Monday, January 31, 2011

Are You Analog?

If you are, you have probably received your official 2011 Ten Club shirt.  No word on the back.  Presumably, it's blank.


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Pearl Jam Twenty Movie Update

We know from Mike McCready's "promo" that Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam Twenty will see a theatrical release this year.


Now thanks to a New York Post interview with Cameron Crowe that it should be coming in the later half of the year.


Crowe calls it “our equal-part tribute to Bob Dylan’s ‘Don’t Look Back’ and The Who’s ‘The Kids Are Alright.’ When I first moved to Seattle in the mid-’80s, that now-hallowed music scene was starting to come together and I was fortunate to have a front-row seat to the formation and the early shows of Pearl Jam. We gave them jobs on ‘Singles’ to keep the band afloat.


“They became good friends of mine, and about 10 years ago we started talking about a project that would use all the archival stuff the band had never shown to the public. The time finally came to tell that story. Jeff Ament, the bassist and creative architect of the band in many ways, said to me, ‘I’m expecting to learn things about our little band that I never knew. I hope it’s a little bit like group therapy.’ ”

Icon of Rock: Matt Cameron




Pearl Jam - 6.23.10 - Belfast



From his 46 second appearance on the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Soundtrack to Soundgarden's latest showcase, Telephantasm, no one has to tell US that Pearl Jam's drummer, Matt Cameron, is an Icon of Rock, but now the world will know thanks to the latest feature by Consequence of Sound.


But what about the wonder drummers, the ones who defy the above point by becoming just as essential as the front person or lead guitarist? The most obvious are John Bonham and Keith Moon, as they both helped create their respective bands’ unmistakable identity, so much so that when they died, so did those bands. Look closer and one can find that there have been a few that have since carried equal weight in their bands and are still going strong. For an example of this, I give you, the mighty Matt Cameron.

And Now ... The Tracklists

Amazon is currently rife with incomplete and possibly inaccurate information about the Vs. and Vitalogy reissues, but due to silence on the part of the Ten Club, that information is the only information out there.


Fans are left with a lot of questions.  Is March 29th really the release date?  Did someone just create that cover art in Photoshop?  One box?  Two boxes?  $35.21?


Still, as it currently stands, Vs. and Vitalogy are listed as different items, and Amazon has now added tracklists for both.  They seem to be in line with recent comments by Jeff, but fans will still be disappointed to find that only one unreleased outtake made the cut.




1. Go
2. Animal
3. Daughter
4. Glorified G
5. Dissident
6. W.M.A.
7. Blood
8. Rearviewmirror
9. Rats
10. Elderly Woman
11. Leash
12. Indifference
13. Hold On
14. Cready Stomp
15. Crazy Mary








1. Last Exit
2. Spin the Black Circle
3. Not For You
4. Tremor Christ
5. Nothingman
6. Whipping
7. Pry, To
8. Corduroy
9. Bugs
10. Satan's Bed
11. Betterman
12. Aye Davanita
13. Immortality
14. Stupid Mop
15. Betterman (guitar/organ only)
16. Corduroy (alt. take)
17. Nothingman (demo)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The First Image of the Vs. Reissue

I don't know if this image from amazon.ca is official, but it appears to be our first look at the Vs.(/Vitalogy?) Boxed Set.  Though Ten Club has not confirmed this, the release date is listed as March 29th.

Ten Club Steals TSIS's Idea

Less than 24 hours after our massive redesign, the Ten Club follows suit.



There don't appear to be any major content changes, but they've ditched the Backspacer look for a more streamlined look to compliment the PJ20 materials.

Seattle Mariners to Give Away McCready Bobbleheads on June 3

Pearl Jam - 5.1.10 - New Orleans


In celebration of Mike McCready's performance of the Star Spangled Banner on June 3rd, the Seattle Mariners are offering McCready bobbleheads to fans purchasing tickets to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA).  


Prices range from $20 to $40 with 20% of each ticket benefiting CCFA.  Quantities are limited, but no word on what that limit is.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Tremor Christ

by stip

TREMOR CHRIST


There is a lot going on in Vitalogy but one of the main themes playing itself out is the desire for purity in the face of corruption—a desire for the salvation of music, and the salvation of self in a world where both are threatened, perverted, distorted (I’ve long felt Red Mosquito needs to be on Vitalogy, as it is addressing these same themes).

RM poster SLH has made the argument that Not For You should be seen as working itself out over time, rather than capturing a particular moment—and her interpretation makes a great deal of sense segueing into Tremor Christ. It picks up in the aftermath of a metaphorical shipwreck and while the song is exhausted you can cut yourself on its jagged sounds and sharp vocals. Musically Tremor Christ does a wonderful job evoking the stormy feel of the song. The subject had succumbed to the superficial ease of temptation, the promise of reward without cost. Slight surrenders of principle, seemingly innocuous decisions quickly spiral out of control. The smallest oceans still get big big waves. It turns out that there was a steep price after all, demanding payment in terms of lost love, lost innocence, lost purity. Both the art and the artist suffer for the easy choices, for the refusal to see the hidden price of playing the game instead of choosing to move Sisyphus’s rock. We’re left with an exhausted artist, passion bleeding itself dry, and the emancipatory promise of the music drowning in the wake left by the industry.

The second verse, chronologically, comes before the first one—it’s a flashback of sorts, what happened to the subject that lead to him washed up on the shore. The Devil is seductive, and it is rare for the angels to reach an artist before they’ve accepted his bargain, to let him know exactly what is at stake. We can hope for angels but if we’re honest with ourselves we know it is going we’re going to have to learn to fight the devils (this theme returns in Corduroy and Satan’s Bed).

While the subject is wounded, he isn’t dead yet. The second half of the song is a fighting creed, a declaration to resist, to forgo temptation and endure hardship, to do what is necessary to regain control over his soul, the only prize the devil ever seeks. And the song ends with the eerily calm determination to turn the boat back to the water, enter the waves and prepare to fight, with nothing on his side but faith in love (love of music, love as meaningful attachment and solidarity, love as purity), and the knowledge that the struggle itself has meanings. The liner notes of Not For You intimate that Eddie has at least a passing familiarity with Albert Camus, and this really starts to play itself out in the moments of defiance on Vitalogy (here, Whipping, and Corduroy). There is never any guarantee, or even expectation of victory, but it is the fight that preserves our humanity. There is no promise that he’ll find what he is looking for, and in fact he may be too far gone to be redeemed, but he is willing to accept responsibility for the mistakes made, and he is willing to keep searching for the possibility of a wavering, uncertain salvation (tremor Christ). Since that is all we can have, it will have to be enough.



OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES


OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

On a Side Note: A Uke Album?




Pearl Jam - 5.13.10 - Bristow



TwoFeetThick caught on interview with Ed on AM 1300 THE ZONE in which he revealed that he's thinking it might be time for another Ed solo album!


“I’ve been playing ukulele – actually it was the first instrument I ever picked up when I was a little kid because someone was nice enough to give me one at a flea market or something. Now it’s evolved into a whole bunch of songs. I’ve been playing some solo shows outside of the group, mainly based on songs that were on a film called Into The Wild. The ukulele’s been making more appearances. And I’ve been trying to put together a batch of songs to put out on a real release, and that might even happen soon."

Welcome to The NEW Sky I Scrape dot Com!

We've been laboring day and night to bring you a new site with some greatly-enhanced, social-networky, web 2.0 stuff.  We hope you'll find some things that make it worth sticking around.  We are going to keep giving you great, cutting-edge Pearl Jam news, but let me show you what's new.

  • Your key links are at the top: Red Mosquito Forum, our favorite Pearl Jam links, and of course, the Donate button in case you want to fund the cause.
  • Over there on the right, you'll find another link to Red Mosquito Forum (let's be honest, without that forum, we wouldn't have half the news that we bring you).  There are also button for our RSS feed, Twitter account, and our new Facebook page.
  • What?  New Facebook page?  Yeah, we hope everyone has enjoyed the Red Mosquito Group on Facebook, but we created our own page so that you can get your Pearl Jam news fix via Facebook too.  Our blog, forum, and Twitter, might not have been getting it down for you.
  • We've also got that nice, yellow button in case you'd like to pop out Gremmie Radio and rock out.
  • Every post also has some goodies at the bottom.  Tags will help you find similar news items, and "quick share" buttons will let you toss our shit all over the Internet via Google, Twitter, and Facebook.



Though some changes were made to make our job easier, we hope that they also make your experience more enjoyable as well.  Let us know what you think, either here in the comments, or on the forum.

Keep Jammin'!
B

P.S. I'm still working on moving blog posts from 2009, and I'll have to clean up some links.  If you notice dead links, don't worry ... I'll get to 'em.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

All That's Sacred, Episode #74

There is so much awesome Pearl Jam news coming out this month, that it looks like even Donny, who retired his All That's Sacred podcast several months ago couldn't resist firing up his equipment.




I am extremely excited to say, "Episode #74 is now available."
Still regaining my sea legs here, but glad to be back behind the mic. Since my abrupt, unplanned hiatus from the podcast, I've heard from many of you offering encouragement and inquiring about the future of ATS. Recently I came across an outline I was working on way back when and figured the timing was right to give it another go.






Thanks for the continued interest and support. The year that is PJ20 is off to a promising start and it's my hope that ATS can once again be a place to come together and celebrate the Pearl Jam fan experience.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Mike on Pearl Jam Twenty

"Coming soon to a theater near you ... and in book form."







Monday, January 24, 2011

On a Side Note: It's Tres Mts.

"Tres"/"Trace," "Tomato/Tomato."  Sorry I got the name wrong last week, but now you can finally check out a little bit of Jeff's new collaboration with Doug "dUg" Pinnick and Rick Stuverud.  Like them on Facebook for a sample track.








Jeff Ament:
I first saw dUg Pinnick sing and play in 1989 with his band Kings X at the Central Tavern. Three years later, I asked them to open some shows for Pearl Jam and we quickly became friends.  I always joked, "when are we gonna make that heavy R & B record, you and me?" In 2001, dUg joined Richard Stuverud and me in one of our yearly writing sessions in Montana and again in 2004 with McCready.   After a few years of crossed up schedules, in 2010, we finally mixed the baker's dozen songs that make up Tres Mts. These guys are all monsters and this batch of tunes is gonna be fun to play live.

Setlist from McCready's Sundance Show

Anyone got a recording?



Pearl Jam - 08.15.2009 - Berlin





Thanks, Jambands.com.  Artists in parenthesis are my guesses.
Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols)
Revolution (The Beatles)
Mother's Little Helper (The Rolling Stones)
Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
I Wanna Be Sedated (The Ramones)
Destroyer (The Kinks)
Fire (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Sirius News: 1/19/2011



Sorry for the delay, the recording of last week's show took a while to find its way to the Interwebz.  On this week's episode of All Encompassing Trip, Tim and The Rob hosted Brett Eliason.  What'd we learn?


  • Live on Ten Legs was mastered by Ed Brooks at RFI, who creates two masters, one for vinyl and one for CD.  Those of you complaining about the digital master used for Backspacer's vinyl version will be very happy to hear that.
  • Eliason has tried to resist the current trend to mix albums as loudly as possible.  He likes his mixes to have variation, but his product does have to stand up to other modern products.  In the end, he hopes fans are successful at resisting the "louder is better" trend.
  • Eliason has been recording shows since 1993, though he doesn't necessarily have every show.  He, the Ten Club, and the band are always looking at what can be modernized or released, but Tim B. did note that sometimes management limits the ideas put before the band so their excitement level always stays high for anything that is released.
  • The much hated loss of Rockin' in the Free World and Sonic Reducer from the Drop in the Park vinyl was attributed to space.  Adding those shows would have required a second disc and driven up the price of the reissue.
  • There were no official 2007 bootlegs because Ten Club/Basecamp hadn't realized the demand for shows that had been created at that point.
  • The Rob and Tim B. are talking to Sirius Radio about ways to expand Pearl Jam Radio and feature more guest DJs.


If you missed it, Gremmie.Net archives AET for your on-demand enjoyment.



Meet Your Blogger: PJCollectors.com

 
ON-LINE PERSONA: VicSpeed


WEBSITE: http://www.PJCollectors.com
PJCollectors is the most extensive overall view of Official Pearl Jam items on the World Wide Web.


REAL NAME: Victor Nogales A.


LOCATION: Madrid, Spain, Europe


DAY JOB: Web Developer


FAVORITE ALBUM: 
Ten / No Code


FAVORITE SONG(S):
SOLAT, Of The Girl, Inside Job, Last Exit, Leash, Given to Fly, Rats ... Sorry I can't name only one.



FAVORITE BAND MEMBER:
Jeff & Eddie


HOW MANY SHOWS HAVE YOU ATTENDED? 
30


WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST PEARL JAM EXPERIENCE?  
My first show at San Sebastian in 1996 and the trip to Seattle with a couple of friends in 2002. Two shows at the Showbox and two more at the Key Arena. We flew for 17 hours without tickets for the Showbox gig. In the end we entered the venue and enjoyed the shows, but it was very very hard to get inside. An awesome city and an unforgettable trip.


At Pistoia 2006 a friend and me entered the “protected zone” by the church where Boom plays the organ in the Imagine in Cornice DVD. We pretended to be stage workers (and it worked!) and we could see the soundcheck from a privileged situation. We could later talk with Eddie Vedder after he climbed down the tower (with Danny Clinch) where he was sweeping. We asked Eddie for Breath (and they played it later).


HOW EXTENSIVE IS YOUR PEARL JAM COLLECTION? 
Not too big compared to others. About 1200 items (cds, vinyls, etc) and 250 posters. But the best part of this illness is the community we created with the PjCollectors.com website and the friends I've made around the world. By the way ... I'd like to say THANK YOU again to all the people that support or are part of the PjCollectors.com community. You rock!


WAIT.  THAT'S OVER 1400 ITEMS AND IT'S "NOT TOO BIG?"  WHAT'S THE BIGGEST COLLECTION?
There is a user on our forum known as Bu$hleaguer.  I'm pretty sure he has almost everything that we know exists.



IS THERE A SPECIFIC LYRIC THAT MOVES YOU?  
"The world awaits just up the stairs
Leave the pain for someone else
Nothing back there for you to find
Or was it you you left behind?"
- [Life Wasted]







WHAT ELSE IS ON YOUR IPOD RIGHT NOW?
Blind Melon, Pink Floyd, Deftones, Zeppelin, Pantera, Tool, Radiohead, NIN, Faith No More, Kyuss, Smashing Pumpkins, Nada Surf


WHEN YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Moutain biking, watching movies, and drawing


WHAT PASSIONS DO YOU HAVE BEYOND PEARL JAM?
Travel (I love travel arrangements.), live music, photography, my family


WHAT IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE?
Transvision Vamp!





OTHER BLOGGERS IN THIS SERIES
KathyTFT, TwoFeetThick.com
Donny, All That's Sacred
Jason Leung, This All Encompassing Trip
Jed, Twitter.com/DirtyFrankDahmr
Matt, Gremmie.net
Stip, The SkyIScrape.com
Victor Nogales, PJCollectors.com

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Friday, January 21, 2011

Mike McCready at Sundance

Although our forum is all aflutter with an unconfirmed text that Eddie will be playing a private show tonight in Park City, UT, we can't confirm that.  But apparently, we can confirm that Mike McCready will be there playing at Canyon Retreat's Spruce Restaurant to celebrate the premiere of Paul Giamatti's movie, "Win Win."





Mike Talks LOXL with Triple M

Mike spoke with Triple M Radio in Australia about Live on Ten Legs and adding Matt Cameron to Pearl Jam (Mike says, "we are now complete.").  You'll also catch clips from Stone and Ed talking about their experience in Pearl Jam.



Pearl Jam - 7.3.10 - Arras


Grunge Report radio is hosting the interview here.

Grunge Report Radio, 1/21/2011

Grunge Report Radio will be sharing their thoughts Pearl Jam's progress toward a tenth studio album.







Grunge Report Radio is back, on the latest episode Brett and Duncan talk Pearl Jam’s new album that they’re working on, Chris Cornell’s solo tour, and Coachella.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Jeff Ament Releases More PJ20 Details!

Pearl Jam - 11.28.09 - Christchurch




Rolling Stone just busted out some mind blowing details about the coming reissues of Vs. and Vitalogy, including an implication that the albums may come in ONE BOX!
First up is the Vs. and Vitalogy box, which comes with previously unheard bonus tracks (including an alternate version of “Corduroy” and a guitar-and-organ version of “Betterman”), an entire 1994 Boston show and a cassette from their Monkeywrench radio series. “On the Vitalogy tour, Eddie [Vedder] drove around in a van with a little pirate radio station in it,” says Ament. “It was a way to play music with our friends, and an anti-big-label thing. It was like a house party.”




There are also some details from Jeff about the Pearl Jam Twenty movie,



The band has also been working with Crowe on a documentary that chronicles its entire career. “I just saw a rough cut,” says Ament. “It was so fucking weird seeing footage of stuff I didn't know anybody was taping at the time. The whole movie is Cameron’s love letter to us – but it’s equal parts complimentary and really painful. It shows our growing pains and some real bad times, including Roskilde [the 2000 Danish festival where nine fans were trampled to death during the band’s set]. It was just really hard to watch.”




... and a hint that work continues on album #10.



When the festival is over, however, it’s back to business as usual. “Ed and I were just going through old photos, journals and clippings for the box set,” says Ament. “By the end, we were both like, ‘Ugh, we’re done with the past for a while.’ We’re ready to work on new songs and get excited about what’s 
ahead.”

PJ20 Beanie

The Ten Club has added a PJ20-themed hat to their collection.  You can pick one up now in the Goods section for $15.





Also, if you haven't checked out Brad Klausen's book, From a Basement in Seattle, it is also available for $24.95.



Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Not For You

by stip


NOT FOR YOU



The slow burn of Not For You’s riff puts the listener in mind of lit powder keg right before the explosion—the song traces the deceptive calm and the mild crackling of the spark working its way up the fuse. There is an undercurrent of barely contained rage running through the entire song, released during the chorus but quickly bottled back up during the verses, and ultimately fizzling out during the outro. There is a temporary relief found in catharsis, but there is not resolution. But resolution is not necessarily what the song searches for either. The reference to the myth of Sisyphus (a greek myth about a guy who is punished in Hades by having to roll a rock up a hill only to have it fall back down when it reaches the top) is telling here. He is almost certainly referring to the Albert Camus essay that interprets the myth. Camus argues that the only proper orientation to the absurdity of life is to revolt against it. Even if the revolt can never be successful, it is the act of revolting, of rejecting absurdity, that gives life meaning. And Not For You is directed in part against the people who forgot that, who abandon their youthful ideals once they become difficult—once the payoff is not immediately forthcoming.


Not For You continues with the sacredness of music theme begun in STBC, in particular what it means to the young—the way in which music helps us realize that regardless of how big and impersonal the world may get, there are others who have experienced what we’ve experienced, and we find solidarity in the music we share. In particular music is supposed to be the voice of optimism and hope, representing a purer vision of a world with more justice than the one we live in.


This, at the very least, is the importance with which Eddie has invested music, and is why the ‘corruption’ of music, the commodification of art and artist, is so damning. Rather than a source of authenticity and transcendence, it becomes something to be exploited—to put songs about rebellion and change into the service of selling products, to turn music away from community and solidarity and towards trends and fads. Music moves away from life and towards, if not death, then a type of marketed unlife. It rejects the position of revolt and moves towards an empty acceptance.


This plays itself out throughout the verses. The warning to youth not to lose the restless energy and optimism that is the hallmark of what is best in the young. The plea to the old to not forget where they came from and what they left behind. Sandwiched in between are the shots at fame (the chanting in the bridge, the ‘small my table’ lyrics). Much of that is obviously reflecting the personal claustrophobia Eddie was feeling at this time, the burden of being an icon, the ‘voice of a generation.’ But this should not be understood solely as an anti-fame rant. At its root is the way in which the position he has is unearned, a fabrication of the media and the culture industry. Eddie is a symbol, not a human being, and the deeper solidarity he envisions calls for a more intimate relationship than this—knowledge of one another as human beings, not as things. *


And so Not For You is an accusation—a shot targeted directly at the people who not only forgot what music once meant to them, but forget what it meant to have hope not only in some kind of transcendence, but some kind of immediate transformation of this world. It accuses them of surrender, acceptance, and in many cases collaboration. Not only have they forgotten this feeling, they now actively work to undermine the possibilities of realizing it. They pervert the shared vocabulary of revolution, change, and meaning. And this is who the music is not for. It is not for the people who look to music for style, rather than substance. It is not for people who look to music for money, rather than meaning. It is not for people who accept the world the way it is, rather than working to transform it. If you are one of those people then this is not for you.  


*as a footnote of sorts, Eddie may just be wrong on this. Any kind of movement, even one as abstractly formulated as the one he is striving for, requires its symbols, and he clearly had a similar symbolic relationship with his musical heroes (see Pry, To). Reacting to people cheering you as a disposable marker of what is currently popular is one thing, but it is never clear on Vitalogy whether or not Eddie is willing to assume the mantle of leadership for the people willing to look deeper. This is something he makes his peace with on the later records, but not here.




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES


OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Spin The Black Circle

It seems we forgot last week's installment, and I was very close to forgetting this week's as well.  I'll make up for it with a double dose.  Look for Not For You tomorrow.


Keep Jammin',
Brandon
by stip


SPIN THE BLACK CIRCLE

Spin the Black Circle is a love song, plain and simple—a joyous celebration of how much music means to the singer, the places that it takes him, the path it offers to some form of transcendence and meaning. It’s a celebration of vinyl because A: vinyl allegedly sounds better (I’m not calling that into question—not owning a record player I can’t comment on that one way or the other), and B: because vinyl is in some ways a relic, a hold over to a time when (the singer believes) music was purer—about the experience of the music rather than the image and marketing behind it

So STBC is a love song, about a love in some ways more pure (I won’t say powerful but I’m not too happy with this word choice either) in some ways than even sex and romance, as music just allows you to take what you need from it without demanding anything in return. It is difficult to love someone from a position of weakness since that sort of love will require sacrifices of the self that you may not be in a position to give. The music is there for you when you need it most—when you are at your weakest and just need something that is unconditionally yours.

One of the things that makes STBC an interesting song is the way they chose to approach it. It is one of the most aggressive and heaviest (although in a celebratory way) songs the band has ever written, with Eddie shredding his vocals—like he loves so much it hurts. The lyrics also parallel the thoughts of a drug addict—the junkie who cannot live without his next hit, the anticipation of lovingly bringing the needle down—the way, as Eddie says, the process is ritualized (music is a ceremony as much as it is a collection of sounds). The anticipation of what is to come is almost as important as the event itself. Given the (fairly accurate) grunge stereotype, a song with music this aggressive and vocals so frantic should be nihilistic—a song about pain and the inability to escape it. Quite possibly it would be a song about addiction (hence the drug language)—and STBC is a song about addiction—but it is a healthy addiction to once, an addiction to the healing powers of music and the path to transcendence that it offers. It is a wonderful inversion in that way, a song about life sung in the key of destruction.

It’s an essential lead in to Not For You as well—the anger and hostility in that song doesn’t really make sense without first coming here and sharing in the exultation.




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES


OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

LOXL Review Round Up



Who is talking about Live on Ten Legs?



The Seattle Weekly reviewed it.



The Seattle Post Intelligencer reviewed it.



TwoFeetThick covered the release party and published an archived interview with Brett Eliason.



The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviewed it.



BLARE Magazine reviewed it.



The Salt Lake Tribune reviewed it.



Blog Critics reviewed it.



Yeah, even we reviewed it.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Jeff Speaks with Trail 103.3

Pearl Jam - 08.23.09 - Chicago


Jeff sat down with A-Train on Missoula's Trail 103.3 last night for an awesome, intimate, 30-minute interview.  You can listen to the full interview on the 103.3 website.  He mentioned his upcoming side project, Trace Mountain, with Doug Pennick of Kings X and Richard Stuverud of the Fastbacks, War Babies, and [former Ament and McCready band] Luv Co.  This project has apparently been in the works for 7 years, as evidenced by this old Foundry Music article, Jeff expects a release for March.  Pennick says to expect a "southern rock/classic rock" sound.

Among other things we learned:
  • Pearl Jam may tack a fall tour onto that "festival/not festival event" we keep hearing so much about.  Thanks, GrungeReport, for transcribing this quote.
“I think Kelly [Curtis, manager] might have let that one out of the bag.  I think if anybody in the band had talked about that we might have gotten our wrist slapped a little bit.  I think the cart is maybe ahead of the horse on that one.  We’ve been working on trying to do something like this for a few years but it’s still in the infancy stage.  I think we’re going to do some shows this fall, not really sure where we’re going to do the shows but I think we’d like to include at least kind of the first version of what this festival could be like.  I think we’re going to try to include that in with that group of shows.  But it’s a full on work in progress right now there’s lots of hurdles to get over at this point to get it right.  I think we want it to be semi right before we do it.”
  • Jeff's hopes to release a second solo album when his schedule opens up and lets him work on the new set of songs that he has in his pocket.
  • Jeff hopes to open one skate park a year in whatever Montana towns may have him.
  • Not so much "news," but Jeff also talked about the Vs. cover, band relations, and Ed's work as a solo artist.

Pearl Jam Presents Live on Ten Legs

Well, if you haven't yet made the purchase, today is the day (unless you're not American; in that case, you're a day late).

Monday, January 17, 2011

Live on Ten Legs Radio Special

Pearl Jam - 6.22.10 - Dublin



Pearl Jam Radio at TenClub.net will be airing a Live on Ten Legs Special with commentary from Jeff this Wednesday, January 19th at 1pm ET and 10pm ET.

Thanks, DirtyFrankDahmr!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Jeff Ament Talks LOXL

Pearl Jam - 6.25.10 - London




Thanks to our forum for spotting this Explore Music feature where Jeff Ament takes 30-60 seconds to tell a quick story about most tracks on Live on Ten Legs.  If this doesn't get you excited about next week's release date, nothing will.  Here are some highlights:





ARMS ALOFT - "Ed brought Arms Aloft to the band and it was after a period of time where we were talking about Joe a lot and reminiscing about the missed opportunity of him coming out and playing shows for us, which was going to happen about a month after he died (December 2002). That song is all about being at a festival and we were playing a lot of festivals last year in Europe last year, so that song was a perfect song to bust out at those festivals."



WORLD WIDE SUICDE -  "World Wide Suicide was written by Ed. That song was an opener for us, originally on this record it was going to be the opener mainly because we come out and bash the guitars around a little bit and get some feedback going...it's a great rhythm track in that song and really representative of where we were at three or four years ago and it's been ten years since we've put out a compilated live record like this, so it's a good representation of the Avocado record".



ANIMAL -  "Yeah, that verse riff was a Stone riff that he brought in and that was one of the four or five really super aggressive songs on the Vs record. It's always a super fun song to play live and we were trying to load up the front of this record with some good energy so that fits right in there."



GOT SOME -  "I brought in a pretty complete demo of that song, it's been a good song live because it has such a great lyric and it's a lyric the audience can sing along with...it's a music-is-medicine lyric, so it's a fun one and it's over before you know it."




Look a short discussion on how setlists are made, a brief guest appearance by another band member, and the news that some demos for album #10 have been cut and may be fleshed out further in the spring!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

2010's Greatest New England Concerts

Pearl Jam - 5.17.10 - Boston
Seriously? That's the only Flickr photo from Boston?


We started yesterday with Pearl Jam at 50 in the 50 Top Rock 'N Roll Riffs.  That wasn't so hot, and there was debate as to whether the beginning of Alive even counts as a "riff."  Maybe a 19th ranking for Top New England Concerts will cheer us up.


Like a fine wine, Pearl Jam seem to be getting better with age. Touring in support of their latest album Backspacer, Pearl Jam hit Boston for their 28th show and delivered a set filled with hits, new tunes and rarities for the faithful crowd at the TD Garden.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Alive: 50th Greatest Riff in Rock 'N Roll

According to Spinner.com, Pearl Jam just barely makes the cut with Alive.




Stone Gossard came up with the opening riff for grunge's biggest anthem while he was in Seattle's legendary Mother Love Bone with fellow future Pearl Jam member Jeff Ament. The demo, originally called 'Dollar Short,' eventually made its way into the hands of a part-time gas station attendant named Eddie Vedder. The rest, as they say, is history.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

On a Side Note: Soundgarden Live at I5

I guess Matt's work on compiling live performances for a Soundgarden Live Album is nearing completion.


Pearl Jam - 5.1.10 - New Orleans
Happy New Year! We’re pleased to tell you that we are going to be releasing our first-ever live album taken from the west coast leg of our tour in 1996. The album will be called Live on I5 and you can get it on March 22nd. We had always intended to release this as a live record and now it’s time to unleash the fury! Watch this space for more details and pre-order information.


TRACKLIST


1. Spoonman
2. Searching With My Good Eye Closed
3. Let Me Drown
4. Head Down
5. Outshined
6. Rusty Cage
7. Burden In My Hand
8. Helter Skelter
9. Boot Camp
10. Nothing To Say
11. Slaves And Bulldozers
12. Dusty
13. Fell On Black Days
14. Search And Destroy
15. Ty Cobb
16. Black Hole Sun
17. Jesus Christ Pose

Sirius News: 1/12/2011



On this week's episode of All Encompassing Trip, Tim and The Rob hosted drummer for Malfunkshun, Satchel, and Brad and graphic designer for Pearl Jam, Regan Hagar.  Here are the bits that we learned this week:
  • Regan designed the artwork for Live on Ten Legs as well as the PJ20 logo as part of his now regular gig with Pearl Jam [Inc.?].
  • Regan also has been working on the PJ20 book which will be a compendium of Pearl Jam history and pictures meant to celebrate 20 years of the band.
  • Andy Fisher, who helped Jeff with the design of the Ten Reissue is working with the band on their reissues of Vs. and Vitalogy, due out later this year.
  • Brad hopes to do some touring outside of the US (Europe and South America?).
If you missed it, Gremmie.Net archives AET for your on-demand enjoyment.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Live on Ten Legs: The TSIS Review

by stip




There is no place in the world I’d rather be than at a Pearl Jam show, excluding my wedding and possibly the birth of my children (we’ll see). Yet I rarely listen to Pearl Jam bootlegs (I don’t know if that makes me more or less suited to review a live compilation). They are primarily a studio band for me, and it is only a very small and select handful of songs (Satan’s Bed from Atlanta 94, Even Flow from Uniondale 03, Porch from the unplugged, maybe one or two others) that ever make it into my regular listening rotation. I think this is because live Pearl Jam is something that needs to be experienced , rather than listened to. The music is felt as much as it is heard, and this has been notoriously hard to capture, even on the best bootlegs. Pearl Jam has a reputation for being one of the finest live bands around today, perhaps one of the best ever, and it’s this intangible factor that makes the live experience so compelling. There are plenty of bands that can play better and singers that can sound better, although perhaps not with Pearl Jam’s consistency. The varied set lists are great, but that’s there for the camp followers. It doesn’t explain the mass appeal. There’s something else there, something that comes from but transcends the music.


That’s what Live On Ten legs has to capture, and that’s a tall order.

The overall sound quality is much better than what we’ve gotten on recent bootlegs, and the song selection was well chosen. Nothing is repeated from LO2L and that’s a ballsy move in itself. Are there any other bands who’ve released live compilations that refuse to play the same hit twice? (that’s only semi-rhetorical—are there?) Given the fact that they’re not duplicating songs, and understandably wanting to draw a bit more (but not much more) from their most recent record and their biggest record (and Ten was underrepresented on LO2L) there’s a nice cross section of songs that faithfully reproduces the diversity of a typical Pearl Jam set list, right down to the random covers. The disc does a particularly good job capturing Eddie at his modern day best, the way his voice sounds like a damp fire—raging and sputtering and refusing to go out. Plus they seemed to pick songs where he wasn’t really overdoing his somewhat irritating modern vocal affectations. My one complaint is that the songs never quite feel loud enough, immersive enough, to begin to reproduce the experience of being there live

The record begins with a cover of Joe Strummer’s Arms Aloft. It’s a strong cover and it faithfully captures the spirit of the original (and I never noticed how much Eddie sings like Joe Strummer these days). The band is clearly having fun, and it’s a nice reminder of just how great a cover band Pearl Jam is, how much they clearly believe in the power of music and celebrate the majesty of their heroes. But Arms Aloft also feels a bit out of place. Pearl Jam concerts almost always begin with a ‘statement’—a song that not only announces that the band is here, but that the audience is in for a journey, something intense and larger than themselves. This is almost too playful, too casual. It seems better suited to a second encore, when there’s nothing left to prove and it’s there’s some space for fun for fun’s sake. At first I found myself wishing they had included one of their bread and butter covers, but this almost feels like a gift, something unexpected and surprising. I had never heard them play this one before, and it’s always nice to hear something new.

It feels like the disc really begins with the opening notes of World Wide Suicide. Here is the sense of movement, the sense of importance, that sets the listener up for a ride. It feels frantic without feeling rushed—like it has to get something out before it loses hold of what it was (rather than rushing to be done so we can move on to something else). The outro is particularly strong, with Eddie’s snarling, sarcastic vocals and the band’s furious playing. This is one of my all time favorite Pearl Jam songs, and one that has always frustrated me because I had yet to hear a live version that really captures the anger and hurt and fuck it all attitude of the studio version. But this is probably the best live performance of the song I’ve heard. I wish there was a little more from S/T on the comp, but WWS is able to carry the torch for the record.

Animal sounds great following World Wide Suicide. This is a song I want to hear at every show I attend, and while this isn’t the best version of this song I’ve ever heard, it has the churning intensity that makes Animal feel surprisingly timeless. This is the first moment in the set where the audience really takes center stage, and that’s a key element in capturing the actual live experience—just how interactive and in sync audience and band are—the way they feed each off of each other. It’s nice to see them actually pay some attention to trying to capture this

I like how they start this compilation off with 5 fast songs and the way each one builds off the energy of the previous one. It really helps lift Got Some. This is a song that sounds a little anemic on Backspacer, but what sounds exhausted on the record has a breathy kind of power to it, like you’re trying to keep your running partner going in the last stages of a marathon, when the finish line isn’t in sight, but close enough to imagine. As always Matt and Jeff are the heroes here, but the whole band makes sure the song never lets up.

State of Love and Trust was a pleasant surprise—not so much its inclusion but how good it is. The guitars have a sharpness and a heaviness to them that is so often missing, and Eddie thankfully sings the actual lyrics instead of the terrible ‘both sides of the bed’ change he inexplicably insists on working into the live versions. They do an especially fine job capturing the absurd playful menace of the bridge and outro, and again the band is playing the hell out of the song. If only it was louder. They’re not doing themselves justice. If they’re trying to smack me in the face (and they are)let them do it.

I Am Mine is one of my all time favorite Pearl Jam songs (up there with WWS and Comatose as my favorite things the band did this decade), and another song where they never managed to reproduce the incredible atmosphere of the studio version. Still, they come closer here than I’ve ever heard them do so before. It captures the sense of searching and discovery at the heart of the song. I Am Mine finally sounds like the journey it is, and Mike’s outro solo, if not quite as cathartic as the studio version (one of the best 10 second blocks in the whole catalog), is still really good.

Unthought Known is one of the few places where I think the compilation stumbles a bit. The placement works well, and I never noticed quite how nicely this song complements I Am Mine. One of the cool things about a show is that you get to see songs interact with each other and be a part of each other’s stories. Eddie sounds pretty good, but he stumbles a little bit (although he recovers) during the two most critical moments in the song (gems and rhinestones and ‘you’ll be no one’s rival). Since the rest of the song is a little thin (Unthought Known works better as a solo song) it is critical that they nail these two moments, since they have to carry the rest of the song. The band plays everything else here with gusto, the problem is that Unthought Known is a little underwritten, and so what they’re playing doesn’t feel essential.

And this comes up in a few places, but I’ll say it here. We HAVE to stop with the unnecessary handclaps. We sound like assholes and it’s unnecessary and distracting. Cheer, scream, stamp your feet, move around—but stop with the clapping.

I was a little wary when I saw Rearviewmirror on the tracklist This is a beast of a song on Vs. but live it loses the tight burning focus it has on the record and becomes more about the noodling bridge and the pounding outro. The problem is that this really needs the lights, especially the strobe lights at the end. This is probably the only Pearl Jam staple I’d say this about, but RVM needs its props and it doesn’t have them. They usually lose me with the live improvs but they do a good job here until the end, where it seems like they lose track of each other for a little bit. But they rally, and by the end I can see the lights.

The Fixer is a great live song, and it sounds good here (but I bet there’s a better version floating around). The ayes and uh-huh’s that start the song, which feel out of place on the record, feel especially out of place live, but once we’re past that the music has the warm fuzziness that makes the studio version so catchy, and I wish I was there to sing the yeah yeah yeah part with everyone else. What I don’t understand is why they speed up so many of their other songs and seem to actually slow down The Fixer. If there’s one song to speed up, it’s the Fixer.

I think the Unthought Known—RVM—Fixer run is probably the low point of the record. It’s maybe counterintuitive to expect Nothing As It Seems to really pick things up again since it’s such a slow dirge, but they really nail this one. Nothing As It Seems is almost entirely dependent on whether or not Mike can reproduce the incredible soundscapes he creates on Binaural, and he does an amazing job here. It’s just a joy to listen to him (and everyone is incredible on the bridge)

Again, WTF are handclaps doing here? Just sit on your hands and soak this one in. Some songs invite you to actively participate. Some songs ask you to appreciate from a distance. This is one of them.

In Hiding, while a middling Pearl Jam song for me, needs to show up in their sets more than it does. It’s an easy one for the band to play, easy for Eddie to sing, and there aren’t many moments in their catalog that bridge the gap between audience and band more than the chorus of In Hiding. This version was particularly good. The song feels a little more fleshed out than the studio version—it has a richness and sophistication to it (musically—although it helps that Eddie doesn’t sing the juvenile ‘I was high as hell’ lyrical variation) that isn’t often there, and it’s always fun to hear Eddie cut out and have the audience fill in without any prompting because they’ve been singing their hearts out all along.

Just Breathe is a gorgeous song, and it’s kind of amazing how intimate they can make this one sound in an arena. The chorus is maybe a little busy (it is in the studio version too) but the rest of this song aches with quiet romance. This is vastly superior to the live version they used in the video.

They’re more successful with Jeremy than they are with Rearviewmirror. Maybe it’s because Jeremy depends on an audience/band interaction that can be more easily reproduced than the strobe light effects at the end of RVM. While both songs live or die primarily on the strength of the outro, Jeremy is a more interesting journey, and from the very start the band gives the song the fullness it needs to give the listener the immersive tunnel vision—the way it starts you racing down a long hallway towards an unknown destiny—that makes the payoff at the end so intense. But like I said, Jeremy lives and dies by its outro , and the ending here is magnificent, with band and audience (who I would have liked to hear even more from since there such an important part of the song) fully committed to making it work. It has a great sing along, and the ominous final moments, the sound of the door closing on someone’s life, gives me the chills it is supposed to.

Public Image is in the right place. This is where a playful cover belongs in the set. I can see why they had to separate Arms Aloft and Public Image though. The two songs are too similar to place back to back. Still, since they already had Arms Aloft(which is the better song and better performance, although this one is fine) I would have preferred a different cover that occupies a different emotional space.

Spin the Black Circle may be the weakest song on the compilation. As with The Fixer, this one feels slower than it is, and strangely defanged. How can such an intense song sound so casual? It’s not like they can’t nail this one, since they repeatedly do a great job on songs like Blood or Go that are musically more intense and probably no harder for Eddie to sing. And unlike a song like Not For You, it’s not like the change in tone is offset by making the song a communal celebration (the point of Not For You these days, after all, is that it is for us). Maybe I’m too hard on the song. The band sounds great and Eddie actually gives the song the croaking energy it needs, but I still can’t help but feel like it’s been neutered somehow. Maybe it’s just me.

I really felt the absence of Porch and Alive on LO2L, not just because these are two of my favorite songs, but because they are my definitive set closers (sorry Black). It’s nice to see them show up. Porch is a demanding song to play live, since it needs to keep simultaneously producing and sustaining a feeling of anticipation AND release, and they do a good job here (musically especially) pulling it off. It helps that they were careful to make sure the jam in the middle lasted long enough to be interesting without starting to drag (a frequent issue I have with RVM and occasionally with Porch).

Porch, like Alive and Given To Fly, is a song that martyrs itself, and even more than the other two its success is ultimately based on the resurrection that comes at the end of the journey back. That’s why I miss Eddie’s improving at the end of Porch. Even if the substance wasn’t there, the words felt like they had a kind of supernatural wisdom to them. But we do get a sing along, which invites the (unfortunately muted) audience –and to a lesser extent the listener—to be a part of the climactic rebirth that is the song’s finale. I guess you know if a song was successful if you find yourself wishing you were there for it, and I wish I was there for this one.

I rarely listen to Alive and Porch back to back since there are so many great songs in between them, so I never really thought about how similar a role these two songs play in the live set. Following Porch with Alive is almost redundant, but since they’re both monster songs who cares? Alive is maybe the hardest song to really capture on a bootleg because the live experience, especially the ending, is so incredibly immersive and cathartic. It’s like being born again, or the closest an atheist is going to get. So while the rest of the song sounds really good it almost doesn’t matter. No matter how good the performance (and it sounds great here, animated and important) I feel like I’m killing time until the ending. The Alive solo (on the record) is my favorite moment in all of music, but since Mike plays it differently live (it’s designed to keep time as much as it is to be an awesome solo) what’s really going to matter here is how well the boot captures the experience of being there, the way the audience invests itself and, for those few minutes, looses any of sense of who it is, reborn in that perfect moment. No bootleg could reproduce that in its entirety, but they give it a game try here. I wish the audience was louder in the mix because you could really tell this was an incredible performance.

And while I personally prefer to see a show close with Indifference or Baba O’Riley (or even RITFW), Yellow Ledbetter eels right. This is how the disc needs to end. While the studio Ledbetter is a bittersweet farewell, live it’s a warm embrace, a loving hug goodbye, and they manage to capture that here, especially with the bridge, which is about as good as I’ve ever heard it sound. Yellow Ledbetter, the way they play it live, runs the risk of sounding self-indulgent when you’re not actually there, but they actually mange to successful transport you into the arena more with this one than any other song on the compilation, and more than any Ledbetter I’ve yet to hear. I actually found myself feeling sad that the disc was coming to an end, like the show was ending and I’d have to wait another year (East Coast!) to feel this way again. I guess you can’t ask for a better way to end a record.

Ultimately Live on Ten Legs can’t recapture the feel of being there, but I’m not sure that’s possible, and they come really close, closer I think than Live on Two Legs. Live on Two Legs may be a better collection of songs (in terms of both song and performance), and it captures the band at the height of their game, but Live on Two Legs always felt like a compilation to me, a group of disparate songs thrown together . Live on Ten Legs, while also a collection of random songs, felt more like a show, and one that, by the end, I really really wished I was at. By that measure, perhaps the most important one, this was a true success.