Soundgarden Unveil Three-Disc ‘Echo of Miles’ Rarities Collection

Fresh off of reuniting Temple of the Dog at Bridge School, Soundgarden had another big surprise for fans on Monday: A new track called “Storm,” which the band simply posted on YouTube without any further details. Now, we know where it comes from: Soundgarden’s long-in-the-works rarities collection. Echo of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across the Path will arrive November 24th with three discs full of B-sides, cover songs, Peel sessions, remixes and seven unreleased tracks, including “Storm.” 

“As album sets go, this one has been fun to collect and compile over the decades,” guitarist Kim Thayil said in a statement. “I personally may have referenced this project a number of times over the years, going back almost 20 of them to the mid-Nineties!”

Echo of Miles‘ first disc compiles all the tracks Soundgarden donated to compilations in the Nineties, including “Birth Ritual” for the Singles soundtrack, “Show Me” from No Alternative and “Sub Pop Rock City” from Sub Pop 200, alongside the band’s B-sides and other loose tracks.

The second disc is packed with 17 cover songs, recorded in the studio, in concert and at Peel Sessions, that range from classic rock favorites like the Beatles’ “Everybody Got Something to Hide Except for Me and Monkey” and the Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun” to grunge anthems like Green River’s “Swallow My Pride” to oddball choices like Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom.” 

The third disc, dubbed “Oddities,” is where Soundgarden have housed all the remixes, outtakes and instrumentals like the Superunknown-era jam session “Jerry Garcia’s Finger” and “Night Surf,” an instrumental performed by bassist Ben Shepherd. The third disc also features an unreleased Matt Cameron-penned track called “Twin Tower” that the band recorded in 1988.

As for the single “Storm,” the menacing, brooding track sounds like an unearthed grunge fossil, with Chris Cornell’s trademark bellow warning on the chorus, “Breed no restraint.” The track’s sound harkens back to those early, sludgey days of grunge, and for good reason: While a new recording, “Storm” has a long history with Soundgarden, dating back nearly 30 years and three years before the band released their debut LP Ultramega OK.

In an interview with Alternative Nation, Sub Pop producer Jack Endino talked about hitting the studio in May to re-record a track the band demoed back in the mid-Eighties but never fully completed. At the time, Soundgarden comprised of guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yamamoto and Chris Cornell drumming and singing. That track was “Storm,” which previously appeared as “The Storm” on Soundgarden’s pre-Cameron 4-Track Demo with Sub Pop’s Bruce Pavitt but was never released otherwise. 

“In March of 1986 they were recording some tracks at a local studio. They didn’t like how the mixes were coming out so they called me to come in and try and rescue it,” Endino told Alternative Nation. “We tried to rescue the session but it ended up getting shelved and they got Matt Cameron as a drummer a few months later and the rest was history.

“Fast forward to the present, 28 years later, and I found a cassette of that stuff. Every one of those songs got re-recorded later except this one kind of oddball drony psych tune,” Endino added. “I reminded Kim about that song and sent him the rough mix, just to jog his memory. A few months ago they asked to me to record it with them.”

Echo of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across the Path

CD 1 – Originals
1. “Sub Pop Rock City”
2. “Toy Box”
3. “Heretic”
4. “Fresh Deadly Roses”
5. “HIV Baby”
6. “Cold Bitch”
7. “Show Me”
8. “She’s A Politician”
9. “Birth Ritual”
10. “She Likes Surprises”
11. “Kyle Petty, Son of Richard”
12. “Exit Stonehenge”
13. “Blind Dogs”
14. “Bleed Together”
15. “Black Rain”
16. “Live To Rise”
17. “Kristi”*
18. “Storm”*

CD 2 – Covers
1. “Swallow My Pride”
2. “Smokestack Lightnin’”
3. “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (John Peel BBC Sessions)”*
4. “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (John Peel BBC Sessions)”*
5. “Come Together”
6. “Stray Cat Blues”
7. “Into The Void (Sealth)”
8. “Girl U Want”
9. “Touch Me”
10. “Can You See Me? (Friday Rock Show BBC Sessions)”
11. “Homicidal Suicidal (Friday Rock Show BBC Sessions)”
12. “I Can’t Give You Anything (Friday Rock Show BBC Sessions)”
13. “I Don’t Care About You (Friday Rock Show BBC Sessions)”
14. “Waiting For The Sun (Live)”
15. “Search And Destroy (Live)”
16. “Big Bottom (Live)”
17. “Earache My Eye (Live)”

CD 3 – Oddities
1. “Twin Tower”*
2. “Jerry Garcia’s Finger”
3. “Ghostmotorfinger”
4. “Night Surf”*
5. “A Splice Of Space Jam”
6. “The Telephantasm”
7. “Black Days III”
8. “Karaoke”
9. “Fopp (Fucked Up Heavy Dub Mix)”
10. “Big Dumb Sex (Dub Version)”
11. “Spoonman (Steve Fisk Remix)”
12. “Rhinosaur (The Straw That Broke The Rhino’s Back Remix)”
13. “Dusty (Moby Remix)”
14. “The Telephantasm (Steve Fisk 2014 Remix)”*
15. “One Minute Of Silence”

* Previously Unreleased