South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been working on a movie with Kendrick Lamar for a while now. There’s been few details about the project, other than the working title for the musical comedy film is Whitney Springs. The release date has been changed a few times, initially slated for July 2025 and then March of this year. Now it’s unclear what’s actually happening with the whole thing, but the South Park guys are sorry it’s taking so long.
The 1981 debut that launched a thousand hair metal dreams gets the deluxe treatment with five vinyl records, unreleased demos and a 100-page photo book. Continue reading…
The 1981 debut that launched a thousand hair metal dreams gets the deluxe treatment with five vinyl records, unreleased demos and a 100-page photo book. Continue reading…
Apple has redesigned so much of everyday life. But one thing that can get overlooked, perhaps because of its big, nasty corporate ways, is its influence on music. For months, I’ve been thinking about Slayyyter’s comments on iPod music. Not only did the technology revolutionize how a generation consumed music, but its marketing played a significant role, too. As Apple evolved our intimate relationship with technology, it also exerted a musical influence. It’s still doing that today.
Wednesday night, Soundgarden reunited during halftime at the Seahawks’ season opener, playing the New England Patriots, at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington. The performance was not aired, but lucky fans at the stadium got to see original members Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron take the stage with the Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, who also performed the game’s national anthem.
One of the highlights of any AC/DC show is the moment, during their regular grand finale “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” when they fire off an actual onstage cannon. That’s a glorious piece of simulated destruction, which is so much better than the real kind. Real destruction might force a stadium to cancel an AC/DC show.
Soundgarden walked out at halftime of the Seahawks–Patriots game at Lumen Field and played a medley including “Outshined” and “Spoonman,” with Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless on vocals and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on guitar. McCready had already opened the night with the national anthem.
It was a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band playing Chris Cornell’s songs in their own city, nine years after his death, with the woman they chose to sing them. And fans who tuned into NBC specifically to watch it say almost none of it made the broadcast.
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Scott Penfold covers the Soundgarden halftime set on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — what they played, who joined them, and why the people in that stadium got something everyone at home didn’t. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.
What actually happened
Seahawks against the Patriots, season opener, Lumen Field in Seattle.
Mike McCready opened the night with the national anthem — a Pearl Jam guitarist playing the anthem in Seattle, which is about as on-brand as that city gets.
Then at halftime Soundgarden came out with Taylor Momsen on vocals and McCready on guitar, and ran a medley of the songs people came for: “Outshined” and “Spoonman” among them.
Short set. Football halftimes always are.
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Why Momsen, and why it matters
She’s not a novelty booking and it’s important to say so, because people who don’t follow this closely will assume she is.
Momsen has performed with Soundgarden several times now. Most recently she filled Chris Cornell’s role at Soundgarden’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last autumn — the single most significant night in the band’s history since he died, and they handed those songs to her.
There’s history behind it too. The Pretty Reckless opened for Soundgarden on their 2017 tour, which was Cornell’s last.
So when Soundgarden play now, she’s who they call. Not because nobody else could, but because she was there, she knew him, and they trust her with it. Anyone treating her as a stand-in has the relationship backwards.
The broadcast
Here’s where it turns.
Fans who tuned into NBC’s coverage specifically for the halftime performance report that little to no footage of the set was aired. Social media filled with angry comments within minutes and hasn’t stopped since.
I want to be fair about this. A regular-season NFL halftime is not the Super Bowl. NBC has an inventory of ads to run, a studio panel to service and a broadcast to fill. Nobody promised a full set.
But this wasn’t a marching band.
This was a Hall of Fame band, in the city that produced them, performing the songs of a singer they lost, with the person they chose to carry those songs, three weeks after we learned his final recordings are being mixed. That’s a genuine cultural moment and it happened live on network television.
The people in the stadium got all of it. Everyone watching at home got a commercial break.
The NFL spends every season telling you how much it cares about music. Then something legitimately historic breaks out in the middle of one of their own broadcasts and it gets treated as the gap between the ads.
I don’t think that was malice. I think it was worse than malice — I think nobody in the truck understood what they were looking at.
The other reason last night mattered, and the reason this band is in the news at all.
Soundgarden’s final studio album — the one featuring Chris Cornell’s last recordings — is in post-production right now. It isn’t a rumour and it isn’t a maybe. What’s holding it is the boring end: label, production and promotion arrangements still being worked out behind the scenes.
Kim Thayil described it last week in terms nobody expected. His line: if you can imagine a lullaby paired with psychedelia, that’s kind of what’s going on there.
A lullaby paired with psychedelia. That is not what anyone was braced for from the last Soundgarden record, and it’s the single most interesting sentence anyone in that band has said in years.
Cornell died in May 2017. Nine years later there’s a finished album with his voice on it waiting on paperwork.
Worth the context, because this band’s standing has only grown.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last autumn — the induction where Momsen sang. They are one of the four bands that defined what came out of Seattle, and the one that was always heaviest, weirdest and least interested in being accessible.
They’re also on one of the best soundtracks ever made. Their exclusive track “Birth Ritual” is on the Singles soundtrack, which sits fourth in our ranking of the best metal movie soundtracks — an album a great many people bought for Alice in Chains’ “Would?” and kept for everything around it.
Nine years without their singer, and they’re still the band an NFL broadcast should have known to stay on.
Watch it here, since NBC didn’t show you
That’s the point of this page. If you sat through a broadcast waiting for it, this is the set.
Taylor Momsen + Soundgarden, + Mike McCready at halftime… only in Seattle do we get football with a side of grunge pic.twitter.com/M3pixXP2lp
Soundgarden performed at halftime of the Seahawks–Patriots season opener at Lumen Field in Seattle on September 9, 2026.
Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless sang, with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on guitar. McCready also performed the national anthem earlier in the night.
The medley included “Outshined” and “Spoonman.”
Fans report NBC aired little to no footage of the set, prompting widespread anger on social media.
Momsen has performed with Soundgarden several times, most recently filling Chris Cornell’s role at the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last autumn. The Pretty Reckless also opened Soundgarden’s 2017 tour.
Soundgarden’s final album, featuring Cornell’s last recordings, is in post-production, with label, production and promotional arrangements still being finalised.
Kim Thayil described the record as a lullaby paired with psychedelia.
FAQ
Who sang with Soundgarden at the halftime show?
Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless handled vocals, with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready joining the band. McCready had also performed the US national anthem earlier in the evening.
What songs did Soundgarden play at halftime?
A medley that included “Outshined” and “Spoonman.”
Why didn’t NBC show the Soundgarden halftime performance?
NBC has not commented. Fans who tuned in specifically for the set report that little to no footage was broadcast, prompting significant complaint on social media. Regular-season NFL halftime performances are not routinely aired in full, though the circumstances of this one — a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band performing in their hometown — drew unusual attention.
Why does Taylor Momsen sing with Soundgarden?
She has performed with the band on multiple occasions and filled Chris Cornell’s role at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in autumn 2025. Her band The Pretty Reckless also opened Soundgarden’s 2017 tour, the last the band undertook with Cornell.
Is there a new Soundgarden album coming?
Yes. The band’s final studio album, featuring Chris Cornell’s last recordings, is currently in post-production. No release date has been announced, with label, production and promotional matters still being resolved. Guitarist Kim Thayil has described the record as resembling a lullaby paired with psychedelia.
Outshined and Spoonman, in Seattle, with the singer they chose — and a commercial break for everyone at home. Did you catch any of it on the broadcast? Tell me below. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
In part two of the special extended feature on Saint Etienne and their legacy, Martin Gray continues his look back at the band’s music as they hit the second decade of their existence in the 2000s, focusing on some of the key releases that soundtracked his years during this period. The onset of the […]
Julien Baker appears to be cooking something up. Five and a half years after the release of Little Oblivions, her last solo album, Baker is once again getting active outside the context of her many collaborations. Yesterday, after posting a few cryptic practice-space videos on a new Instagram, Baker announced a last-minute show in the Blue Room, part of Nashville’s Third Man Records headquarters. She played that set last night, and she busted out some new songs.
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