Several musicians and bands from Seattle failed to achive mainstream success, but perhaps the unluckiest of the bunch was Jason Everman. Hiro Yamamoto left Soundgarden on the eve of their breakthrough, Badmotorfinger. Fine. Chad Channing's days in Nirvana ended a year or two before they launched "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on a public starved for something pertinent to their lives. Jason Everman had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on how you look at it) of belonging to both bands and finding a permanent home with neither.Everman's name appears on the back of Nirvana's Bleach; in fact, he even appears on the cover photo. Rumor has it that the band added him to the cover to thank him for footing the $600 the spent recording that record, even though he didn't play a single note on it. If he still belonged to the band by the time Bleach hit the shelves, it wasn't for long. I believe his entire tenure in the band lasted seven months.
Everman's name doesn't appear on Soundgarden's Louder than Love, but the videos from that time do include him. Essentially, his recorded appearances with the band were limited to promtional materials, such as the Louder than Live VHS tape. Watch him smash his bass guitar:
His recorded output with these bands was slim, and it's all included below. Of the two Nirvana songs, only the Kiss cover actually saw the light of day when the band existed; the version of "Dive" didn't appear until the box set. He recorded one released song with Soundgarden, a mediocre cover of the Beatles' "Come Together," which appeared on a Japanese import, Loudest Love. The two other tracks I culled from a widely circulated bootleg of a Peel session they recorded; their version of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)" I love, and I wish it had seen legitimate release. Apparently, their Peel session also included a version of "Flower," but I've never heard it. Frankly, I'm not even certain that Everman appears on these later tracks; the bootleg says he does, but the Peel web site disagrees. No, wait, now that I think about it, it's probably not Everman. But the people demand to hear these songs, and I am nothing if not a man of the people.
So, he (maybe) recorded a total of five songs with Nirvana and Soundgarden, four of which were covers, and two of those covers were of Beatle songs. Therefore, Jason Everman = Pete Best.
After leaving Soundgarden, Everman joined some band called Mind Funk. I know nothing about Mind Funk other than this: one day, Chris Cornell will be an old man, and on some evening, while resting on his porch with a blanket over his knees, sipping a cup of Folger's and watching a group of children play Kick the Can, he'll have the comfort in knowing that somebody actually did invent a band name worse than Audioslave.
Some information about Jason Everman, including chatter about why he didn't quite work out with Nirvana and Soundgarden, can be found here.
Nirvana--"Dive"
Nirvana--"Do You Love Me?"
Soundgarden--"Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)"
Soundgarden--"Thank You (Falettinmen Be Mice Elf Agin)"
Soundgarden--"Come Together"
14 comments:
I had the first Mindfunk album, but I'm now noticing that it was a pre-Everman release. The one thing I remember about it was lots of slap bass.
Apart from blog posts about Team Band, this might be the best blog post ever.
Well done, gentleman.
ps - post Hiro Soundgarden is not nearly as good. But you know that.
I've never actually head Mindfunk, but slap bass is usually a big no-no in my book.
In case you didn't already know, apparently Everman joined the Army after his stint in Mindfunk.
And I definitely agree re: Hiro-era Soundgarden. I like the later records, or at least parts of the later records, but they were a different band by that point. None of their later songs give the chills quite as much as "Nothing to Say" does.
yeah, it's a shame about Jason Everman, but what the heck, that's the fate that you have. But let's not get mystical about it and plz mighty Lamestain, I'm waiting for the "Freewilling" Mark Arm single to be heard on this awesome blog !
cheers
I know I'm late to this party, but...
Come Together was also on the Hands All Over single (1989?).
One reason why Jason Everman was never accepted into Soundgarden: he had bigger hair than Chris Cornell, and acted like a bigger rock star. That was not acceptable.
Nice Post. I liked the Audioslave joke. But I don't quite understand why this and other articles about Everman have such a cynical slant. He played some short stints with some epic bands; he's cool in my book.
After failing to cash in with his Minor Threat tribute band, Uniform Choice, the lead singer started a RHCP tribute band called Mindfunk.
Be very afraid......
I put Everman through the last phase of his Special Forces training... very good soldier, one of the best I have ever seen.
everman played on the second mindfunk album 'dropped'.. it was quality grunge.. dirty but melodic.. very cool.. i used to have it years ago.. wouldnt mind having a copy of it again but its not printing.. i would say being in nirvana and soundgarden and then joining the special forces sounds like a most unusual and interesting life.. hardly a shame i would think..
comment on a very old post. agreed, the second MF record is fantastic. everyone do yourself a favor and get a copy from the cut-out bins. grunge at the finest. no lie. as for everman, people never recognize the fact that between SG and MF he was on NJ band OLD's album "lo flux tube". spazztic industrial sludge. good shit. but yet again, he got the boot. I've been told he was bi-polar, and this is why he never lasted in one place very long. not sure if that one's true. i also heard that while touring with SG he was "punished" by not being aloud to play 2 shows because he busted all his basses. again, true? good story though. god bless JE.
im pretty sure everman played guitar in mf. i liked the 2nd and 3rd record then. i still have a yellow sg 7" with these 2 coverversions (is it unofficial?)and 2 10", bought anything I could get. thanks for the post!
Jason is SO NOT bipolar! Too funny...if he saw this, he'd crack up
The only thing more pathetic than making this webpage is commenting on it. (yes I understand the irony) You should all be so lucky as to experience half of the things this guy has. Go do something constructive with your time like drink heavily and look for old photos of your family online.
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