Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

The inevitable eponymous record. Every band, it seems, either starts with it, or tries to revive their career with it. How did PJ fare?



Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam - 2006 (iTunes)

Live Blog!
1. Life Wasted is a perfect album opener. In your face and groovy and it's followed up by the genius
2. World Wide Suicide. Another groovy rocker, pissed off at George Bush and not taking prisoners. My regret is that I can't play it louder.
3. Comatose. Who are these guys? What did this garage band do with experiment-o-grungers of the last decade? Whatever you do, DON'T bring them back. If this record can keep it up, it's gonna be PJ's Sheer Heart Attack.
4. Severed Hand. I didn't think they could sound this dynamic again since Vs. But they do here.
5. Marker in the Sand. Matt Cameron is the showcase on this album. Without a drummer like him they couldn't probably do stuff like this, although we wouldn't have known it the last few records. I fully expected an audience to cheer at the end of this song.
6. Parachutes. Okay. I think we needed a breather. Neat, trippy, asyncopated Beatles-y psychedila.
7. Unemployed. Nice, epic track. This album doesn't want to let up.
8. Big Wave. Finally, something to surf to. I think we all forgot that Pearl Jam was a rock band. They didn't.
9. Gone. The build on this song was totally unexpected and welcome. This is something that I imagine sounds great in an amphitheater. I love how Vedder describes the car in this song as a hybrid because he knew the character only had one tank of gas and he wanted him to go far.....hysterical.
10. Wasted Reprise. The now expected 1 minute track is a softer reprise of the opener. A song written about Vedder's friend, Johnny Ramone (Yes, THAT Johnny Ramone) after attending Johnny's funeral.
11. Army Reserve. Oh, they sound like U2 again. Don't you remember what I said???? (It's in here)
12. Come Back. I'll say. This record is one helluva comeback. Oh, wait. It's not about that. Doesn't matter. it's lovely.
13. Inside Job. Even the experimental piece works on this release!

This record is really a surprise. I don't know if the world wasn't ready for a Pearl Jam comeback record, I know I wasn't. Maybe they didn't market it correctly. The Avocado just seems so....hippy dippy to me. All told, though, Pearl Jam is the best Pearl Jam record in a while. I like it more than Riot Act and, for me at least, that was a hard act to follow. I would say that this, at this point, is my third favorite Pearl Jam album.

Grade A
A Side: Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Gone
BlidnSide: Parachutes, Big Wave, Come Back
Downside: Army Reserve

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Riot Act

Pearl Jam - Riot Act - 2002 (iTunes)

Riot Act is better than I expected it to be. By this point I've come to accept that the old Pearl Jam is gone. The visceral, biting, musically challenging artists of the first couple albums is gone. Replaced by a band that seems to know what it's core audience will accept all the while remaining slavishly beholden to the 60s Zeppelin classic rock aesthetic.
It took a while for me to become a believer who could accept that, actually. Ten and Vs are such visceral and powerful pieces of work that it was hard for me to accept the Vedderizing of this band. And, let's face it, he was still the new guy on the first album but, by Vitalogy he was muscular enough to become the driving force of all things Pearl Jam.
No Code was the simpy PJ. Yield the attempted comeback. With Binaural they were settling into their new roles as niche, experimenting pothead rockers. With Riot Act they achieve a helluva lot more.

When the 1:00 experimental piece is an a capella multi layered chant that WORKS then that's saying something.
Instead of opening with aggro power as they have so often in the past, Riot Act starts off with a growing, acoustic guitar led "Can't Keep", and it's emotive. The burner "Save You" is the PJ we know. When they get their rock ire up it's ferocious.

But there's something lying under the album and I can't help but feel it. It wasn't until I read the Wiki entry on it that I learned that this was the album that was recorded after 9 people were killed at a Pearl Jam concert. Hard for any performer to take; that 9 people died because they wanted to see you. If Pearl Jam had never recorded or made music, would those 9 have had to die that way, in the crush? If Vedder never got that demo tape......
But who could know, really? "Lost 9 friends we'll never know..." Vedder sings in Love Boat Captain. (Weirder for me that that lyric played just as I read it on the wiki and typed it here. Chilly.)
It's a darker record, sadder, hopeless, really. But dense and tortured and filled with reward for the listener.
Arc was recorded as a tribute to those 9 lives and their loss permeates this record the way 9/11 permeated everything going on in the world when this record was released. How could it NOT be the saddest Pearl Jam record?
The longing in Thumbing My Way is reminiscent of the best Page and Plant gave us in their day and to the band's credit, the song resists bombast and delicate acoustic delivery. It's just right. I want to put a blanket around Eddie or just tell him it's going to be okay, or just sit next to him and cry.

This album is, in many ways, as much a response to 9/11 as The Rising. But it's much much deeper than that. It's the most human Pearl Jam has been in a long while.
A solid effort.

Grade B
A Side: Save You, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way
BlindSide: Arc, Ghost,
DownSide: Bu$hleaguer,

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Binaural

(Note. This review is kind of half assed. My blood sugar is really low. I'm hungry. Thanks.)



Pearl Jam - Binaural - 2000 (iTunes)

I like Binaural. I'm not exactly sure why, though. Sure it kicks off with a great rabble rouser (Breakherfall) and it gets denser as the album gets longer, but by the end I started to think about Pearl Jam as a business. I don't know if they think of themselves that way, but bands have to. This is their job, yes? They seem to know how to write "Pearl Jam" songs. But I don't know if even they like the product. There is almost no emotion on this record.

And yet, I liked it.

The title refers to, among other things, the fact that we listen to music "binaurally", using two ears. And on my little piece of shit earbuds this record kicks. But when I play it on my 5.1 stereo with enhanced sound it comes out sluggish and slushy and like a bad Soundgarden record. That can't be good, right? (And, yes, I know that this is the first record with ex-Soundgarden drummer, Matt Cameron.)

The music is lusher, more layered, more constructed than anything I've heard from them since...well, since Vs.
This is definitely a "headsets" record but one that you should hear.

Note: Soon Forget, featuring Eddie and a Ukukele is the kind of experimentation I can get behind. Finally!

Grade B
ASide: Breakerfall, Nothing as it Seems, Insignificance
BlindSide: Light Years, Thin Air, Soon Forget, Parting Ways.
DownSide: Grievance

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Yield

Just as I was about to give up....



Pearl Jam - Yield - 1998 - (itunes)

Brain of J is a good way to open an album if you've felt you've lost me and want me back as a fan. If you're a band and you're thinking, "We really have been losing Allen the last few records with our experimentation and meandering, how are we gonna win him back?" You better hope you have someone in the band who says, "I've got this little garage rocker that might do the trick." And it does.
According to what I've read, Vedder really kind of took control of the band's direction on Vitalogy and No Code. Which is interesting considering that the hiring of Vedder was based on words he wrote to some amazing pre-existing music. But, that's what you get when you bring in a front man. Stone Temple Pilots were two brothers who tried every genre known to man until grunge hit. They knew they could make that work but they needed a front man. Then they were beholden to the whims of Scott (H is for Horse) Weiland.
So, Vedder decided to give some control back to the band and that brought the world, Yield.
Okay, well this is a live blog situation so let's go, k?
Brain of J. I've already talked about how this was just the right way to open this record.
Faithful. Oh, that big, sexy southern rocky earth epic. Nice.
No Way. A plodding, meandering useless track.
Given to Fly. Hey, Pearl Jam rewrote Going to California! Um, great. Actually, it's pretty great, indeed.
Wish List. Well, someone has put his axe down and relaxed into manhood. Age wears well on some.
Pilate. Interestingly, this is based on the Book, Master and Margarita, which, while I've never read, I have seen a play based on it and that was brilliant. This is Jeff Ament's first lyric writing. Never have Pearl Jam sounded so much like REM. REM meets Pearl Jam. Not bad.
Do The Evolution. Oh, yeah, this was the single. I like it.
The Color Red. It's only a minute. I'll give you a minute to do that. Even though it's crap.
Many Fast Cars. Good, late in the album, energetic place holder. If this was a 40 minute record, it would be a b-side.
Low light. It's big ballad time! With some weird time signatures. And pretty as hell.
In Hiding. Oh, yes. This is a nice song. Perhaps the best on the record.
Push Me Pull Me. Hey! Spoken word time. Again. So soon? Really? blech.
All Those Yesterday. So, the album is sort of petering out, yes?
Hummus. Um. Sure.
Peace out, guys. If this is the note they would have gone out on it would have been fine. Not embarrassing, not brilliant. Good, but not great.
You could do worse. (Hint: if you bought No Code, you did.)

Grade B-
A Side: Faithful, Given to Fly, Do The Evolution, In Hiding.
BlindSide: Brain of J, Wish List, Low Light
DownSide: Push Me Pull Me

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - No Code

"Huh? What? Is it over? What time is it?"



Pearl Jam - No Code - 1996 - (itunes)

We've reached that critical point in Listening Posts. Like the very end of Aerosmith where I just forgot about the band. Or Sonic Youth where I just quit because they were making me hate music, this is the point where I have to go...um...why should I care again?

So, by the time this came out there was no chance that I was going to buy another Pearl Jam record. Vitalogy just scared me off. Had I not been so frightened off, I'm pretty sure that No Code would have done the job. Don't get me wrong, it's a much better record than Vitalogy. Well, it's better.
It's also Pearl Jam's Vishnu record. Instead of leaving world rhythms to masters like Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon, Pearl Jam embrace their earthy world brethren and succeed! In being boring.
In My Tree isn't a PJ song. It's U2. But I don't need Pearl Jam to refashion themselves as U2. There's already one U2. We don't, i mean it, need another.
Off He Goes is beautiful, though. But it really sounds like a 90s era Springsteen tune. And I already own Ghost of Tom Joad, thanks.

The band has said that the recording was rushed, Jeff Ament didn't even know they were recording when the band had already been in the studio for a couple days. And it sounds like it. It sounds disconnected. Disjointed. Unfocused. What does it mean when my favorite track, "lukin" is 1 minute long???

"Present Tense" is as rich as anything the band has ever done but, in the end, what does it mean that the hardest rocker, "Mankind" is written by and SUNG by Stone Gossard? What is happening to this band?

When a band incorporates spoken word to it's repertoire it better not suck. "I am Open" sucks.

I really hope it gets better....

Grade C+
A Side: Hail Hail, Who We Are, Around the Bend
Blind Side: Off He goes, Lukin
DownSide: In My Tree, habit, I am open.

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

Uh oh.



Pearl Jam - Vitalogy - 1994 (iTunes)

Try as I have, I don't love this record. I bought it in 95, listened once, realized that there were about 3 tracks worth listening to and tossed it somewhere. I dug it out for this LP and...man, I don't get it.
The opener, "Last Exit" sounds like a band that knows what it's SUPPOSED to sound like but they sound like a carbon version of that band, something's lost in the copy.
"Spin the Black Circle" fares much better. It's easily the fastest thing in the band's catalog and like it, but it stands almost alone on this album as something worth hearing.
"Not for You" isn't bad, like this album, it's not "Bad", per se. But it's also not that great.
There's too much experimentation going on. Like a band that is just bored by themselves and are forcing themselves to try out stuff just for the hell of it."Pry to", "Tremor Christ", "Bugs" "Aye Davanita" and the god-awful "Stupid Mop" are perfect examples of this.
I love reaching outside of one's comfort zone. I think it can be great. But I don't think these trips are surprising the players enough. They sound like they've got free reign in a studio and have decided to show us their poop.
Then you get "nothing man", which is right IN the comfort Zone. It's Elderly Woman part II. But I didn't really need part 2. I loved part one. I get it, you can right these melodic, alt-country, California rock songs. Whooppee. Surprise me. Come on. Haven't you listened to your FIRST two records!?!? Oh, nevermind. (um.....)
"Whipping" sounds better live. as much of PJ's songs do. Here it just proves how kinda second rate it is.
"Corduroy" is exceptional. Except that it's a little sluggish in comparison to how they do it live, where it has more energy and makes you say, "What album is THAT on? I want THAT song!" However, unlike tracks from the 1st record, where the band would continue to go after the "song" was clearly over and you loved it and you wanted more and more, on Corduroy and Better Man I just wanted them to stop. You know? The band doesn't seem that inspired. But, what the fuck, they are stuck in a band with a guy who wants to record "Bugs".
The album is only supported by the better tracks, but you don't need it. Go buy "rearviewmorror", the best of collection and you'll be fine.

Grade C
A Side: Spin the Black Circle, Corduroy, Better Man
BlindSide: Immortality
Downside: Bugs, Aye Davanita, Pry To, Tremor Christ, Stupid Mop.

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Vs.

How do you follow up one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock? Put a sheep on the cover to start.



Pearl Jam - Vs. - 1993 (iTunes)

"Suppose I abuse you?"
Ouch.
On Vs. Pearl Jam sounds like they've got something to prove and, I guess they do. In an effort to make sure the world knew that Ten wasn't a fluke, Vedder & Co. pull out all the stops.
Vs. is sometimes a little too concise for it's own good (Glorified G) but at least it's focused. And the elliptical poetry of Ten (the butterflies in Even Flow) they don't make much of an appearance here. Instead, what Vedder does is inhabit characters that he might have disdain for (W.M.A) or abused girls (Daughter), emulating one of his idols, Bruce Springsteen to great effect.
Vs. (Which i always took to mean either "verses" or that it was, in some way, a concept album about that abused girl and her father. Daughter, Glorified G, W.M.A, Rearviewmirror, all suggest a story about a girl, her father, she eventually gets away, the mother leaves the father and the daughter meets up with her later in Elderly Woman behind the counter. But, I think I've been wrong all this time.) is a perfect follow up to Ten.
The aforementioned Daughter & Rearviewmirror are worth the cost of admission but it's the southern rock-i-ness of "Dissident" that brings the album to that next place for me. There is earth in the untied boots of these flannel wearing rockers.
And they are strong rockers at that. When they bring that 70s funk sound to "Blood" I wanna either punch a wall or slide across the hood of a cop car.
Vs. is an excellent follow-up. A 5 star stand alone.

Grade A+
A Side: Daughter, Rearviewmirror, Blood, Animal
BlindSide: Go, Dissident, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter, Indifference

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Ten

Little different this time. With the release of "Backspacer" and it being the first Pearl Jam album I have purchased in over a decade, I thought we'd go through the catalog of a band that I once loved and then, just as quickly as they arrived, I forgot about. Let's look at Mookie Blaylock, shall we?



Pearl Jam - Ten - 1991 (iTunes)
A few years ago I met a guy named Joe. He was the drummer in a band that my band was friendly with. Terrific drummer. Just a great player. Should be bigger than he is. He should have "made it". He hasn't yet. Don't know why.
Years ago, when he was living in Orange County, Joe was in a band. One weekend their lead singer told the guys that he was going on a surfing weekend. When he came back the singer quit the band.
See, the lead singer had gone up to Seattle to meet with a couple guys who thought he might be a good fit for them. They were looking for a lead singer.
Ed, the singer, had gotten a hold of some demos, wrote some lyrics, sang over the demos, sent them up to Stone and Jeff and they liked what they heard.
So, Ed left the band. You all know him.
Joe, not so much. Too bad, really. But, then again......we wouldn't have Pearl Jam, would we?

So, 18 years later, does the debut of the band once known as Mookie Blaylock (10 was Mookie's number, hence the title) hold up?
Holy hell, yes.
Ten punches you in the face from the opening track "Once", holds you by the throat, pushes the pedal down and never lets you go, epic through epic, until it finally decides you've had enough and sends you floating down the river to the hypnotic "Master/slave" instrumental.

It's ferocious.

Millions of words have been written about it and I don't think I have any new insights. Except to say that after NOT listening to it for about 9 years it's still an unbelievable debut.


Grade A+
A Side: Silly to even list, really. There is not a bad track on Ten. But, in case you've forgotten, go put "Jeremy", "Black" or "Porch" on full blast and you'll remember.

One Off: Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much

Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much - 2009 (iTunes Amazon)

How do I convince you that you should pick up the new Mika album? Certainly describing it as Freddie Mercury meets Elton John with a dash of George Michael and a less disco-scene Scissor Sisters and a whole lot of over production isn't gonna do it. Is it?
The Boy Who Knew Too Much is more of the Mika we loved on Life in Cartoon Motion. The boy who loves to dress up and go clubbing club with "big girls" but who is just as happy sitting at home and watching Bogie and Bacall movies.
He certainly knows how to write a hook even if it's all very familiar.
The opening track "We Are Golden" is catchy as hell if it does sound like a car commercial. "Blame it on the Girls" is the catchiest track Mika's come up with, a cha cha number that has me looking forward to hitting the boards with Beth.
But the album doesn't let up from there. "Rain", "Dr. John" it's one discotheque anthem after another. If you want a record that's going to make it feel like sunshine when it's raining, or make you want to drop the top and crusie up the coast, this is it. Pop confection at its best. Never trying to be more than it is and reveling in it's own happy.
The lush balladeering of the previous album is back ("I See You") but's more anthemic than before.
Needs some quasi-calypso island tracking for your tropical adventure? How about "Blue Eyes"? Pining for a little musical theater? "Toy Boy" is this album's "Billy Brown" only it's even better. Or "Good Girl Gone" which takes the place of uber-catchy hip-shaking "Grace Kelly" single.
Can we forgive Mika that "Touches You" steals so blatently from George Michael's "Father Figure"? Hell, yes. Remember how catchy that song was? (Or maybe it was just the MTV played it every 4th song...no, it was a perfect pop confection. And, no doubt, Mika, born a year before that track was a hit, was raised on that kind of music. It fits perfectly that he would find himself musing on the same musical vocabulary.

Here's the deal. I think I've adequately explained this record. If you read this and this sounds like something you would like, get it. I think you'll like it.

Mika

Grade A
A Side: We are Golden, Blame it on the Girls, Good Girl Gone...hell, all of it. This album's great.
Downside: Well, almost. "Pick up off the floor" is a bit too much for me. But that's just me. I suppose someone more appreicative of Diva warbling and torch songs might appreciate it.

The Jay Leno Show.

I've said this before: There is as much scripted/acted television now, with FX, TNT, HBO, et al, as there was in the Golden Age of television in the 70s. (actually, more hours now than in the 70s/80s. And a lot of it is just as good or better. Well, much of it.)
I, for one, don't subscribe to the "Oh, No! 5 hours less of programming per week!" fear that my fellow actors are expressing. Yes, it sucks, but, as I said, the shortfall is made up elsewhere.
No, I think the issue is much larger than that.
NBC is a terrible place in a terrible situation right now. The leadership there has all but abandoned the creative legacy of its past. Do you think the Peacock is the first place on any creative's list to bring a show to? (I have it on 1st hand authority that, indeed, it is not.) Why would you? There are only a few hours of programming and the network has shown disregard for much of what it has. I would bring my pilot to a network where there are more opportunities to get it on the air.
Besides, Fox has traditionally eschewed the 10 o'clock hour, yes? Why aren't we all up in arms about that??
Because of what Jay @ 10 represents not just for actors but for everyone. The quarterly bottom line. The profit margin on a shit show like Jay's is remarkable. You don't even have to spend time in the editing room cutting a "story" like reality TV. Nope. This is a golden hour of prime time that costs nothing and can turn a profit by way of advertising.
NBC has been tossing the "3 million dollars an hour" phrase like it's the conventional wisdom but they forget an even more wise notion:
If you build it, they will come.
Why, if there are only 7 stories, do people continue to queue up at movies, rent dvds, watch tv?
Because from the dawn of communication human beings have all wanted the same thing that they want as children: To be told a story. The power of storytelling is majestic and epic. And, a good story that hooks you (Winnie the Pooh, The Cat in the Hat, Watership Down, Harry Potter, The Shining) you go back to over and over. You watch it in all it's varied forms. You re-re-read it.
Why? If you've seen it once, why bother to read it again?
Because it's that damned good. And we need the comfort of being told stories.
TV is storytelling. Reality, scripted, sketch, the news. All stories.
But, NBC has forgotten that. This team, at least.
Or so it seems.
I think they know damned well that storytelling is where the money is. They know that if they come up with a really great show that grabs attention that the ad dollars will come in. Because it isn't the size of the audience that matters, it's the demographic and THEN the size. If they create a show that every single 18-22 college student in the country tunes in to, in whatever form, advertisers will pay. Maybe not as much as the past, but, believe me, enough. Its too attractive not to.
Only, NBC let itself become a ghetto. So who is going to bring material to them? I mean, really? They have no reputation as a place that will foster a good idea and talent.
What are they left to do but cut off the leg before the leprosy spreads?
NBC will tell you that it's not cost effective to do scripted drama at 10.
CBS says, "really? Um......CSI/NCIS much?"
If I was an exec at ABC do you think I would want Timothy Daly or Nathan Fillion appearing on Leno? Maybe if they go on and say, "You like me? Change the channel! My show's on RIGHT NOW ON ABC!"
No, I think NBC has created this hot mess themselves and this is the only way they can think of to salvage their name. In part, at least.

I'm not mad at Jay. In fact, I feel bad for him. He looks really embarrassed out there. He KNOWS this show is crap. But, what the heck, a job's a job and it isn't up to him to carry the torch for actors. Or writers. or...anybody.