WHERE ARE THEY NOW? THE KIM THAYIL EDITION.

That is a fucking great question; what the fuck has ex-Soundgarden axeman Kim Thayil been up to recently? We all know what Chris Cornell has been doing, and some of us might know that ex-Soundgarden skinsman Matt Cameron has been busy playing drums for some band called Pearl Jam for the last 10 years. As for bassist Ben Shepherd, “Nobody gives a flying fuck what Ben Shepherd is doing because bassists do what again?” But thankfully MetalSucks reader and fellow blogger NoYokoNo has done some research and turned up an answer about how Soundgarden’s resident beardo is keeping busy.

Thayil did some low-profile one-off projects such as The No WTO Combo w. Jello Biafra and Krist Novoselic) and Dave Grohl’s Probot and some other studio projects here and there. But here’s where it gets interesting:

More recently, however, those grim bastards in Sunn O))) have embraced Thayil, whom the duo probably connected with either due to the Probot project, released on their cultish Southern Lord imprint, or by simple geographic proximity (Seattle). He has appeared on a handful of incestuous releases on that label, including the Sunn O))) / Boris collaboration Altar and Ascend’s Ample Fire Within, the album that sparked this post.

THAT’S the kind of shit I had hoped to hear. I actually wrote about Ascend a few weeks ago, not knowing Thayil was involved; if you didn’t check them out then, hopefully this will motivate you.

-VN