Pearl Jam - C or D?

Must check this out, didn't care for the last couple.

i like the presence of multiple eugene levys on the sleeve... the album is ACE.

i fucking h8 Tom Tomorrow and his smug unfunny comix. on the other hand, i'm not sure Pearl Jam has ever had a good album cover.

I dunno — their batting average is pretty low, but the cover of Ten is as great and iconic as its reputation suggests, imo.

the covers of their singles are beautiful on occasion; ex.:

http://991.com/newgallery/Pearl-Jam-Wishlist-112261.jpg

(the PEARL JAM font is pretty fugly, to be fair)

also

http://www.ugo.com/music/songs-about-school/images/entries/Jeremy.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4159/64902.jpg
(front)

http://www.o-level.net/data/olevel/_/70726f647563742f393933393236393535362e6a70670032353000.png
(back)

duuuuud

I'm not in love with the Tom Tomorrow art...and there's a TERRIBLE rendering of the whole band on the last page of the cd booklet. All of his people end up looking like porn blowup doll versions of themselves. But the music's good!

I really love this.

I think Matt Cameron joining the band has been a great unifier...the whole rhythm section on this album is really noticeable, and so tight and interesting.

I dunno...on 2 listens I'm still kinda just grateful that this is better than the last couple albums, but I still feel like they haven't used Cameron much to his full potential since Binaural.

Really? I feel like Matt's beats are a real driving force on the fast-paced songs, like Fixer and Supersonic, where everything kind of merges in behind his beatz.

Yeah those songs are good, and I might like his work on the new album as I listen to it more. But I feel like at first they were maybe trying to give him something to sink his teeth into given that Pearl Jam's songs tend to be more rhythmically straightforward than Soundgarden's, but nowadays he/they are content to just do those meat'n'potatoes uptempo rock songs.

love the kinda unassuming way they throw in weird time signatures on "Fixer" though

When I delete "Amongst the Waves," I can listen to this all day.

I want to throw out there the idea - and I could be crazy - that Eddie is trying to sing like Corin Tucker in spots on this record. I love "Got Some," but every time I listen to it, especially after the "got some if you need it..." part, I feel like I wish she was singing it instead.

Every time I hear "Got Some," I think, "damn, I guess Ament was listening to those opening acts."

I want to throw out there the idea - and I could be crazy - that Eddie is trying to sing like Corin Tucker in spots on this record.

you know i have always said, since 'dig me out' first came out, that corin has a very vedder-esque vocal.

So a real return to form then, eh? People seem to be really liking this.

i don't know if its so much a return to form - its leaner, tighter, 'punk'-er than they've gone before. but its a great record, very engaged and wild-eyed.

xxxp

The only time I ever saw either Pearl Jam or Sleater-Kinney was when they toured together. There's definitely a mutual admiration society going on there.

From the first time I heard S-K (One Beat), I thought that they were at least coming from the same place as Pearl Jam. Interesting that they toured together.

That tour was dispiriting. When S-K came onstage, the shall we say loutish elements of PJ's audience started to snicker. "Who are these dikes?" a dude a few feet away from me said. And S-K lost some of their dynamism and tension in an open-air setting. But, yeah, great idea for a tour.

From the first time I heard S-K (One Beat), I thought that they were at least coming from the same place as Pearl Jam.

i hear a lot of vedder in corin's vocals. they've chosen some of my favourite bands to tour with them in the past, thinking My Morning Jacket and Dismemberment Plan and Monkeywrench in particular (Tim Kerr plays Wembley Arena!)

They are 20 years old today. I feel really old now.

I dunno. That seems about right to me. Some albums that I loved in 1991 still feel like they came out yesterday, but Ten feels ANCIENT.

I don't think they are 20 years old today.

During my sophomore year, they played on my university campus (midweek, on the steps of the gym for free) and they were going by Mookie Blaylock at the time, but that was 19 years ago.

Remember: 20 years ago, Andrew Wood died and the Mother Love Bone debut was released, I know Stone and Jeff are careerist but that seems pretty "fast".

*off to wiki*

Okay I'm wrong:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080109033804/http://www.pearljam.com/timeline/

Opened this thread because two weeks ago I saw Corin Tucker in Seattle and Eddie Vedder came out and sang for the encore. My wife is a massive S-K fan and was 15 when Ten came out and kind of lost her shit in a giddy teenage girl way.

I really wish I had yelled for them to play Hunger Strike.

Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, Riot Act = c
Yield = mostly c, with some d
No Code = somewhere in the middle of c and d
the album after Riot Act = somewhere in the middle of d and c
Binaural = d

backspacer = haven'th eard

I actually pulled out the hits comp the other day (since my daughter had been listening to the Lullaby Pearl Jam disc that showed up), and I think most of the stuff holds up pretty well. At the least, big bands from the past 20 years whose catalog can support a double-disc best-of (with lots of stuff left off, too) are pretty rare. I'll even rep for "Ten," esp. the remixed version that came out and took away some of the gloppier dated production flourishes.

PJ and Radiohead are two acts that sort of owe a lot to R.E.M. by osmosis, even if the connection is rarely direct. PJ in particular, though, really tempers its more objectionable aspects (like the incessant Jimi worship) by leaning in R.E.M.'s direction.

So I went to see Eddie Vedder's solo show here in Chicago last night. I originally had no intention of going because, really, two hours of Eddie + ukelele didn't exactly sound promising, but I was gifted a free ticket. Turns out that the whole marketing of this tour as a support for Ukelele Songs is a bit misleading, he only played the first six or so songs on his ukelele before switching over to various guitars (and a mandolin!) for the rest of the show (barring a set closing "Dream A Little Dream". Anyway, it ended up a fantastic show. Great versions of lots of Pearl Jam hits and rarities, plus tons of covers (John Doe's "4th of July", "Crazy Mary", "Let My Love Open the Door" and a great version of Springsteen's "Open All Night" among others). My favorite was this slowed down version of "Lukin" with a mini-string session.

Eddie's a really great entertainer, which I had kinda forgotten. Told lots of funny stories between songs and threw everything into it. Even the duet with Glen Hansard (who played a great opening set, I never really understood the love for him before now) on "Falling Slowly" was really good.

his new solo dvd is fun.

Also, it was super cute to see him pull up all the little kids in the crowd up onto stage for "Hard Sun".

I've had "I Am Mine" in my iPod for a few days; good tune.

yeah i'm not super into the solo albums but i feel like Eddie would be a fun solo show. he did that weird version of "Lukin" when PJ played Austin City Limits and i loved the hell out of it.

Its a really great version! I still haven't seen that ACL set.

I don't think Eddie Vedder has ever penned a lyric that speaks to me more than "open the fridge, now I know life's worth." Truly the voice of my generation.

al- you went to ACL? or you just found the show streaming online someplace?

i saw their set on the Austin City Limits tv series on PBS

ohhh right

Anyone watched the documentary yet? Opens here this weekend.

The only showing here in Chicago sold out, so I'll be waiting til the DVD comes out in October.

yeah i'm sure i'll watch it on DVD at some point, possibly as part of the PEARL JAM BOUGHT A ZOO Cameron Crowe party pack. but i'm listening to the soundtrack right now! the live stuff so far is cool but i'm more curious about the demos on disc 2.

"Got Some" is about a "drug dealer," but added what the drug the dealer is selling is actually a great rock song."

"Got Some" is about a "drug dealer," but added what the drug the dealer is selling is actually a great rock song."

haha where is that from? eddie said that to me almost verbatim in an interview a couple of summers ago

wikipedia

I went on NY radio today and debated Jeanne Fury about the merits of Pearl Jam vs. Nirvana. Vernon Reid called in to say we should have been talking about Soundgarden instead.

whoa!