Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption Putin opponent who has been jailed for being an anti-corruption Putin opponent, is in the sixth day of a hunger strike he undertook to protest his treatment in prison. He’s already sick with a fever and cough, and given the Putin government’s general treatment of its opponents, I’d say the prognosis is grim.
Temple of the Dog was the project Chris Cornell put together after the death of his roommate, Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, of a heroin overdose in 1990. Cornell first recruited MLB guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, along with lead guitarist Mike McCready, who had been practicing with them to form a new band, at the time called Mookie Blaylock but now known as Pearl Jam. Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron was added. Eddie Vedder was only at the session because he was trying out as vocalist for the new band afterwards, but when he heard Cornell struggling to sing the song’s low parts, he stepped up to a microphone and delivered what became his first performance on record.
Temple of the Dog’s only album was recorded and released in 1991, but it wasn’t promoted much and didn’t chart until a year later, when the geniuses at A&M realized that they were sitting on what was essentially an LP by a Soundgarden-Pearl Jam supergroup. “Hunger Strike” was chosen as the single, and with promotion and a new video it reached No. 4 on the Modern Rock chart. It still gets a fair bit of classic rock airplay today.
