Soundgarden consists of Ben Shepherd (bass guitar), Chris Cornell (vocals, rhythm guitar), Kim Thayil (lead guitar), Matt Cameron (drums).
Soundgarden was a seminal Seattle rock band who helped to define the sound that came to be called grunge. They are usually considered one of the "big four" of the Seattle grunge bands, along with Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam.
The band was formed in 1984 by Chris Cornell (drums & vocals) and Hiro Yamamoto (bass), and was later joined by Kim Thayil (guitar). (Thayil had moved to Seattle from Illinois with Yamamoto and Bruce Pavitt, who would later start Sub Pop Records.) The band was named after an outdoor art/sound installation called " The Sound Garden" located on NOAA property near Seattle's Magnuson Park which makes eerie sounds when the wind blows.
Cornell originally played drums while singing, but the band enlisted Scott Sundquist to free Cornell up to concentrate on vocals. The band recorded two songs which appeared on a compilation for C/Z Records called Deep Six which also featured songs by Green River, Skin Yard, and The Melvins.
In 1986 Sundquist left the band, to be replaced by Matt Cameron, who had been the drummer in Skin Yard. The band signed to Sub Pop, releasing the Screaming Life EP in 1987, and the Fopp EP in 1988. A compilation was issued as Screaming Life/Fopp in 1990.
Though the band were being courted by major labels, in 1988 they signed to SST Records to release their debut album, Ultramega OK, for which they earned a Grammy nomination. In 1989 the band released their first album for a major label, Louder Than Love, released through A&M Records. After the release of the album Yamamoto left to go back to college. He was briefly replaced by Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, who appeared on the Louder Than Live video, but Ben Shepherd ended up in the band as a permanent replacement.
