Vs. Turns 24

Poncier Coming to Record Store Day (Black Friday)

The Black Friday Record Store Day list was announced today.  Nothing by Pearl Jam, but one of the most Pearl Jammy non-Pearl Jam items in "existence" is coming.  Record stores will have the Poncier demos on vinyl and cassette.  What is Poncier?  It's the demo tape sold by Matt Dillion's character Cliff Poncier, but in reality, record by Chris Cornell, in a cut scene from the movie Singles.

Here is the blurb from this year's Super Deluxe release of the Singles Soundtrack:

One of the best bits of Singles lore I've heard is the story of the Poncier tape that Jeff Ament designed – which is coming out in full on this new edition of the soundtrack – and how all these actual songs were birthed out of it. 

It's kind of amazing. The idea was that Matt Dillon's character, Cliff Poncier, in the course of the movie, he loses his band, and he loses his girlfriend, and he gains soul. So, there's a period where he's on a street corner busking, having lost his band, but beginning his solo career. And there would be, in reality, these guys standing on the corner outside the clubs in Seattle hawking their solo cassettes. So we wanted Cliff Poncier to have his own solo cassette. And Jeff Ament, in classic style, designed this cassette cover and wrote out these fictitious song names for the cassette.

And Chris Cornell was another guy who was close to us when we were making the record, and still is a good friend. I really loved Soundgarden; they were my favorite band. I originally thought Chris could play the lead, but then I think that turned into too big of a commitment for everybody and so he became the guy he is in the movie, but in the course of making the movie he was close to all of us. He was always around.

Anyway, Jeff Ament had designed this solo cassette which we thought was hilarious because it had all of these cool song titles like "Flutter Girl," and "Spoonman," and just like a really true-type "I've lost my band, and now I'm a soulful guy – these are my songs now" feeling. So we loved that Jeff had played out the fictitious life of Cliff Poncier. And one night, I stayed home, and Nancy, we were then married, she went out to a club, and she came back home, and she said, "Man, I met this guy, and he was selling solo cassettes, and so I got one for you." And she hands me the Cliff Poncier cassette. And I was like, "That's funny, haha." And then she said, "You should listen to it." So I put on the cassette. And holy shit, this is Chris Cornell, as Cliff Poncier, recording all of these songs, with lyrics, and total creative vision, and he has recorded the entire fake, solo cassette. And it's fantastic. And "Seasons" comes on. And you just can't help but go, "Wow." This is a guy who we've only known in Soundgarden. And of course he's incredibly creative, but who's heard him like this? And we got to use "Seasons" on the soundtrack, and Chris did some of the score. And some of the unreleased score is on the new version of the album.

It's kind of an example of how the community was close, still is close, and musically generous, and everybody is such huge music fans, that this would be the greatest joke to share with a buddy you can imagine. And obviously the music really holds up. He went and recorded "Spoonman" with Soundgarden and it was a big hit. It's a statement about how when you're not worried about somebody judging you or looking over your shoulder sometimes you do great stuff. And that's the story of the fictitious Poncier cassette that became largely real.

The records and tapes will be available in three colors, randomly distributed to record stores.  There will be 4,000 copies on vinyl and 1,500 copies on cassette.

Lightning Bolt Turns 4

Joe Buck Interviews Eddie Vedder

The Ten Club published a video of sports commentator, Joe Buck, talking to Eddie Vedder about playing Wrigley, the Cubs, and the making of Let's Play Two.  Check it out on YouTube.

Pearl Jam / Don Pendleton Halloween 2017

Pearl Jam has released their annual Halloween shirt, a Don Pendleton design, today.   It's available at the Ten Club for $29.99 (plus $6.99 domestic S&H).  You can also tack on a matching sticker for $5.

Let's Play Two: Fan Review II

We'll continue our reviews by Red Mosquito Forum members today with a post from Australia. Thank you to our moderator, Sarge, for this great review.

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Nights out like this are a rarity for me these days, especially during the week. It's not that I'm unsociable. After long working days and dealing with the kids, I often don't have the energy left. Yet I persevered. I meandered down to the theatre precinct, to meet with some mates. We grabbed some Gami Chicken for dinner. I had no idea what the fuck this was, but found it to be a mixture of tasty and insanely spicy food. After destroying my taste buds permanently, we headed up to the theatre.

We found some good seats, and relaxed before the previews started. This was the point that something began stirring in my belly. A minor rumbling warning, deep down in my gut; a little reminder of why I don't usually eat spicy food. The film started, and it didn't waste any time jumping into the baseball side of things. The Cubs and Wrigley Field.

Being Australian, Baseball isn't a widely followed sport here. Actually, we know fuck all about it apart from what The Simpsons has told us (it's boring if you're sober?). But I found this quite interesting. We're told of the long history of a teaming struggling for success, i.e. the classic underdog story. We're also told of the supposed curse of the Goat. Eddie quips "I don't believe in goats" - haha, funny fucker.

Intertwined into this story are mentions of Eddie growing up in Chicago. When he was a kid and would buy hotdogs from a bar know as Murphy’s Bleachers. We meet meet the owner Beth. who has a close friendship with Ed. Beth and her husband Jim Murphy bought the bar in 1980, but Jim sadly passed away in the late 90's. There's early 90’s footage of Ed walking around the outside of Wrigley Field. I seem to remember seeing some of this footage in PJ20. But most of it's new - barring a scene featuring an excited Ed finding a pile of dumped turf. He mentions he wants to take it home and have his own piece of Wrigley in the garden. Ha, the rich fucker can probably afford to buy the entire Wrigley Field now.

During this journey, someone seemed to have plugged a hose into my belly button. They were pumping air, or something into my gut. The deep rumbling increased. The ache worsened. And my discomfort was getting out of control. Am I going to explode?

There's a lot of sentiment in the story. I mean absolute fuck-loads of it. Snippets and short stories about some of the famous people tied to history of Wrigley Field. Such as Harry Caray. We see footage of him singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. This intertwines with footage of Ed doing a (likely) drunken rambling of the same song. It's a horribly beautiful duet. In a light hearted moment, we meet the old fellas who wait outside around the field. They stand in hope of catching home run balls. These guys appear to be bonkers. Once of them states “My specialty is to wait for the ball to stop rolling, then I grab it!.” Yeah, quite bonkers.

This film did it's best to try and make us blubber. We're shown Steve Gleason doing a small speech and introducing Inside Job. We're also introduced to a fellow named John who queued up for 2 4 days so he could be at the front of the show. His father had died shortly before the concert, and he talked about how he sang Release prior/after. (I wasn't clear on this, he either sang with his dad while he was dying, or he sang it after with his family). So Ed calls him out during the concert, and mentions that John had been going through a hard time recently. They played Release for him. We watch John's mixture of emotions, through teary eyes. No, wait. Fuck off I'M NOT CRYING YOU ASSHOLES!

Meanwhile, some farts were working their way out of my swollen gullet. Thanks to the loud cinema, nobody hear. But the stench. Fucking hell. The stench.

The story winds its way to where the tension rises in the final few Cubs games. Where it looks like they may not quite reach the pinnacle. But then, obviously due to Ed singing I Believe in Miracles, SPOILER ALERT - they mother fucking win the World Series. Jubilation and celebration ensue. Then we're shown the brand new fancy ass locker rooms and facilities Wrigley Field now have. It seems to double as a bar/nightclub. Are there strippers on those bar tops during the games?

It's a great, emotional and uplifting story. Interspersed into this story are live songs played at Wrigley Field over 2 nights in August 2016. I have to say, the cinematography and sound are the best I've seen from a PJ DVD. Fuck me, they sound great. We've heard/seen a lot of these songs up-teem fucking times. But seeing them on this scale of production was interesting. And something else to behold during these songs, is that the band appeared to be having fun.

Unfortunately, I wasn't having as much fun. Gami was proceeding with a full frontal assault on my digestive system. The ensuing farts were not providing near enough any relief. And, at one moment I felt a large fart bubble thump into my lower bowel. Is that the big one? After a horrid noise, there was a stench of death. Oh shit. That felt a little hot.. and wet... Ugh. Bodysnatcher flashed in my mind. What would he do now? FUCK YOU GAMI CHICKEN!

For those that are curious, the use of the baseball story VS songs is actually well balanced. We're provided with between about 2-5 minutes of baseball/Ed story for each segment. Then between each of these, we're shown a pair of full length live songs. During each song, there's very little baseball footage, but live band/crowd footage.

Some points to note, Crazy Mary was pretty good. Lightning bolt sounded different in the mix, in comparison to the other songs. Not worse, but quite different. It was somewhat heavier in production. I wondered if this meant the mixing done by someone else. Or was there more a purposeful emphasis placed on this one? We're given a performance of Last Exit that has more energy that previous performances. Proving that these guys are not dead yet. Overall, the song selection was reasonably good. It drew mostly from the early to mid eras of PJ discography. With notable omissions from the entirety of Backspacer, Binaural, and No code.

At a mid point in the film, we're treated to the rooftop rehearsal on Murphy’s Bleachers. This was a highlight. Rarely heard Thumbing My Way was a treat. We're shown little jams, and tid-bits of songs, while a crowd is gathering in the street below. The band seems relaxed, happy, and content. There's banter. More of this please. Seriously.

There were only a couple of moments where I caught myself dozing off. During Go, and Inside Job - (hey, it's a fucking long song). Apart from that, I was thoroughly immersed. Danny Clinch successfully bathes us in the atmosphere. Not only in the Cubs journey, and the history of Wrigly Field. But also in the pleasing visuals and audio of the live performances.

Also, a special fuck you goes to B. He mentioned something about snippets of new songs during/after the credits. I stuck through only to be assaulted by a live performance of Mind Your Manners. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad performance. But why place it here after the credits? It's an abrupt note to end on. Why not show another acoustic rooftop jam song? Something laid back. That would have worked for me, but not this. This was a shite ending. When I watch the DVD, I'm never watching beyond the credits.

Above all, it's a great flick. We filtered out of the theatre, and I immediately made a beeline for the toilets. Bodysnatcher, you would have been proud. I didn't shit my pants (as suspected earlier) but I fucking destroyed that bowl.

Film - 9.5/10
Gami chicken 2/10
My Gut 0/10

Let's Play Two: Fan Review

One of our strongest assets at TSIS is our community.  Our Red Mosquito Forum can discuss Pearl Jam minutia until most people have been reduced to tears.  Drawing from that strength, we hope to feature a few fan reviews.  Today's review by Tuolumne is our first.

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Saw the movie this weekend and am glad I saw this on a big screen, Clinch really captured the feeling of being in the pit in front of the band. You can hear the crowd sing right along and it accomplishes the feeling of being at a show moreso than their other video releases. I also think we're very fortunate artists like Clinch or Cameron Crowe find this band worthwhile enough to want to put their own spin on them or give their take on their feelings about the band. It's territory most artists never get to - where others are giving their interpretation of what they do. And I certainly can't think of any other doc that does this baseball spin Clinch gives it. Overall, it makes sense - tying together hope and devotion and improbable outcomes and fan communities. In that sense it works, although it's always a stretch tying in concerts to baseball.

Clinch managed to give it a really good authentic shot and this film certainly has a great reason to exist. And man, you can tell Clinch poured his heart into this. There's these little details, like when Ed does one of his mic stand leans and looks at the crowd upside down - and Clinch actually shows a shot of the crowd upside down to mimic what Ed's seeing. There's tons of little clips he splices that show how much heart he put into this project. That little detail sort of clinched (pun intended) that this dude was really going for something, and some of his sinouttes gave me the chills, and some of them didn't.

Does it capture the concerts themselves? These are the greatest shows I've ever been to, and not even a full bootleg or Youtube video truly does justice what a moving experience these shows were. But I sure as hell got a really cool keepsake of that weekend, and it reminds me of something I do not ever want to forget.

For shows that were just chalk full of one highlight after another: The intro to Sad and the performance of it, Masters of War, Let Me Sleep, Throw Your Arms Around Me, Footsteps, Immortality, I Got Shit, and on and on, the one thing I was really disappointed Clinch didn't include was the fuckin WAVE we did on the first night as Ed and Jeff were about to start into Bee Girl. That was about as much of a **baseball** moment you could ever hope for during a concert, and Clinch didn't include it? It would have totally made sense!

All said, believe it or not us TenClubber types aren't the only consumers of this band, and there's alot about this film which I think is appealing to outsiders of the band, especially given the setlist selection. Lucky for me, I'm a baseball fan and was an especially obsessive one as a child, so I kinda get it even though I'm not a Cubs fan.

Rolling Stone's Pearl Jam: The Ultimate Guide to Their Music & Legend

This week, Rolling Stone's collectible Pearl Jam guide hit store shelves.  It's been available on eBay and other back channels for a week or so, but now most [U.S.] fans can pick one up at their local grocery store or newsstand for about $14.

The guide collects Rolling Stone's articles about the band from 1991 to 2013, specifically:

10-31-1991

10-28-1993

5-29-2003

6-29-2006

11-15-2007

10-10-2013

9-30-2016

It also includes stories behind each album and drummer as well as a guide of Pearl Jam's best shows.

10-22-1990

12-31-1991

6-25-1992

5-13-1993

4-3-1994

3-17-1995

10-22-2000

5-3-2003

9-20-2006

10-31-2009

5-21-2010

9-4-2011

7-19-2013

8-7-2016

All in all, it's a great piece of Pearl Jam history and worth a trip to your local newsstand to grab a physical copy.

Matt Cameron Video & Interview

Matt Cameron sat down with Billboard magazine this week to talk about his first solo album, Cavedweller.  He talks about influences from Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and having another drummer playing on his own album.

"For me it's just the basic joy of songwriting, and my whole mission draws out of that," Cameron explains. "It's something I've done over the years for sure, when I have time between gigs. I was just trying to zero in on each particular track, and I tried to bring each musical and vocal part out as much as I could. That was basically the goal, and that's what's so fun about doing my own record was completely making all the decisions myself. Working in these enormous bands I've always had to play my role -- and lovingly so. I love my role in all my bands. It's nourishment for me.  

The interview was also released with the debut of a video for Time Can Wait directed by Josh Graham.

Let's Play Two Blu-ray & DVD

Today, Pearl Jam announced the pre-sale for the Let's Play Two Blu-ray and DVD.  Both are available at the Ten Club for $19.99 (+ $6.99 domestic S&H).  

Both contain the movie plus five bonus videos (Mind Your Manners, Rearviewmirror, Black, Immortality, and Masters of War), a photo gallery by Danny Clinch, and three downloadable digital extras (Oceans, Deep, and Let Me Sleep).

The DVD comes with a CD of the movie soundtrack.

The movie officially debuts tomorrow around the world, and you can check out a review at TheMusic.Com.Au.

Pearl Jam Announces 2018 Lollapalooza Dates

Today, the Ten Club announced that they will be headlining Lollapalooza in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

SHOW DATES: 

March 16-18: Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 16-18: Santiago, Chile
March 23-25: Sao Paulo, Brasil

Pearl Jam will perform one night in each city. The festival will announce the exact performance date in the near future. 

For ticketing information, visit the Ten Club's website.

Ed Takes a Knee

Eddie Vedder was among several artists this week who took a knee in support of players in the NFL protesting police treatment of African American citizens and free speech.  He paused during his performance at the Tennessee Pilgrimage Fest to kneel and show his disdain for President Trump's comments calling for the firing of any players who protested at NFL games.  Other artists doing the same were  Pharrell Williams, Roger Waters, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Wonder.

#TakeAKnee pic.twitter.com/rSU8zT7mlI

— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) September 25, 2017

The band's twitter account also confessed support for the players.

We support @mosesbread72, @Kaepernick7, and everyone's constitutional right to stand up, sit down or #takeaknee for equality. pic.twitter.com/WDUD216pk2

— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) September 24, 2017

Backspacer Turns 8

Eddie Vedder, Street Performer

If you were at the Cubs game today, you might have caught Eddie Vedder on the sidewalk performing for tips with other fans.  Apparently, he stumbled upon some buskers (had to look that one up: one who plays music or otherwise performs for voluntary donations in the street or in subways) playing near the stadium and decided to join them for some tunes.

Pearl Jam 2000 - 2006 Reissues

Pearl Jam has announced today plans to reissue Binaural, Riot Act, and Pearl Jam (Avocado) on vinyl as well as six vinyl singles (Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, Save You, I Am Mine, Bu$hleaguer, and Live Wasted).  Each album is available for $24.99 (plus $10.99 domestic S+H), and the singles are $8.99 (plus $6.99 domestic S+H).  Everything has been remastered, and Pearl Jam has been remixed by Brendan O'Brien.

They have also announced the release of a $350, 17 pound boxed set including all ten of their studio albums on vinyl.  The announcement does not mention which version of each album is available, but the likelihood is, you'll be getting the 2009 remaster of Ten, the 2011 remasters of Vs. and Vitalogy, the 2016 remasters of No Code and Yield, the new remasters of Binaural and Riot Act, and the new remaster of Pearl Jam (Lightning Bolt is now the only album without multiple versions).

If you love that boxed set, but already own all the albums or you can't order them b/c all 500 have already sold out, you can also score the box without the albums for $44.99 (plus $13.99 domestic S+H).

The official release date for everything but the empty box is November 11th, 2017.