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It’s Official: Soundgarden Reuniting!

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Attention grunge fans, your New Year’s Day hangovers just got a lot more tolerable: Soundgarden have announced that they will reunite in 2010! Singer Chris Cornell shared the news via Twitter early Friday morning.

“The 12 year break is over & school is back in session,” Cornell wrote of the formative quartet, which broke up in 1997. “Knights of the Soundtable ride again!”

Rumors of the reunion have run rampant over the past year — and for good reason. Last March, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd, and drummer Matt Cameron (who is also Pearl Jam’s full-time sticksman) played three Soundgarden songs — “Nothing to Say,” “Spoonman,” and “Hunted Down” — at Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe, with Tad Doyle fronting the group in place of Cornell.

In October, all four members of the band reunited backstage at a PJ concert in Los Angeles, and Cornell even joined Eddie Vedder and Co. onstage for a rendition of “Hunger Strike,” their 1991 hit as Temple of the Dog. Watch video of the performance right here.

The L.A. show served as catalyst for the full-on reunion, and now Soundgarden are plotting a tour for 2010. And that’s not all: according to Billboard, Soundgarden are also in negotiations to perform at several major U.S. and international festivals.

The tour will be planned around Cameron’s duties with Pearl Jam, who have live concerts scheduled for spring and summer 2010. No word yet if the band plans to record new material, but Cornell has long discussed a greatest hits album and/or a new boxed set, which would include never-before-heard studio material.

So, SPIN readers, are you stoked for the Soundgarden reunion? We are. In fact, we’ve spent the past 20 minutes playing “Rusty Cage” on repeat and head-banging like Beavis and Butthead in a conniption fit. Watch the video below, then tell us what you think of the reunion in the comment section.

Soundgarden, “Rusty Cage”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ChT3AJAwGo