Pearl Jam - C or D?

loool i'm sure *Dave* said he was fired for being too good

Jack Irons on No Code unfuckwithable

Abruzzese has some amazing performances on Vs/Vitalogy but his rototoms and splash cymbals and stuff really were a little too flashy and cheesy for the band's sound, he coulda been in the Spin Doctors or something.

i've been meaning to make playlists of, like, the top 10 PJ songs from each of the 4 major drummers (Kruzen, Abruzzese, Irons and Cameron), i really feel like they were a different band in each of those lineups. loved Vedder's comment in the doc about how each drummer change was like a heart transplant.

I thought the breaking point with Dave, as reported, was when he consented to an interview with a drum mag without the band's permission.

Jack Irons is a plodder. Which perhaps suited the group, but not as well as, say, Matt Cameron or Edie Brickel's drummer.

'plodder' isn't really right but he certainly had the right feel for some of their most Neil Young-like tracks (plus their album backing Neil himself, who had nice things to say about Irons)

this Spin interview has most of the band, incl Dave, agreeing that it was his lack of ideological sympatico with the band that saw him leave http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/spin801.shtml

jack irons a plodder? that's unpossible!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvYVLfFZmEg

That's cool, but Dave does the exact same thing but groovier on "W.M.A."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z3t32wlItI

if you love dave so much why dont you marry him

Yesterday it was "they should have made an Automatic For The People" today it's "they should have kept Dave." Excited for tomorrow.

Look at the photos again.

xpost

"In My Tree" is so much more awesome than "W.M.A." it's almost funny

what's everyone's least favorite? Binaural is mine. It might be better than what I thought at the time, but in summer 2000 I was not at all in a PJ head space.

Yea i didnt dig Binaural either

I like a lot of Binaural.

I think I'd go

Vitalogy > Yield > No Code > s/t > Binaural > Backspacer > Ten > Vs. > Riot Act

Riot Act for me, Binaural close second

Vitalogy > No Code > Ten > Yield > Vs. > Binaural > Backspacer > Riot Act > s/t

"In My Tree" is such a jam, if we polled these guys my #1 easy, & the drumming is the main reason why: he doesn't ride the cymbals so they hit harder, and I make a rock face every time they pop

Riot Act just has kind of a bad vibe feel. Love Boat Captain is the only reprieve for me

yeah 'in my tree' is rad

Can anything really challenge "Bushleaguer" as their worst song ever?

why so beleaguered?

ugh Bushleaguer :(

Dudes, I never said they should have kept Dave. Just that I think they do better with a more expressive drummer.

I also never said they should have made an album like "Automatic." I just think they might have made more interesting albums if they weren't always in rock mode. Though of course there are plenty of cool non-rock things scattered throughout the catalog.

Like, I am at best a casual fan, but I have always been intrigued enough by the band and its potential - and actual accomplishments - to follow along.

I never saw Dave as expressive so much as he liked to hit things hard

some patches of his playing had soul

he had soul but he wasn't a soldier

i've probably yelled about this here before but they left the best songs off of binaural. "sad" is probably my favorite pj song

i love riot act bc it's so dark and weird and cameron seems more fused to the band but yeah it's waaaay too long

a great song from the back half of riot act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp48rFR92W8

how do you leave this off a record and not feel regret about it literally all the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V-DHL9xzfI

I like "Green Disease." I'd like it more were it not for "G...R..EED" etc

haha i think it's cute

I'm Riot Act fan. I think it was a "cleaner" album in that some of the normally rough edges were smoothed out (and Eddie didn't yell) but despite that, I thought the songs were tightly written.

I'm listening to "Backspacer" for the first time. Solid!

"The Fixer" is fun to sing in the car.

yeah it's a pretty good rocker. a few bung notes here and there (Johnny Guitar's not a favorite).

i think 'just breathe' is one of their lovelier songs, it always makes me bawl

Supersonic is my favorite

"Just Breathe" sounds like a cousin of "Man of the Hour."

it does! I never thought of that

lol they changed the lyrics of Supersonic for one of their Seattle shows <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q90VmGGzxTY

i love the concept and much of the execution of backspacer, i just miss mike's solos

Why am I enjoying this thread so much?

we cool

There's a nice detente to the Pearl Jam debate, or lack thereof. The band pretty smartly ceded the center to others early on, which by default left it just enough left of center, straddling the totally palatable place between "alternative" and "mainstream." Which is to say, there's nothing not-mainstream about the band, particularly, save the fact that it is not (at all) distant bastard relative Nickelback, but that's a pretty huge difference. People might not like Pearl Jam, but I don't think many truly hate them anymore, which is total counter the animus engendered by the, well, alternative.

REM, Radiohead and yes, even U2 did much the same thing. There were enough pale imitators and opportunistic copycats that even at their most insufferable they became totally defensible by dint of not being ... Coldplay, I guess.

So I watched the documentary PJ20 and actually really enjoyed it. They do seem to have dignity to them as a band. Stone Gossard seems like a nice guy.

Yeah, I mean it's basically a love letter to them from Cameron Crowe, but even with that knowledge they still seem like grounded and dignified fellas.

http://pearljam.com/countdown

Tour + a new 3-day countdown clock.

North American tour. But still another countdown clock set for three days from now, maybe that'll be the new album or single.

(xpost - beat me to it)