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BEN SHEPHERD DISCUSSES NEW SOUNDGARDEN TRACK ‘ROWING’

By: 20 November 2012 23 Comments

23 Comments »

  • Pete said:

    Ben Shepard is so fucking weird.

  • Pete said:

    Kim Thayil’s just sitting there thinking, “fuck, this guy is actually in our band, man I regret the day we felt pity for him and let him jam with us, goddamnit.”

  • jt said:

    @ Pete

    Actually, Ben auditioned while Jason Everman was also auditioning. Although didn’t get it then, after Everman was booted, Ben was brought in. He was also a backup touring guitarist for Nirvana before joing Soundgarden.

    He also wrote one of my favorite Soundgarden songs with “Head High”.

    What could also sum up what you said is a quote from the man himself

    “on interviewers:
    “I don’t mean to offend anybody, but normally they don’t get my sense of humor. I know my jokes aren’t funny, just strange.”
    ” from http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/misc/ben.shtml

  • Deserted said:

    Ben is the most underrated songwriter there is… Just listen to the new album, his work rally stands out…

  • Markus said:

    These photos look so fuckin’ epic! Shoot a film Soundgarden, please :-)

  • Mark said:

    @jt:

    “He also wrote one of my favorite Soundgarden songs with “Head High”.”

    I guess it truly isn’t your favorite song, as you clearly don’t know the title of it.

  • vs.. said:

    This song is beyond terrible. I cringe every time I hear the lyrics.. Seriously, wtf? “Rowing is living and living is hard..” “bleeding is breathing, breathing is feeling..” I’ve never heard such nonsense in a song. Did a 3rd grader win a contest and get to write these lyrics? This is a throwaway song if I’ve ever heard one.

  • Jack Irons said:

    Is there anything better in life than watching Ben stomp around the stage destroying his bass?
    I think not!

    Ben’s song are by far the best on the album. I love “Rowing” & “Taree”!

    Thank god for Ben Sheppard!!

    Thank you Chris Cornell for not ruining every show by preaching about nonsense every show like the imbecile from the other major Seattle band that’s not named Alice in Chains or Nirvana!

  • Jack Irons said:

    Vs..:

    Obviously you’ve never listened to some of EV’s assinine lyrics!

  • Dennis said:

    I think I thought “Shut up Ben” to myself about 100 times during that XM special last week.

  • Nicb115 said:

    Ben writes or co writes all my favorite soundgarden songs.

  • Grungy said:

    This is SG scream song that corky couldn’t use. Row row ya boat down the scream.

  • SUICYCO said:

    “Rowing” is an awful song (as is “Eyelid’s Mouth”) and I cringe everytime I read somebody on this site fawning over such crap.

    The chorus of “Rowing” is cool, but the monotonous music (which a monkey could have written), the repetitive nature of the song, and the recorded vocal track used live, all add up to this song sucking big time.

    I agree with Vs.

  • jt said:

    @Mark

    I was being ironical

  • jt said:

    ironical about the song title that is

  • Lennart said:

    @Pete, it’s SHEPHERD, not Shepard, and the guy is a genius.

  • Dreux said:

    @SUICYCO
    Hey, man, not every song can be “Full on Kevin’s Mom” (which, for the record, is a FAR worse song than “Rowing”).

  • Is he one? said:

    @Lennart
    I like Ben but man do you have the “genius” easy.

  • BlownUpWorld said:

    Everybody is entitled to their own opinion I guess, but personally I think Ben is a great musician, entertainer & songwriter. And FWIW, Rowing is one of my favorites on this album, but the more I listen to it, the more I like the whole effort. I’m only pissed about the fact that we had to wait 16 years for it. These guys are a great band and could have been dominating this industry.

  • Pete said:

    Rowing is a great great song. Some one above mentioned the repetitiveness of the song… did you miss the lyrics? It’s about keeping on going and going against adversity, the repetitiveness of the song emphasizes that.

  • Dreux said:

    Ben is a good songwriter who has written (or written the music for) some truly great songs (“Head Down”, “Zero Chance”), some fun ones (“Ty Cobb”), and some questionable ones (“An Unkind”), and he’s a good bassist. I wouldn’t call him a “genius”. I fucking love the stuff he’s contributed to the band from Badmotorfinger to King Animal, but Cornell has written numerous great songs, and I’m not sure if I’d even call him a genius. He’s a great songwriter, sure, but I think “genius” is more suitable for someone along the lines of Mike Patton.

  • Jack Irons said:

    Dreux|

    Actually Cornell has said on numerous occasions that Ben is a “Genius”.

  • Dreux said:

    Okay, that’s what Cornell says. That’s not what I say. I love Ben Shepard (he’s like the George Harrison of Soundgarden to me), but I just wouldn’t go so far as to call him a musical genius or anything.

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