RollingStone: Hear Grunge Supergroup Ten Commandos’ “Staring Down The Dust”
Hear Grunge Supergroup Ten Commandos’ “Staring Down The Dust”
Mark Lanegan guests on first single from new band featuring Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Off! members
By DANIEL KREPS
Excerpt:
“This was the first song we recorded and we finished the rhythm track very quickly,” Cameron tells Rolling Stone. “We all liked the sound and feel of the song, but once we heard Mark Lanegan’s vocals on it, he took it to another level completely.”
“So much music that influenced me came from Seattle,” adds Coats. “The riffs Ben came up with for this one are heavy and twisted; not an obvious pocket for a singer to jump into.”
The seeds of the supergroup came together following a memorial concert for Natasha Shneider, Johannes’ wife and bandmate in the alternative rock group Eleven who passed away in 2008. Cameron, Johannes and Shepherd began writing the album later that year, but the side project wasn’t able to record together until spring 2014, at which point Ten Commandos were joined by Coats at Seattle’s Studio Litho. Ten Commandos put the finishing touches on their debut LP at Johannes’ Studio 11AD in Los Angeles.
Johannes, Cameron, Coats and Shepherd all contributed to the writing of the album, which features guests Lanegan, guitarist Peter Frampton (“Sketch 9”) and singer Nikka Costa (“Come”). “Staring Down the Dust” itself features music by Shepherd and Johannes, while Lanegan penned the lyrics.
Each member of Ten Commandos have collaborated with one another in some capacity throughout the past few decades. Cameron and Shepherd are both members of Soundgarden and their side project Hater, while Cameron (as well as one-time Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons) briefly drummed for Johannes’ Eleven project.