Temple of the Dog: 25th Anniversary Super Deluxe Blu-ray Release
HomeTemple of the Dog: 25th Anniversary Super Deluxe Blu-ray Release
Posted September 2, 2016 08:06 PM by Webmaster
Temple of the Dog — the Seattle supergroup featuring Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, and drummer Matt Cameron (who plays drums with both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) — has reunited and will tour for the first time ever since forming in 1990. On September 30th UMe will release a special Temple of the Dog 25th anniversary reissue collection of their landmark album, newly mixed by Brendan O'Brien.
The Super Deluxe release will include 4 Discs: 2CDs, 1 DVD and 1 Blu-ray Audio. 51 total tracks - counting all audio and video - 48 of which are unreleased tracks and/or mixes.
CONTENT
CD 1:
Temple of the Dog came together from the ashes of Mother Love Bone following the death from a drug overdose of its frontman Andrew Wood, Cornell's close friend and roommate. Cornell wrote future TOTD songs "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Reach Down" to help process his grief, "but the songs didn't have any destination," he says. "I was compelled to write them and there they were – written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy. My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute."
Mother Love Bone's Gossard and Ament began playing with McCready, and they brought in Soundgarden's Cameron to drum on demos. Because this was a collaboration, and a tribute, there was no commercial expectation for the Temple of the Dog album. It would be, Gossard would later observe, "the easiest and most beautiful record that we've ever been involved with." Adds Cornell: "Temple was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it. We weren't concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made."
Gossard, Ament, and McCready were also simultaneously forming a new band, which more than six months later would be known as Pearl Jam. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was vying to lead the project, came into the studio to sing background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell thought another song, "Hunger Strike," needed a duet, Vedder was enlisted. "Hunger Strike" became a hit single, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Temple of the Dog performed live only a handful of times, most notably in Seattle, in November and December of 1990. Those shows have become some of the most legendary Seattle concerts of all-time. Their 2016 shows mark the first time the band has ever toured. (Cornell joined Pearl Jam in 2014 at the Bridge School show and for two nights at PJ20 in Alpine Valley, WI, and the Temple line-up played "Reach Down" and "Call Me a Dog" at Seattle's Benaroya Hall in January 2015.)
"This is something no one has ever seen," Cornell says of the official reunion. "We wanted to stop and recognize that we did this and pay homage."
Temple of the Dog's upcoming tour dates are as follows:
11/04 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theater
11/07 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
11/11 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Center
11/14 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
11/20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater
The Super Deluxe release will include 4 Discs: 2CDs, 1 DVD and 1 Blu-ray Audio. 51 total tracks - counting all audio and video - 48 of which are unreleased tracks and/or mixes.
CONTENT
CD 1:
- Original album newly mixed in 192/24 stereo by Brendan O'Brien
- Plus 3 Alternate Mixes newly mixed from multi-tracks by Adam Kasper – "Say Hello 2 Heaven", "Wooden Jesus" and "All Night Thing"
- 7 demos - 5 unreleased including 2 songs that didn't make final album sessions: "Angel of Fire" and "Black Cat"
- 5 Studio Outtakes newly mixed from multi-tracks by Adam Kasper – "Say Hello 2 Heaven", "Reach Down", "Pushin Forward Back", "Wooden Jesus" and "All Night Thing"
- 11/13/90: Off Ramp Cafe video shot by Badmotorfinger producer, Terry Date (previously unseen/unreleased) – "Hunger Strike", "Wooden Jesus", "Say Hello 2 Heaven", "Reach Down", "Call Me A Dog" and "Times of Trouble"
- 12/90: "Say Hello 2 Heaven" originally shot on film and newly transferred to HD (newly edited and never before seen in its entirety)
- 9/8/92: Lollapalooza, Phoenix "Hunger Strike" surprise performance
- Official "Hunger Strike" music video
- 9/11 PJ20 Alpine Valley fan shot and edited videos including:
- 9/3/11: "Say Hello 2 Heaven"
- 9/4/11: "Hunger Strike", "Call Me A Dog", "All Night Thing" and "Reach Down"
- All HD quality; includes Pearl Jam's stereo mix from the live multi-tracks from this event plus HD pit footage from the Pearl Jam archives
- 1/15: "Call Me A Dog" and "Reach Down" from Madseason's 2015 Benaroya Hall concert (newly edited and never-before-seen)
- Newly mixed 96kHz 24-bit 5.1 Surround mix by Adam Kasper (Superunknown 5.1 mixer)
- 96kHz 24-bit stereo mix by Brendan O'Brien
- Official "Hunger Strike" music video in 5.1
- HD versions of the bonus videos in stereo only
- Magnetic flip top box package includes booklet with liner notes by David Fricke, a lenticular sticker and a poster.
- Exclusive 12"x12" litho with each Super Deluxe order.
Temple of the Dog came together from the ashes of Mother Love Bone following the death from a drug overdose of its frontman Andrew Wood, Cornell's close friend and roommate. Cornell wrote future TOTD songs "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Reach Down" to help process his grief, "but the songs didn't have any destination," he says. "I was compelled to write them and there they were – written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy. My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute."
Mother Love Bone's Gossard and Ament began playing with McCready, and they brought in Soundgarden's Cameron to drum on demos. Because this was a collaboration, and a tribute, there was no commercial expectation for the Temple of the Dog album. It would be, Gossard would later observe, "the easiest and most beautiful record that we've ever been involved with." Adds Cornell: "Temple was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it. We weren't concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made."
Gossard, Ament, and McCready were also simultaneously forming a new band, which more than six months later would be known as Pearl Jam. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was vying to lead the project, came into the studio to sing background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell thought another song, "Hunger Strike," needed a duet, Vedder was enlisted. "Hunger Strike" became a hit single, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Temple of the Dog performed live only a handful of times, most notably in Seattle, in November and December of 1990. Those shows have become some of the most legendary Seattle concerts of all-time. Their 2016 shows mark the first time the band has ever toured. (Cornell joined Pearl Jam in 2014 at the Bridge School show and for two nights at PJ20 in Alpine Valley, WI, and the Temple line-up played "Reach Down" and "Call Me a Dog" at Seattle's Benaroya Hall in January 2015.)
"This is something no one has ever seen," Cornell says of the official reunion. "We wanted to stop and recognize that we did this and pay homage."
11/04 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theater
11/07 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
11/11 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Center
11/14 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
11/20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater
