepy-ass faces, and also the apocalypse.

Anyway, it’s great.

In sum, Soundgarden has a lot of good songs. Go ahead and listen to them here!

Happy Night Threading!