SOUNDGARDEN Presented With Platinum Award For 'Telephantasm'

September 29, 2010

This past Monday night (September 27) at the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),UMe and gaming publisher Activision Publishing, Inc. awarded SOUNDGARDEN with a platinum plaque acknowledging the innovative partnership and distribution behind SOUNDGARDEN's newest album in 13 years, "Telephantasm" (A&M/UMe). The multi-label, career-spanning retrospective album was released today inside 1 million copies of the new Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. SOUNDGARDEN's groundbreaking partnership with Activision marks the first time a newly released music album has been simultaneously bundled with a videogame launch, and it has opened the door to a new type of RIAA certification: recognizing a band's success based on the sale of non-returnable units from a music label to a gaming company, instead of to a traditional retailer.

"Guitar Hero is a huge platform for music, and embracing alternative outlets is essential to an artist's success in today's marketplace," said Kate Harold, Director of Artist & Industry Relations and the Gold & Platinum Awards Program for the RIAA. "This unique partnership between Universal Music Group and Activision demonstrates the value music brings to other industries and is a perfect example of how modern music companies continue to find new ways to reach fans. I anticipate we'll be seeing more and more of these types of partnerships and cross-pollination of industries which benefit everyone, especially music fans."

"Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, SOUNDGARDEN and Universal Music are breaking new ground with this innovative partnership," said David Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Guitar Hero. "SOUNDGARDEN's seminal music will be available through all of Guitar Hero's distribution channels — physical retail, digital download through consoles, and the iPhone — proving that Guitar Hero is a platform to bring an interactive music experience to new audiences and fans. We're thrilled to be collaborating with SOUNDGARDEN at such an exciting point in their career."

SOUNDGARDEN's first retrospective, "Telephantasm" includes beloved band hits, deep back catalogue cuts and a never-before-heard unreleased track entitled "Black Rain", taken from the "Badmotorfinger" recording sessions. "Black Rain", called "a grunge grenade" by USA Today, received a 4-star review from Rolling Stone and is currently #8 at Mainstream Rock. AOL Spinner recently premiered the new video for the song . Directed and created by animator Brendon Small from Adult Swim's wildly popular and imaginative show "Metalocalypse", the video takes fans through an epic battle in post-apocalyptic Seattle, Washington between an animated-SOUNDGARDEN-manned translucent robot, and a multi-appendage giant monster. This is the first artist-driven music video based off the show.

Fan-filmed video footage of SOUNDGARDEN performing "Black Rain" live for the first time ever this past Monday night (September 27) a special "secret" show at Activision's exclusive launch event for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock at the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles, California can be viewed below.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).