Chevelle, Audioslave hit charts with new CD releases
by Derrick Ayres, reporter

    Chicago-based family trio Chevelle recently released its sophomore album on Epic records.

   Wonder What’s Next, featuring tracks The Red and Forfeit, is a follow-up to the group’s 1999 Squint release Point #1. The recording broke into the Billboard Top 200 at #14 in the first week of release.

   Pete (vocals, guitars), Joe (bass, vocals) and Sam Loeffler (drums) have been compared to the likes of Tool, Helmet and the Deftones, with a heavy barrage of guitar licks with powerful lyrics.

   Chevelle has gained popularity following its stint at last year’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin and is living up to its reputation and name, borrowed from the popular 1970s muscle-car.

   The CD’s first single, The Red, can be heard on local Top 40 and alternative rock stations, and the video can be caught on MTV and M2. The track offers Maynard James Keenanesque dynamic soft-loud vocals and thick guitar riffs worthy of the Tool comparisons.

   Other tracks, like Closure and Forfeit, allow the band to showcase its smoother and almost emo-like attributes.

   The brothers have sanded down the rough edges that tripped them up in their debut album.

   Chevelle will tour Texas this month, however, there are no stops in the Metroplex. Check www.che-velleinc.com for more details.

Nirvana

   The band that defined “grunge” has released the essential collection of greatest hits and previously unreleased studio tracks.

   Nirvana has reached its own nirvana and put it on a Universal self-titled CD including favorites like About a Girl, Been a Son and Smells Like Teen Spirit.

   The CD encompasses the core of raspy-voiced Kurt Cobain’s influence on the early 1990s.

   True Nirvana fans will probably have most of the 14 tracks on the CD, but the one new release You Know You’re Right, which can be heard on most local rock type stations, is worth the retail alone.

Audioslave

   The long-awaited collaboration of former Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell and Rage Against the Machine band mates Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk will arrive Tuesday, Nov. 19.

vEpic Records will release the anticipated Audioslave album next Tuesday. Progressive rock fans worldwide, exhale.

   After Zach de la Rocha’s departure from Rage Against the Machine in winter 2000, remaining band members Morello (guitars), Commerford (bass) and Wilk (drums) sought another vocalist.

   Rumors of interested candidates, such as Cypress Hill’s B-Real and Bad Brains’ Joseph Israel, engulfed the radio waves and Internet message boards. Rumors were dispelled when the group said Cornell would provide vocals for the project, tentatively titled Civilian.

   The band recorded a CD and made arrangements to perform on the first stage at Ozzfest for the 2002 campaign, but plans quickly vanished, when the group decided the project was not traveling in the right direction and called it quits.

   Instead of shelving the studio recordings, Epic Records proceeded with production and promoted the CD for release, much to the approval of alternative rock fans.

   The CD features the distinct funky awe-inspiring experimental guitars that have come to be expected of Morello as well as the ripping bass lines that Timmy C. is known to drop. Cornell demonstrates his wide range of vocal abilities.

   The vocals, however, are far from the protest instigating shouts of de la Rocha, but are just as emotional.

   The album is a “must hear to appreciate,” particularly for those skeptical of the addition of Cornell to the aggressive take-a-stand style of Rage Against the Machine.

   This is not Cornell’s first contribution toward a mix-and-match project. He participated in the UNI/ A&M produced Temple of the Dog, the 1990 elegy to late Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood, comprised of Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone/Pearl Jam members.
Cornell also recorded a solo CD, Euphoria Morning, for UNI/B&M records.

   Morello’s cooperative efforts include recording guitar riffs for One Man Army with Prodigy for the soundtrack to Spawn.