Kim Thayil

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Kim Thayil
Thayil (left) with Kim Warnick of The Fastbacks, 2007
Born	September 4, 1960 in Seattle, Washington
Genre(s)	Rock
Affiliation(s)	Soundgarden No WTO Combo Probot Sunn O)))
Label(s)	A&M Records SST Records Sub Pop
Years active	1984 - present

Kim Thayil (born September 4, 1960 in Seattle, Washington) is best known as the guitarist for Seattle-based grunge band Soundgarden, which he founded with Chris Cornell and Hiro Yamamoto in 1984.

Contents 1 Life 2 Gear 2.1 Early years 2.2 Badmotorfinger 2.3 Superunknown 2.4 Down on the Upside

[edit] Life

Born in Seattle in 1960, he grew up in the Chicago suburb of Park Forest, spending some time in India. Thayil's parents are from the south Indian state of Kerala.

He met Hiro Yamamoto at Rich East High School in Park Forest. After graduation, they moved to Washington, where Thayil studied philosophy at the University of Washington. They joined forces with Cornell, a roommate, to start Soundgarden in 1984. Soundgarden became the first of Seattle's grunge bands to sign with a major label (A&M Records) and went on to release three platinum albums and win two Grammys. They disbanded in April 1997.

Since then, Thayil has played guitar for Pigeonhed, with the Presidents of the United States of America, played on Dave Grohl's metal side-project Probot, and No WTO Combo with Jello Biafra and Krist Novoselic, and has also worked on other projects. Recently Kim contributed guitar to the track "Blood Swamp" from the 2006 SunnO)))/ Boris album Altar.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named Thayil #100 on the list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". [1]

Thayil is one of three Indian-Americans in the Grammy-considered rock music industry (the other two being Anand Bhatt and Tony Kanal) and one of five major diasporic Indians in rock music (the other four being Bhatt, Kanal, Freddie Mercury, and Dave Baksh).

Thayil was a recurring participant on the Almost Live! sketch comedy show, calling things "lame" during "The Lame List" segments.

[edit] Gear

[edit] Early years

Guitars: Guild S-100, Gibson Les Paul Custom
Amplifier: Marshall JCM 800 2203 or 2204 (as seen in the photograph for the Ultramega OK liner notes), Ampeg Bassamp w/15" speaker
Effects: Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah, MXR chorus

[edit] Badmotorfinger

Guitars: Guild S-100, Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite, Gibson Firebird
Amplifiers: Peavey VTM-120, Music Man HD130, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
Effects:
To get the heavy sound in studio, many guitar tracks were layered and panned to add the body that was lacking from previous albums.

(During the recording of Badmotorfinger, Thayil's couch had to be brought into the studio because that's where he played most comfortably)

[edit] Superunknown

Guitars: Guild S-100, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Telecaster
Amplifiers: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers, Mesa Boogie 50-watt Mavericks, an old Fender Super, a Fender Princeton, Fender Twin Reverbs and Vibro-Kings, and an old Orange head.
Effects: Intellitronics LA-2 and Summit DIs.

[edit] Down on the Upside

Guitars: Guild S-100, Fender Telecaster, Fender Jazzmaster
Amplifiers: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers
Effects: Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah, Colorsound wah, Jim Dunlop Rotovibe, Mu-Tron

Soundgarden
Chris Cornell | Kim Thayil | Matt Cameron | Ben Shepherd
Scott Sundquist | Hiro Yamamoto | Jason Everman
Discography
Albums and extended plays: Screaming Life | Fopp | Ultramega OK | Flower | Louder than Love | Screaming Life/Fopp | Badmotorfinger | Superunknown | Songs from the Superunknown | Down on the Upside | A-Sides
Singles: "Hunted Down" | "Flower" | "Loud Love" | "Hands All Over" | "Room a Thousand Years Wide" | "Jesus Christ Pose" | "Outshined" | "Rusty Cage" | "Spoonman" | "Black Hole Sun" | "Fell on Black Days" | "My Wave" | "The Day I Tried to Live" | "Superunknown" | "Pretty Noose" | "Burden in My Hand" | "Blow Up the Outside World" | "Ty Cobb" | "Bleed Together"
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