Thayil wrote/co-wrote several of the tracks on Ultramega OK (I guess the title was a Thayil joke: the band wasn’t happy with the album’s mix but liked the songs so they considered the record “absolutely, unbelievably not bad” – it was remixed from the original tapes in 2017 and released on Sub Pop) including the lead track and only single “Flower,” “All Your Lies” (co-written with bassist Hiro Yamamoto), “Circle of Power” (one of my faves on the record and the most punk leaning) and “Incessant Mace.” Chris Cornell and/or Yamamoto wrote the remainder of the record besides the two cover tracks: Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” that also includes bits of the most excellent Sonic Youth song “Death Valley ‘69″ as well as “One Minute of Silence” which is not really a cover but another joke, this time on John Lennon’s song “Two Minutes of Silence” – Soundgarden’s version is a minute of not really silence because apparently Thayil couldn’t be quiet for a full minute so there’s some muffled noise in the background.

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