It's Official: SOUNDGARDEN To Reunite

Singer Chris Cornell's (SOUNDGARDEN, AUDIOSLAVE) official web site has been updated with the following message:

"The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!"

To sign up, go to www.soundgardenworld.com.

Cornell told RollingStone.com in a July 2009 interview that while he and other former members of SOUNDGARDEN have been talking, they have not been discussing a much-rumored reunion. Instead, Cornell explained, "The only thing that we have talked about is trying to put together an album of B-sides and maybe a box set with some unreleased tracks we have. This is something we first talked about 10 years ago. We all feel it's time to do that, and we have a lot of fans out there, and we have a lot of new fans discovering our music, and I think the catalog and the legacy of the band has been ignored by the record label and previous management, so we decided to get together, and start working towards putting something like that out."

Cornell told The Pulse of Radio a while back that he hoped to see a collection of SOUNDGARDEN rarities come out, but that he was not directly involved. "I've sort of left that in Kim (Thayil, guitarist)'s world, because Kim had always talked about wanting to be in charge of doing, like, a box set or a B-sides album," he said. "That was something that he had mentioned years ago, and I'm sure at some point he will want to do it, and that's I guess when it'll get done. I don't know how much actual unreleased stuff is out there, but there's definitely some SOUNDGARDEN rarities stuff that the average fan has not heard and it would be nice to put out."

SOUNDGARDEN recorded a large amount of B-sides, including cover songs and original tracks, that were mostly released on European singles and EPs. Many of them are now difficult to find.

Cornell denied to RollingStone.com that the band would reunite for a tour in 2010, but left the door open, saying, "I've always said nothing is impossible . . . I want to be open to anything, but nothing has changed in terms of our attitude toward it. It takes somebody to really stand up and say, 'We should do this, we have to go do this, let's go do this,' and so far, no one has raised their hand to do that. Still, it's not impossible."

SOUNDGARDEN broke up in 1997 after five albums, but rumors started swirling early last year about a reunion, with one source telling The Pulse of Radio directly that negotiations were underway.

Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron did stage a partial reunion at a March 2009 Tom Morello show in Seattle, playing a handful of SOUNDGARDEN songs with Tad Doyle singing.

Cornell had been touring in support of his 2008 Timbaland-produced solo album, "Scream", which has bitterly divided fans over its urban pop sound.