Thursday, August 30, 2012

A Guided Tour of Ten: Why Go

[A Guided Tour of Ten]
I probably have less to say about Why Go than the rest of the songs on the record as it is easily the least nuanced of all the tracks on Ten. It is pure anger, but unlike the straight ahead furious shrieking of a later song like Lukin there are some extra layers coloring its frustration, indignation, and especially confusion (this may just be my tastes but I definitely prefer these vocals, as there is more texture to them). 

Lyrically Why Go is perhaps a little more straightforward than I would prefer. Eddie usually tells his stories sideways, coming at them somewhat obliquely or with a degree of subtly not present here. But, like Alive, the lyrics are not doing the heavy lifting here. Why Go is once again about the vocals and the music.

Musically this is one of my favorite tracks on a record full of terrific instrumental work. This is dangerous, foreboding music, starting out with the hostile bass line exploding into the wall of angry guitars. You can hear the music pounding in the subject's head as she carves her thoughts into the stone walls of her cell, giving her the strength to pierce the rock, and it only grows in intensity as she continues to ponder her fate—not only trapped, but violated by the people who are supposed to unconditionally love and accept her

Eddies vocals are angry throughout, but I love how there are moments where he mutes it slightly, when the anger is soften by her own confusion about how she got here and what, if anything, she can do to get herself out--especially during the first chorus, where the anger is secondary to her bewilderment at the start, with the rage building throughout the chorus until it reaches the fever pitch that it occupies during the rest of the song, giving the woman (and the listener) an outlet for their anger. The lyrics to Why Go are meant to be claustrophobic, but the song is explosive enough to destroy the walls of the cell. 

Many of the choruses in Ten are simple (Release me, I'm still alive, Why go home) but the simplicity works in their favor—these are basic questions or declarations but delivered with so much weight, passion, and sympathy that they transport you right into the experiences of the character (in the same way that the word love is often trite unless you're using it to describe your own feelings). I also love the ambiguity in the way that the chorus is delivered. The lyric is why go home (what is left for her there?), but it also sounds like they are singing why go on—after a violation and betrayal this personal, what is left for her anywhere?




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES: 
Once 
Even Flow 
Alive 
Why Go 
Black 
Jeremy 
Oceans 
Porch 
Garden 
Deep 
Release 

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES: 
Ten 
Vs. 
Vitalogy 
No Code 
Yield 
Binaural 
Riot Act 
Pearl Jam 
Backspacer

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

RNDM

Clearly, Jeff Ament has more musical creativity than Pearl Jam is capable of releasing.  Witness his latest side project with singer, songwriter Joseph Arther, and drummer (and long-time Ament collaborator) Richard Stuverud, RNDM.


Ten Club reports:

The band will release their debut album, "Acts", on Tuesday, October 30th in CD, vinyl LP and digital formats via Monkeywrench Records/RED in the U.S. and Canada, and Monkeywrench/One Little Indian Records for the rest of the world.In support of "Acts", RNDM will embark on a 16-date North American tour, which kicks off November 2nd in Brooklyn, NY and ends November 27th in Seattle, WA.
Tour dates and extensive band biography is available at pearljam.com. The tracklisting for Acts is below, and you can preview the track "Modern Times" at Rollingstone.com.

1. Modern Times
2. Darkness
3. The Disappearing Ones
4. What You Can't Control
5. Hollow Girl
6. Walking Through New York
7. Look Out!
8. New Tracks
9. Throw You to the Pack
10. Williamsburg
11. Letting Go of Will
12. Cherries in the Snow

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Ron Howard to Direct Made in America Documentary

MTV is reporting that Ron Howard will be directing a behind-the-scenes documentary of Jay-Z's Made In American Festival which, of course, is being headlined by Pearl Jam.


... the movie will be a combination of footage shot before, during and after the event, with no release date confirmed at press time. It will mark Howard's first foray into filming a music documentary,
Ron Howard also told the New York Post:
It is going to be born through Jay-Z’s perspective . . . how he puts the event together.” Grazer added, “Jay stayed the king for a very long time . . . I can’t even begin to explain how he is capable of remaining relevant. He is a phenom, like a musical Michael Jordan.”

Given To Cast 8-24-12

Given to Casts latest episode, 8-24-2012, is now available.


Latest episode of Given To Cast is up. Have a great interview with Joe Little of Come to The Porch dot net and some more great music from Amsterdam Night I show. Enjoy!

Week in Review
Song(s) of the Week: Amongst The Waves and Indifference Interview with a Fan: Joe Little of Come To The Porch dot net GTC Extra: Black

Saturday, August 25, 2012

A Guided Tour of Ten: Alive

[A Guided Tour of Ten]
Alive and Release are the two most critical tracks on the record, as they are the two moments that really offer up the hope of redemption, although in both cases it is a shadowy hope—a hint that things might be better in the future because they can’t be much worse now. It is not a coincidence that both of these songs deal with same event, one of the most intimate forms of betrayal possible. While Why Go is also about getting messed up by your parents, it is much easier to digest because of the anger. There is a break. In Alive there is no break and because there is no break there is no chance to start over. The need for finding a clean space has always been a major theme in Eddie's lyrics (getting in a car and driving away, climbing a tree, finding water). In all these cases there is no time for healing until you've removed yourself from the harm). In Alive the singer finds that everything he took for granted about his world is a lie, but that the people involved in the lie expect him to go on like everything is okay—the words have been spoken and now it is time to suck it up and move on, even though we remain stuck in the same wounded and poisoned space.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. As a caveat I want to say that I think Alive is only superficially a song about incest, and not a very good one at that. The song succeeds in spite of that story, rather than because of it. Personally I suspect Eddie wrote the song about himself and added that story to it later to create some distance between it and him—to make it a little less intimate and revealing. Even if he had that incest frame in mind when he was writing it it was always secondary.

The opening guitar riff to Once is dirty and distracting—it is meant to convey the mad pounding in the singer's brain, the inability to focus. Alive is exactly the opposite. It is crisp, clear, and defiant. It is a statement of purpose, of solidarity and strength (and is probably my favorite riff of all time). And the music and the vocal delivery (this song is one of Eddie's real masterpieces in terms of the vocals—every line is given exactly the right inflection—his confusion, the off handed diffidence of his mother filtered through his own shock and anger, the strength and possibilities of the chorus) together are what anchor Alive. It is what gives the song its hope. The lyrics are dark and lifeless and offer little in terms of salvation. The riff is redemptive. If Alive was sung by Conner Oberest (bright eyes) the entire song would be spent wallowing in self-pity and existential crisis—and he wouldn’t necessarily be wrong for doing so. It's a legitimate choice given the subject matter. But the clarity of the music and the strength in Eddie's voice offer a crucial juxtaposition to the story being told. We don’t know based on the story being told if the singer will make it out okay (in fact we have reason to bet that he wouldn’t), but the music and delivery tell us otherwise

I love the casual, off handed way the song begins. “Son, have I got a little story for you”. And with that little story the mother demolishes the foundations of the singer’s universe—the fact that this happens to him when he is just beginning his teenage years makes it worse, as he is at the time when we are just beginning to construct adult identities for ourselves and nothing in life is solid. At that moment the one thing he thought he could rely on, the truth of his family, is taken away from him. And moving beyond just finding out that he was adopted, he knows too that one of the people who created him is lost to him forever. But, as his mother reminds him, shit happens. Try not to worry about it. And she is relieved. It is like finishing your first conversation with your child about sex. It is as much for your benefit (if not moreso) than theirs. One thing you can cross off your parental to-do list.

The second verse is a little troubling since I don’t really like the incest interpretation. I picture this as his mother crossing the room to attempt to comfort him, while he remains dumbfounded by the revelation. It's not enough. A few quick words of comfort can’t make this go away. Yeah, he's alive, life goes on, but in some meaningful way it is now all a lie. His life needs to be rebuilt, and he doesn’t know how to do it or who to go to for answers (the who answers question is especially poignant given the way the album ends, with Eddie in the dark talking to his dead father, waiting for answers that will never come—at least not from his father)

And that is what is going on with the insistent declaration in the chorus. Everything else is a lie, but at least he is still alive. He never comes out and tells us what to make of this (he rarely did in the early records—if Indifference was written today he would tell us that it makes a difference instead of leaving it to the listener). He could be alive and have nothing. He could be alive and paralyzed, trapped and uncertain where to go from here. Once points to another possibility. But it is clear both from the music and from the power in his vocals that he is alive and defiant. That this is something he will rise above. He is alive, and ready to begin again.

And with that declaration Mike's solo kicks in, which I still think is the most emotionally striking guitar solo of all time, and arguably the most powerful piece of music I've ever heard. Through it he lets out all the anger, frustration, trepidation and fear that the singer feels and through it he finds the strength needed to continue. It conveys so much without ever saying a word beyond some of Eddie's wordless vocal coloring (something I wish he would go back to). It reminds us that he is alive, and that he is going to be okay.

Alive is an extremely personal song, and one that few of us can (hopefully) relate to in any direct sense. But we don’t have to relate directly. Alive is for anyone who has ever been violated (emotionally or physically) by those closest to us and reminds us that we can and will survive it, that as long as we're alive we’ll survive to love and trust again.




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES: 
Once 
Even Flow 
Alive 
Why Go 
Black 
Jeremy 
Oceans 
Porch 
Garden 
Deep 
Release 

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES: 
Ten 
Vs. 
Vitalogy 
No Code 
Yield 
Binaural 
Riot Act 
Pearl Jam 
Backspacer

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Love Grem. Hate Cancer.

You may remember our spotlight on Matt from Gremmie.net.  Well his best friend and his co-collaborator's wife has survived a brutal bout with cancer.  Now she is raising money to support cancer research and you can help.


Last October, my wife (and gremmie’s best good friend) Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. For several months she’s courageously undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The good news is that the treatments appear to have helped and she’s now on the mend. She’s set her sights on raising breast cancer awareness by forming a team called “The Rack Pack” (clever, I know) and walking in “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk” in Albany, NY this October. 
We’re asking you gremmies to help make Sarah’s day. If each of our fans donates just $1, we will completely blow Sarah’s fundraising goal out of the water, and that would just be amazing. 
Here’s the link to Sarah’s donation page; the Donate Now button is on the right hand side: 
http://bit.ly/PiSgVg

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Gaslight Anthem on Pearl Jam's Influence

We know from their occasional covers of State of Love and Trust, that The Gaslight Anthem are fans of Pearl Jam, but Spin Magazine recently sat down with lead singer, Brian Fallon, to discuss their new, Brendan-O'Brien-produced album, Handwritten, and his musical influences.  He talks about the interesting way in which he has allowed Pearl Jam to influence his music.



It seems to me that it might be easier to change lyrical perspectives than musical ones. Did you attempt making music in a new way, also? 
We sat in a room and jammed like we were kids, which is something we hadn't done before. What I used to do, I was way into, "All the guys in the '60s and '70s used tape echoes. So I'll use tape echo, too. They didn't use any effects, so I'm not gonna." Why? It doesn't fit for us anymore. All the guys in the band are around 30-years-old. We're '90s kids. We grew up on grunge. The first music that I ever discovered myself that made me want to smash my parents' living room was Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I started thinking about, like, "What was the essence of Pearl Jam?" They like Neil Young and the Who, but they didn't emulate them. They mixed everything together. That realization gave us a lot of freedom. We used a wah-wah pedal on the album. Before, it would've been, "We don't do wah-wah pedals."
Judge for yourself how the everything sounds when it's mixed together:

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Golden State: Live with Natalie Maines

A live version of Golden State performed by Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks is being released to benefit the West Memphis Three Freedom Fund.

Vedder and Maine's performed the song at a rally to support the WM3 back in August of 2010. About a year later they were released from prison. You'll be able to purchase the song from pearljam.com and iTunes starting August 19th, which marks the one year anniversary of the trio's release. You can stream the song now at RollingStone.com.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Soundgarden Album Release Date & Song Titles

It's been two years now since Soundgarden officially reformed, and we won't have to wait much longer for their new album.

According to the August 30th issue of Rolling Stone, the yet to be titled record will be released on November 13th and will include songs titled "Blood on the Valley Floor" and "A Thousand Days Before".

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A Guided Tour of Ten: Even Flow

[A Guided Tour of Ten]
I realized as I sat down to write this that I haven’t heard the Ten version of Even Flow in years (I prefer the rerecorded version but this one is still really good). Anyway, Even Flow musically reminds me a bit of World Wide Suicide, in that you would expect a song dealing with subject matter of this sort to be slower—something more in the singer-songwriter vein. Instead the song has a compelling, almost danceable grove to it that at first seems at odds with the message of the song. It is certainly one of the warmest pieces on Ten, much more inviting than a song like Once, which appropriately enough tries to push the listener away (while simultaneously drawing the listener back in through the immediacy of Eddie's voice. This tension is one of the strengths of the record). Even Flow, like Jeremy, tries to bring the listener in. In that respect it reflects the yearning that is at the heart of the song—the search for a home, and (implicitly) someone to share it with, and creates a nice juxtaposition with the darker lyrics. 

Even Flow has always had a special place in my heart since there is probably no social issue that bothers me more than homelessness. Our willingness to leave people alone and isolated (exacerbated by the 12 years of Reagan/Bush that Ten is coming out of), deprived of the most basic element of security that there is, marks a real failure—both of our democracy and even our basic humanity, and that is what Even Flow is about—trying to rehumanize the people we normally work so hard at forgetting (remember the outro to the rerecorded version ‘I died/I died and you stood there/I died and you walked by…’so that we can’t forget them. Only by denying another person’s fundamental humanity can we create the mental distance necessary to abandon our most vulnerable people to their own suffering, and when we do so we kill off an important part of ourselves—the part of us that is fundamentally social, that needs people to love and to be loved by them. Once shows us what happens when that gets lost. The songs on Ten all address this theme in some capacity, although they normally do so at an individual level. Here (and in Jeremy) the message just exists on a larger scale—a condemnation of larger social practices that make this possible.

The song starts out with one of my favorite images in the entire catalogue—the man lying on the hard ground (I like the juxtaposition of the pillow and its sense of softness with the concrete), freezing from lack of warmth (this could and probably should be read both literally and figuratively—lacking the warmth that comes from security—knowing that you have a space that is yours and someone to share it with). All he has to sustain him is the vague hope that things will better as the rest of his life passes by him in a blur. Every now and then people give him money or something to help him find another meal or a place to sleep for the night, but the act is devoid of any real warmth. We don’t find out the person’s name, and more often than not the act of charity is defensive—a way to ward off our own guilt rather than actually help (and especially to rehumanize) the person we give to. There is a hint that the person is mentally ill (many homeless people in this country suffer from some form of mental illness, and many were thrown out of hospitals in the 80's due to funding cuts)—again a black mark against us as a nation for abandoning the most vulnerable among us to their own devices. Or perhaps he lacks no classifiable disorder. Perhaps he's just been driven slightly mad due to his own experiences—his own painful isolation, even in the midst of the thousands of people who pass him by every day. The second verse continues these themes—the sense of helplessness (trying to find a job though he can’t read, fear of the upcoming freezing winter, shame felt over his condition (whatever scant help is available is meant to be painful—to remind him that his condition reflects a failure at his end, rather than our failure to make sure that its members are taken care of) and above all else the most intimate form of isolation that there is—praying to a God to alleviate his suffering and never having those prayers answered and finding yourself utterly alone.

I'm not sure exactly what an Even Flow is. But even with that lyrical ambiguity the chorus is still powerful—focusing on the vague promise of future redemption. The hopes and possibilities (and as usual Eddie's voice does a wonderful job of conveying this, as does the music) flutter around him—beautiful but impossible to pin down and make sense of. It isn’t clear from the song if the whispering hands represent some kind of future aid, or perhaps a cop or social worker taking him to another temporary shelter. But what is striking is that he feels the hands, and hears the voices, but cannot connect the two. The interaction is faceless, stripped of any human connection (even the voices are muted), and regardless of where he is going, he is still being led there—passive, alone, and hoping that someday the faces appear in focus.




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES: 
Once 
Even Flow 
Alive 
Why Go 
Black 
Jeremy 
Oceans 
Porch 
Garden 
Deep 
Release 

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES: 
Ten 
Vs. 
Vitalogy 
No Code 
Yield 
Binaural 
Riot Act 
Pearl Jam 
Backspacer

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Pearl Jam To Play Yet Another Corporate Event

In 2002 Eddie Vedder and C-Average played a private birthday party for Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks. In 2010 Pearl Jam played Target's annual Manager's Meeting. Today, we receive word that the trend will continue when Pearl Jam plays the Oracle Appreciation Event along with Kings of Leon on October 3rd.

At least this one is open to the public. To attend the event, which is sure to feature all sorts of conferences and forums that will showcase the great products from the fine people at Oracle, all you have to do is register here. Oh yeah, and you'll have to shell out more than two grand.

Ok, so the birthday party in 2002 can be explained away as a private party for a friend. His friend happens to be the CEO of RealNetworks, but at least they became good friends while working on behalf of the West Memphis Three. And the Target event in 2010 was after a distribution deal for their self released album, Backspacer. Oh yeah, it was just through one of those big box stores that is so helpful to local economies. The Oracle Appreciation Event may be open to the public but it's certainly prohibitively expensive for most of Pearl Jam's fans. It just seems a little backwards coming from the band that in the past would force venues to remove corporate advertisements before they'd take the stage. Sponsored by no one? That seems like a lifetime ago.

August 14th, 3:30pm EDT edits: The $75 ticket for this conference will not get you into the Pearl Jam show. For that you'll need the OpenWorld package that is currently selling for $2395. Also, I had stated that the Target event was in 2009 in Seattle when in fact it was 2010 in Minneapolis. I had confused it with the video shoot for The Fixer. My bad.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Walking Papers


Jefferson Angell (The Missionary Position), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), and Duff McKagan (Loaded) are preparing to release an album as their new project Walking Papers October 2nd.  As if these Seattle heavyweights weren't enough, they are featuring several guest musicians, our favorite of which, is Mike McCready, lending his guitar solos to the new band's blues-rock feel.
Walking Papers debut album, out worldwide on October 2nd, 2012. Sculpture and artwork by Jefferson Angell, 11 original songs featuring Jefferson Angell on guitar and vocals, Barrett Martin on drums and vibes, Duff McKagan on bass, Benjamin Anderson on keyboards, and some blistering guitar solos from Mike McCready. Also featuring the BMG horn section of Dave Carter and Ed Ulman with Dan Spalding.
Thanks to GrungeReport for finding the tracklisting of the upcoming, self-titled album.

1. Already Dead
2. The Whole World’s Watching
3. Your Secret’s Safe With Me
4. Red Envelopes
5. Leave Me In The Dark
6. The Butcher
7. Two Tickets And A Room
8. I’ll Stick Around
9. Capital T
10. A Place Like This
11. Independence Day


Monday, August 6, 2012

A Guided Tour of Ten: Once

[A Guided Tour of Ten]
Ten is truly an epic album—the scale of it may turn some people off who prefer the more narrow and private feel of some of the later albums but I think it is hard to deny that this is a grand record in the best sense of the word—one that has a lot to say, and wants to say it loud to make sure that the message doesn't get lost. You can hear the influence of The Who in that regard here more than any other record. Yet at the same time there is an intimacy to the songs—while they are about other people, and the music is larger than life, there is a very personal connection made. Much of this is through Eddie's voice, but you are asked to inhabit the people in the stories, to feel what they feel. They are stories, but the stories are about you. It is really a remarkable feat, and one of the things that makes Eddie one of the best vocalists of all time.

It is also worth saying a bit about what Pearl Jam means as a band, and what separates them from their peers (and what made that clear right off the bat). All of the grunge standard bearers wrote for disaffected people, but it was a type of disaffection that differed from the punk movement ten years prior. That was music written by outsiders. What made grunge different was that it was written for people on the inside who still felt disaffected. In a lot of ways it was rap/punk for white middle class kids who technically had what they wanted but still felt like something was missing. The music was a search to find out what that missing thing was. And it was the effort put into the search that really made Pearl Jam stand out. The other bands tended to look only inside themselves to find what was missing. From the beginning there was a social/political dimension to pearl jam's music—a desire and a need to confront the outside world, so as to figure out what went wrong, why we aren’t living what was promised (to paraphrase Angel), and above all else what we can do about it.

If you were going to sum up the lyrical theme of Ten in one word that word would be betrayal. The music of the early 90's was written for the children of the children of the 60's. The first great wave of rock music from that period was music that at its heart wanted to be transformative. It wanted to right the wrongs of the world and serve as a source of inspiration and emotional strength for the people who were going to do it. Then they grew up and gave the country 12 years of Regan and Bush. Instead of idealism you had a vacuous hedonism and a glorification of greed. The next generation of children, growing up in that aftermath, came of age in the shadow of the failure of their parents' revolution. They felt cheated somehow. There was a sense that a great promise had been lost, and people had no idea where it went or what could and should come next. This was the mindset that animated at least the more thoughtful members of ‘generation x'. All the great grunge bands spoke to that experience—all were in some way attempting to deal with that feeling of betrayal and aimlessness. The problem is that most of the music was nihilistic and either wallowed in or celebrated its pain. Pearl Jam was really the only band of that period to try and rise above it, and what made the early records so magnificent was not just that they expressed so powerfully the rage, anger, fear, and insecurity of the time, but that almost all the songs had a moment of light, a way out. 

Later records (really starting with No Code) begin to crystallize what that way out might look like. In the early records it is there more as a promise—a shadowy hope for future redemption. What was clear was that it was going come about through the community created through music. If we can come together, we might somehow find it. But again, on Ten there are no answers yet (it is Breath that articulates this most clearly among the early songs)—just the hope that the answer is out there, manifested as much through Eddie's voice and the music as through the lyrics. The catharsis isn’t intellectual—it is emotional, and experienced with a powerful immediacy. This is really the source of Eddie's charisma, especially in those early years. He is not particularly well spoken, especially in real time, and is shy and retiring. But when he sang you KNEW, in a way that few other singers could capture and convey, that he felt what you felt, was looking for answers with you, and that if we just stuck with him, and with each other, we would find them.

Anyway, onto the record…


ONCE

The album begins with the master/slave dreamscape, deep, warm, and foggy, with a voice moaning behind the murky veil. The music is searching and meditative, until inside the opening buzzing riff of Once cuts through it, heavy, angry, and violent. It is a really powerful contrast

Once serves as a warning—it is a song of self-destruction, a song for the frantically lost. At this point it isn’t clear there is a way back, so the key becomes figuring out how to stop ourselves before we reach this point. Something is terribly wrong with the singer, who is in the midst of a profound existential crisis that finds him utterly cut off from the rest of humanity. We are never quite sure what happened to this guy, and it is not clear that he knows either—the buzzing of the guitars do a great job mirroring the distractions in his head, and in his life. You might find answers in the depths of master/slave, but they will not be found here. Now it is too late—he makes the claim that the past holds no pain, that whatever has happened to him is gone and in the past, but the chorus exposes the lie—full of hurt, anger, and regret. Once upon a time the world made sense, but that time is gone, he doesn’t know how to go back, and the consequences are severe. He can no longer understand himself, love himself, or worst of all, love others. He is disaffected, cut off, and suffering. Most of the characters we meet in Ten are alone, but never really alone in peaceful quiet where one can reflect and begin again. The isolation is rife with anger, fear, and the intimation of violence (somewhat overdone in this song but the sentiment is important)—the anger of a generation ready to inflict harm if it cannot figure out what to do next (harm to itself, harm to others, or both. Once upon a time he had a place. Now he belongs nowhere, and to no one, which segues nicely into Even Flow




OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES: 
Once 
Even Flow 
Alive 
Why Go 
Black 
Jeremy 
Oceans 
Porch 
Garden 
Deep 
Release 

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES: 

Ten 
Vs. 
Vitalogy 
No Code 
Yield 
Binaural 
Riot Act 
Pearl Jam 
Backspacer

Billy Corgan Says Something About Eddie Vedder ...

... we're not sure what it means.


Pearl Jam - 09.12.11 - Toronto, Canada
Corgan also compared the Pumpkins to grunge rock’s biggest ‘90s names, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, and said the Pumpkins “couldn’t survive” alongside those players. “[Smashing Pumpkins album] ‘Siamese Dream’ was made in the (environment) that we couldn’t survive and succeed in a world with Soundgarden or Pearl Jam,” Corgan explained to NZherald. “My voice was too weird; the band was too weird. You guys aren’t going to do it. 
“The first line on ‘Siamese Dream’ is, ‘Freak out and give in, doesn’t matter what you believe in’. I’m saying it right from the beginning, it’s like, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens because you’re living an illusion.’” 
Corgan went on to say that anyone who believes “Eddie Vedder was that person and Kurt Cobain was that person and Trent Reznor was that person, is a lie. They were parts of those people, but they weren’t the people they were projecting them to be. When you get picked out in a line in school and you’re the weird one, I’m the weird one, and I’m still here.”
So, is Eddie too mainstream?  Hasn't suffered enough?  I'm not sure, but hey, Billy ... he's still here too.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

New Soundgarden Album NOT Mixed by Timbaland

Pardon me for lazily lifting this post from the Grunge Report.


Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron is on the cover of the new issue of Rhythm Magazine. If any reader picks up the magazine, be sure to send a recap of the interview to grungereport @yahoo.com.  Cameron said the following regarding Soundgarden’s upcoming new album:
“It’s not going to be a drastic change at all. It’s definitely what people expect to hear from the group. We’re not going electronic, there’s no loops, no computers, none of that kind of stuff. It’s still humans playing instruments; just it’s more mature humans. Let’s put it that way.”