Avocado Turns 19

Pearl Jam in Atlanta

Credit: Karen Loria

Stip on SOLAT Podcast: "Avocado" Superlatives

 TSIS's own Stip joins the guys of State of Love and Trust postcast this week talking about all the things that make Pearl Jam's eponymous album great!  You can head to their website or watch the podcast on YouTube.

Jason and Paul celebrate 19 years of Pearl Jam's self-titled record by returning to their Superlatives series. Joining them are author and show regular Brian "Stip" Stipelman, and graphic artist, and former in-house Pearl Jam art director, Brad Klausen. Best Song Live, Most Introspective, and many more...

Soundgarden Announced as a 2025 Inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its inductees for 2025.  On November 8th, Soundgarden will join the Rock Hall along with six other performers, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, and The White Stripes.

This marks Matt Cameron's second induction, having been previously inducted with Pearl Jam in 2017.

Eddie Vedder and the Earthlings Coming to Ohana Fest, September 26, 2025

 The Ten Club announced the dates for Ohana Fest in Dana Point, California later this year.  The festival starts with Eddie Vedder and the Earthlings headlining on September 28th and will also feature headliners, Kings of Leon, Hozier, Leon Bridges, Green Day, and Cage the Elephant throughout the weekend.

You can get ticket here or if you're in the Ten Club, you already got an e-mail with pre-sale details.

Pearl Jam in Atlanta

Credit: Karen Loria

Pearl Jam March Madness - The Finals!

... and then there were two!  After 2 months of March Madness, our Pearl Jam Tournament is down to Animal and Hail Hail.  Which song is going to take the cake?  Only the fans can say.  Get to our forum and vote while you still can!

Gigaton and Dark Matter : Looking Back and Looking Forward

Gigaton and Dark Matter – Then and Now

I have been thinking a lot about Gigaton and Dark Matter recently. Both of these albums landed with a visceral immediacy that made them feel like masterpieces, and I hailed them as such. They elicited emotional reactions from me that, even by Pearl Jam standards, were unexpected and profound. Each was absolutely the right record for its moment, full of songs I didn’t know I was waiting for and had no idea I needed. But recency bias is a real thing, and their true impact is best measured by time - their ability to evolve and stay relevant, evoke something eternal, or perfectly trap a moment you can relive forever. 

On March 27th Gigaton turned five, and April 19th marked one year since the release of Dark Matter. And these small but significant anniversaries offer the perfect opportunity to assess their staying power and see if they have earned their place in my pantheon of great Pearl Jam albums (My personal rankings have Dark Matter at 4 and Gigaton at 5. I love these records). 

For me, the closest point of comparison are Riot Act and Pearl Jam, the last pairing of records that, with deliberate intent and specificity, spoke directly to their time and place. Together, they offered a musical reckoning with that era of American life, equal parts diagnosis and catharsis. Riot Act tried and failed to make sense of the dislocating strangeness of a post 9-11 America, where President Bush took the unifying potential found in that moment of desolation and turned it against itself. He transformed our profound solidarity into a bitter space contested by us and them, demanding we define ourselves not by what we believe, but by who we oppose. You were either with us, or you are with the terrorists. No time for doubt, no space for nuance – yielding certainty without answers. And those who dared to question were cast out of the tribe. Left to wander the wilderness, alone.

Four years later, the world looked very different. Though still in office, Bush’s legacy had been written, its failure carved into history through ruined nations abroad and the drowned streets of New Orleans at home. And dissent flooded back into the space left by Bush’s retreat, as Pearl Jam’s songs named the blood cost the world paid for an administration’s feckless lying and incompetence borne of arrogance. The songs felt liberating, the release of a long held primal scream, but as an album its true power was unlocked through its juxtaposition with Riot Act. Each record was a companion piece to the other – the exile into the desert, and the return to civilization. The silencing and regaining of voice. And both endure, in their way. The best parts of Riot Act are divorced from the specificity of that moment and still call out to anyone who got lost trying to find their way home. Pearl Jam, on the other hand, began to feel dated, its rage very much of a moment whose time had passed. At least until recently. You would be hard pressed to find a better description of our current body politic than “Comatose”, and songs like “World Wide Suicide” and “Army Reserve” feel freshly relevant when you focus less on the narrative particulars and more on the fact that we still pay the cost of other people’s sins.

Like the Bush era records, both Gigaton and Dark Matter are responses to our time, with the end nowhere in sight. Gigaton was about the responsibilities we have to leave a better world for the generations that will follow. It was an optimistic album that stared into the future and found, within its dark, immeasurable distance, that light still endures. The album title and art asked us to think about this in environmental terms, but released as it was in March of 2020, it was impossible to listen to Gigaton as anything other than an eerily prophetic anticipation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world had literally shut down. We faced a disease that would kill over a million people in the United States alone. Little understood, with no cure. As I wrote in my review at the time, I was terrified. The world was on fire, and no one was coming to save us. We had to become the adults in the room. We had to fix it. We had to save ourselves.

And Gigaton’s message of hope was what I held onto during those early months. It was, at its core, a record that become more optimistic the more darkness you poured into it. When Eddie sang ‘all the answers will be found in the mistakes that we had made’ or promised that ‘hope dies last’ I clung to those words like I was drowning. For months those lyrics never left my head. And every one of those songs helped me process my lived experience in real time. The way “Quick Escape” ends like a rocket exploding after liftoff, trapping us here and clarifying the work “Seven O’Clock” challenges us to take on. “Retrograde” reminds us that nothing lasts forever, and within that impermanence is hope, if we reach for it. And “River Cross” promises that, together, we will find a way forward.

And we did. We survived. But we didn’t do it together. Like President Bush before him, Trump, and the forces he enables and embodies, took that moment of unity and tore it apart. The brief experience of solidarity, the recognition that we are stronger when we lean into each other, even when our bodies had to remain apart, shattered. We reached levels of absurdity that made the post 9-11 environment seem sane, where simply being asked to wear a mask in public was seen as a monstrous violation of liberty to people whose identity could only exist in opposition. Recognizing our communities sustain us, and are therefore worth protecting, became not just political, but partisan. We left that era united by an awful common experience, the incredible triumph of having survived it, and more divided than ever. Some of us built boats, while others set them on fire, and collectively, we failed. We failed to recognize our only way forward is together. We failed to cross that river.

Credit: Geoff Whitman

The Gigaton tour, when it finally happened, didn’t look like Riot Act. There were no Trump masks. Eddie’s concert speeches focused on building community and reclaiming solidarity through music. These shows were not about creating a political moment. They were about finding a way into the future, marking the boundaries of the road we must follow.

As befitting a record written collaboratively, Dark Matter sought to bridge that distance between us. It looked upon the wreckage of our world and realized we are long past the point of it mattering ‘who’s wrong and who’ right’. The central struggle of our time is about how to rebuild. Every song on that record is about the existential importance of human connections. Every moment an exploration of the power of and need for love, and the terrible price we pay in its absence. Dark Matter is breathless and relentless, and for all its searching, it contains a moral clarity rarely found in their music. Not because Pearl Jam has ever struggled to tell right from wrong, but because there was almost always an intellectual modesty, an uncertainty, a fear of committing too strongly lest someone get trapped in someone else’s conclusion.

Twelve albums and a lifetime into their career, it had become clear that love is the only source for the meaningful solidarity a better world requires. Dark Matter is a record in which almost every song grapples with the fear of ending while there is still work to be done, and yet it remains arguably Pearl Jam’s most optimistic record – if for no other reason than it finally offered the bands core thesis with more force and immediacy than ever before in songs like “Waiting For Stevie”, “Got to Give”, and “Setting Sun”. Dark Matter recognized the failures of Gigaton without invalidating its promise or refuting its humanism.

Despite the trauma of 2020-2024, these were hopeful records, offering light in the face of an expansive and growing darkness. But that was before 2025. These anniversaries occur in a very different world. An even darker world, one facing an even greater threat than COVID-19. That disease attacked the body, but it could be isolated, controlled, cured. The rot at the heart of American society speaks to the cancer in our souls. It lays bare the thin fragility of the ties that bind us together and reveals how easily those threads can burn.

The threat of COVID -19 was external. Today, we are at war with ourselves, and before we can set anything to right, we have to find a way to make peace without surrendering. Five years after Gigaton I am more afraid than ever. Perhaps it’s a new fear. But I suspect this is what I’ve feared all along – validation and proof that our worst instincts are not an aberration. That the ugliness in our souls defines us. That this, in fact, who we are.

What happens to all of us, if all we care about is destroying our enemies, rather than finding ways to live with them? If all we care about is winning, despite the cost we pay ourselves and force onto others? How do we escape the dark solipsism of our time? Gigaton speaks to the power of dreams, but what if we can only dream of nightmares?

Credit: Geoff Whitman

In the Spring of 2024 Dark Matter played like a series of guideposts, reminders of the foundational truths capable of leading us to the home we spent a lifetime searching for. It felt more than aspirational. It finally felt achievable, as if Pearl Jam had at last found a way to make these ideas self-evident. You couldn’t listen to “Waiting for Stevie” without understanding that we can rise above the fears that diminish us. You couldn’t listen to “Got to Give” without feeling that it is our imperfections that bind us to each other and in the process make us strong. You couldn’t open your heart to Setting Sun and not walk out of the experience feeling cleansed. At peace. And not finished.

But the spring of 2024 is now, absurdly, a halcyon memory. Our country is not just on fire. It is burning down. There is real evil in the world, and it is ascendant, and it must be stopped. This is not hyperbolic. It is what clarity looks like. And “Dark Matter”, a song, that once felt like an outlier, now rings with the force of diagnostic prophecy. Its music sounds like a society collapsing in on itself, like endless waves of destruction drawing closer and closer until they finally wash over us – a dark inversion of Eddie’s favorite metaphor. The tired and beleaguered injustice we experience when ‘everybody else pays for someone else’s mistakes’ is the perfect encapsulation of what it means to live in this moment and fear it will last forever. Mike’s air raid guitar solo does not urge us to seek shelter. It rails against the grim reality that there is no safety to be found. Anywhere. One year out, Pearl Jam may have never written a song that so perfectly captures the immediate moment, helping me emotionally process an experience so totalizing I cannot find a single fixed point from which to describe it. In March 2024 “Dark Matter” was the warning we must heed. In April 2025 it is a challenge we must answer.

We are lost. I am less confident than ever we will be found. But our only way forward is together. That we have strayed so far from each other doesn’t make this any less true. And I will keep searching for that path home, because in the end we can either lay down and surrender, or we can find a way to walk it together. These are the choices before us, and Pearl Jam’s music has conditioned me not to give up. Five years from Gigaton the river is wider, deeper, more dangerous. But our only safety is on the other side. And the grace that Gigaton insists on extending to its enemies matters more than ever. Someday this will end, and we will have to find a way to live with each other. We will have to find a way to forgive each other, for not being our best selves. For failing the great test of our time. For being human.

The call to find the strength within ourselves so that we might love the worst of us is more urgent than ever. I wake up every day fighting off a burning desperation and crushing sense of powerlessness. A fierce hatred that terrifies and diminishes me. An instinct to surrender that is at moments overpowering. But these records have been out long enough to become a part of me, as every Pearl Jam album eventually does. Every day I am listening to these songs, even if I haven’t put them on. And every day they remind me that I am not alone. That this fight is not just mine. And it is not over. We may not cross the river. But we can hold each other up and not drown in our attempt. And maybe our children will someday make it across and succeed where we have failed. It falls to all of us to give them the chance we wasted. We may not live long enough to see the sun rise. But it does not have to set on our watch. It cannot. We owe it to the future, and we owe it to ourselves.

When I first heard Gigaton it felt like a gift. And I experienced Dark Matter as a revelation. But today, I experience them as necessities and obligations. There must be a way forward. We have to find it. And they are the soundtrack of my search.

Pearl Jam in Hollywood (Florida)

Credit: Vicki D Photography

Pearl Jam Final Four

 

Our Pearl Jam March Madness tournament has entered the Final Four.  Three of the contenders, Hail Hail, Tremor Christ, and Immortality are former champions, and we have one dark horse, Animal.

We are so close to finding out the best song of the year.  Pearl Jam didn't play any of these four last night in Hollywood, Florida, but by the time we have a champion, we can be front row with our signs.  Or, you can just vote for your favorite here and define the year!

IMMORTALITY vs. HAIL HAIL

TREMOR CHRIST vs. ANIMAL

Pearl Jam in Hollywood (Florida)

 

Credit: Jenn Ross

Pearl Jam March Madness Enters the Sweet Sixteen

 Our March Madness Tournament has finally entered the Sweet Sixteen.  Match-ups went up last night. Unbelievably, we're down to six albums.  Yield has been completely eliminated, but Lost Dogs managed to bring two songs to the tournament (3 depending on how you count Breath).

 You can vote here to determine the best Pearl Jam song of the year!  Here are the match-ups!

Breath vs. Jeremy

Go vs. Immortality

Hail Hail vs. Can't Keep

In My Tree vs. Last Exit

Animal vs. In The Moonlight

Strangest Tribe vs. Daughter

Present Tense vs. Rearviewmirror

Off He Goes vs. Tremor Christ

2025 Tour Merchandise

 

Pearl Jam's merchandise contractor, TSURT, has posted the merchandise options for Pearl Jam's 2025 U.S. Tour.  You can get a preview of the items here and start planning!

Binaural Spacial Audio BluRay

In celebration of next month's 25th Anniversary of Binaural, Pearl Jam is releasing a BluRay audio version that includes spacial audio and hi-res mixes done by Josh Evans.  Dark Matter and Vitalogy have had similar treatments.

You can pre-order the album now with release expected to be on June 6, 2025.

Experience Pearl Jam's Binaural like never before. In honor of the 25th anniversary of the album, dive into its world with the spatial audio blu-ray. Feel every note and lyric of tracks like “Light Years” and “Nothing As It Seems” wrap around you in a way that's beyond amazing. Whether you're reliving the memories or discovering it anew, it's time to let the music take over.

Single Blu-ray disc contains Spatial and Hi-Res Stereo Mixes

Mixed by Josh Evans

PRESALE. 1 Per Order.  No Quantity Limit.  6/6/2025 Release Date

Dark Matter Turns One

 

"We're All Alone In This Together" A Presentation by Stip

 

Our own Stip, author of "I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song-By-Song" is giving a presentation on the music and meaning of Pearl Jam in support of the Community College Humanities Association on May 1st, 3:30-5pm EST.  You can register with the QR code here.

Pearl Jam helped define 'grunge' and 90s rock music, and their music offers reflection on how to nuture the solidarity that makes us human in a world that consistently undercuts it. This presentation explores the evolution of lyrical themes and politics around authenticity, intergenerational solidarity, democracy, environmentalism, and gender across a thirty year career that, at its core, centers the human need for connection.

Pearl Jam March Madness Reaches the Top 64

 

If you were waiting for a more manageable list of songs, the time is now.  We've broken down Pearl Jam's catalog down to our 64 favorite songs.  We need your help to get the list down to one!  Vote here, and let your voice be heard!

Here are the songs still in play!

Porch, Force of Nature, Breath, Black, Life Wasted, All Those Yesterdays, Hard to Imagine, Jeremy, Down, Go, Red Mosquito, Cold Confession, Immortality, Sad, Nothing As It Seems, Setting Sun, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Hail Hail, Can't Keep, Satan's Bed, Brain of J, In My Tree, River of Deceit (Mad Season), Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog), Last Exit, WMA, Do The Evolution, Of The Girl, Release, Low Light, Waiting For Stevie, Animal, All Night, Help Help, In The Moonlight, Who Ever Said, Daughter, Amongst the Waves, Corduroy, Insignificance, Alive, In Hiding, Say Hello 2 Heaven (Temple of the Dog), Strangest Tribe, Tremor Christ, Alone, Given to Fly, All or None, Off He Goes, Man of the Hour, Even Flow, Habit, Rival, Wreckage, Dance of the Clairvoyants,  Grievance, Parachutes, Rearviewmirror, Present Tense, Push Me/Pull Me

Pearl Jam March Madness Plows On

 

The NCAA may be down to the Championship, but Pearl Jam has 128 songs to go!  We've got a long road to hoe before we've determined the best Pearl Jam song of the year.  

New matches are posting daily, but we will probably be done by May.  That can only happen with your help!  Head to the Red Mosquito Message Board to cast your votes!

Happy Birthday, Mike McCready!

 

Credit: Geoff Whitman

Gigaton Turns Five

Eddie Vedder Releases Needle & The Damage Done

 We previously mentioned the upcoming Neil Young tribute album, Heart of Gold, featuring Eddie Vedder as well as Brandi Carlile, Fiona Apple, and the Lumineers, among others.  This past Friday, Eddie released his cover of Needle & The Damage Done via digital streaming formats.  It's a heartfelt, timeless, and a brisk 1:47 that you should head out listen to right now.

Then hit our link above and purchase the album.

Pearl Jam March Madness 2025 Has Begun!

It's the time of year again!  While the NCAA goes to battle to determine which college team is the absolute best, we generate an AI image of the band and basketballs and lay down the format for determining the best Pearl Jam song in existence.

We've agreed a few times.  Black, Go, Immortality, and Do The Evolution have all have multiple championships, but anything could happen this year.  Dark Matter has really shook up the contenders.  

But we won't know the winner unless you help us!  If you've got an opinion (and frankly, if you don't, you're not our kinda people) come on over to our forum and vote for your favorites.  The winner will be announced .... well sometime, there's a lot more than 64 songs that we have to work through.

New Beginning

This past Friday, Matt Cameron and his collaborator, Shaina Shepherd, released a new EP, titled New Beginning, across digital formats.  The album is produced by long time Soundgarden collaborator, Nathan Yaccino.  Do you love Matt Cameron's other solo projects?  His contributions to Pearl Jam?  Than this is straight up your alley.  Check it out now or look for the upcoming vinyl release.

TRACKLISTING

1. The Moment I Found You

2. Move

3. Next Time

4. Self Denial

5. New Beginning

Happy Birthday, Jeff Ament!

 

Credit: Geoff Whitman

Stip Returns to State of Love and Trust Podcast: Yield Superlatives

TSIS's own, Stip, appeared on this week's episode of State of Love and Trust along with Kathy Davis, founder of the some of the best Pearl Jam fan material ever created, discussing all the best Yield has to offer.  You can check out the episode below or on all of your favorite podcast services.

Jason and Paul welcome Footsteps fanzine and TwoFeetThick.com co-founder Kathy Davis as well as I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song-by-song author Stip back to the show to discuss Pearl Jam's Yield...from a superlative point of view. It's the second edition of this series with Vs. getting its shake a few months prior.

 

Eddie Vedder on SNL's 50th Anniversary Celebration

 

We were treated to two appearances by Eddie Vedder this weekend during SNL's 50th Anniversary Special.  His first was during a medley of songs by Andy Sandberg's Lonely Island comedy trio where he covered Michael Bolton's role on the song Jack Sparrow.

And later, he covered Tom Petty's "The Waiting" and paid homage to Elvis Costello's perforance from 1977 in which Costello bailed on "Less Than Zero" to play his anti-corporate "Radio Radio." Ed switched out "Radio Radio" for "Corduroy," but still earned a thanks from Costello via Twitter.

Thanks for the tip of the brim, Eddie. Always happy to do some unpaid script work for my old pals at SNL. Great show all around. @eddievedder, #mslaurenhill wow!!#bonnieraitt#postmalonenivarna#devo#cher, #jackwhite Congrats from @ElvisCostello https://t.co/9IzQj5M8AG

— Elvis Costello (@ElvisCostello) February 15, 2025

hhhh

Mad Season 30th Anniversary

 

1,000 copies on Black & White Galaxy Vinyl

Apologies that this news is no longer useful to you, but your unpaid news reporter was on a charter bus when the Ten Club Newsletter came out.

UPDATE: TheYeTee.com and other stores have up to 3,000 copies on "Graphite Eco-Mix" vinyl reserved for indie stores.

Pearl Jam announced a 30th Anniversary release of Mad Season's Above.  The 3,000 copies of the reissue available via Ten Club and Brooklyn Vegan have already, unfortunately, sold out.  If you have found yourself going this long without this amazing album, Brooklyn Vegan does have it on CD and black vinyl, but those versions appear to lack the recent remaster given to the anniversary editions.

Here is what some lucky fans are looking forward to.

For the first time in 30 years, this special edition LP will be pressed on variants other than black vinyl and is set to be released March 2025.

In addition, the packaging has been restored to the ’95 artwork with original cover, inside gatefold, back photo, and center labels. We’ve included a new 20-page 12x12 booklet embossed with the same illustration as album cover with new liner notes from McCready and Martin, additional photos, and song lyrics.

Audio has been recently mastered for vinyl and Lacquers were cut by Levi Seitz. In addition to the original 10 tracks this includes three with Mark Lanegan vocals and a cover of John Lennon’s I Don’t Want To Be a Soldier with Layne singing.

All copies are limited and editioned with foil stamped numbering.

250 copies on half-and-half black-and-white vinyl

750 copies on black-and-white swirled vinyl

1,000 copies on opaque white vinyl

Ed Covers Needle and The Damage Done

 

Stereogum is reporting that a collection of Neil Young covers, Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Volume 1, benefitting the Bridge School is being released on April 25th.  

Among the artists sharing their renditions of Young favorites, Eddie Vedder covered Needle and The Damage Done.

The tracklisting is below, and if you can't wait to own it, pre-order your copy on "daisy" white vinyl here.

01 Brandi Carlile – “Philadelphia”
02 Fiona Apple – “Heart of Gold”
03 Mumford & Sons – “Harvest”
04 Eddie Vedder – “Needle and The Damage Done”
05 Courtney Barnett – “Lotta Love”
06 Stephen Marley – “Old Man”
07 Sharon Van Etten – “Here We Are In The Years”
08 Lumineers – “Sugar Mountain”
09 The Doobie Brothers with Allison Russell – “Comes A Time”
10 Steve Earle – “Long May You Run”
11 Rodney Crowell – “Mr. Soul”
12 Anders Osborne – “Cowgirl in the Sand”
13 Charlie Greene – “Such A Woman”
14 Chris Pierce – “Southern Man”

Record Store Day 2025 Will Feature Vedder and Gremmie

 The list of releases for Record Store Day on April 12, 2025 was released this morning, and it contains at least two items of interest to Pearl Jam fans.  

First of all, Eddie Vedder's covers of Save It For Later (The Beat) and Room at the Top (Petty) released digitally last year will be available on a 12" "Ocean Floor" color vinyl single.  4,000 copies will be available.

Your next goodie will be a more rare, 2,000 copies of Best of Music For Our Mother Ocean, a compilation album featuring music from all three volumes of the Surfrider Foundation benefit album including Pearl Jam's cover of Jimmy Haskell's Gremmie Out of Control. The album will be "manufactured at eco-friendly record plant Good Neighbor. All non-toxic, fully recyclable material, and all packaging is made from certified recycled paper/boards, raw plant and water-based dispersion varnish. In place of shrink-wrap, the sleeves are 100% recycled and re-usable."  A full tracklisting is available here.

Brandon Discusses "I Am No Guide" on WCHL in Chapel Hill

 Brandon took a few minutes to sit down with Aaron Keck at 97.9 The Hill WCHL to discuss our book, I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song-By-Song.  He discusses discovering the band and following them through a lifetime as their music changes to reach all generations of fans.

Check out the interview here.

This week, Aaron welcomes Chapel Hill’s Brandon Rector, who’s just co-authored a book that takes a deep dive into Pearl Jam. “I Am No Guide – Pearl Jam: Song By Song” discusses and analyzes every song in Pearl Jam’s legendary oeuvre, from their iconic debut “Ten” to their latest album, 2024’s “Dark Matter.”

Along the way, the book explores the band’s politics, running threads, humanistic themes, and personal journeys – and spotlights some of their best live performances as well, many of which Rector has been present for. 

Yield Turns 27

 

Happy Birthday, Boom Gaspar!

 

Deaf Charlie Announced for Z.E.S.T. Fest

 Zootown Arts Community Center in Missoula, Montana has announced that Deaf Charlie will be performing at their annual ZEST Fest on March 29th.  If you can't wait until April for your Pearl Jam fix, this might get you there.  Tickets can be purchased at the ZACC website.

Eddie Vedder To Play SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

Pearl Jam announced this week that Eddie Vedder would be performing as part of Saturday Night Live's anniversary concert, SNL50: The Homecoming Concert.  You'll be able to watch the concert live on Peacock on February 14th or in select theaters.

Live from Radio City Music Hall, it’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert. In celebration of the late-night institution’s 50 year legacy, this one-night-only event will bring together Saturday Night Live hall-of-famers, guests, and musical performances. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and executive produced by Lorne Michaels and Mark Ronson, this celebration will be available to stream LIVE on Peacock on Feb. 14, 2025 at 8pm ET/5pm PT with Fan Screening Events in Select IMAX® Theaters at Regal Cinemas.

Eddie Vedder, as well as Arcade Fire, Backstreet Boys, Bad Bunny, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Chris Martin, David Byrne, DEVO, Jack White, Jelly Roll, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Mumford & Sons, Post Malone, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The B-52s, The Roots and more will be amongst the evening’s performers.

See the Saturday Night hub for more information.

Singing Earth

 

Credit: Barrett Martin's Singing Earth

Mad Season drummer, Barrett Martin, has begun an online series of shows highlighting featuring under represented music styles from around the world.  His first episode, "Woven Songs of the Amazon" features the Shipibo Shamans of Peru singing over music played by famous musicians around the world, including Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron. 

You can watch the full episode on the VEVO Network.

 

From Martin's Facebook post:

And we are live with our first episode of the Singing Earth music series on the VEVO network. 

You can watch it on your Internet TV on the VEVO network or on Youtube at SingingEarthVEVO. Ep.1 "Woven Songs Of The Amazon" was filmed in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, where I and director Tad Fettig @fettigtad along with musical translator Dr. Lisette Garcia @lisettegarcia333 visited the singing Shipibo Shamans. 

On location I did field recordings of the shaman's healing songs called "Icaros." The shamans then asked me to bring in some of my musical friends to add their music to the Icaros and the results are truly exceptional. 

Joining us from studios around the world are Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron @themattcameron Joshua Tree legend David Catching @itookthisphoto New York percussionist Elizabeth Pupo-Walker @elizabethpupowalker and Cuban singer-songwriter Hector Tellz Jr. @hectortellezjr 

A companion album will be released in a few weeks that has 20 of these Icaro collaborations, and 100% of the proceeds goes directly to the shamans and their families. 

We hope you enjoy it, and please help us spread the word!

Pearl Jam Coming to New Orleans, May 3rd

 Pearl Jam has just announced that they will be headlining the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this May 3rd, bringing their 2025 tour up to 11 shows.  There is no Ten Club sale for this show, so head to the festival website to get tickets.

Shawn Smith & Dave Abbruzzese Collaboration: "Like the Child of the Water I Am"

If you follow the Shawn Smith Facebook page maintained by his estate, you've been treated to songs released every Friday since May.  Fifty-two total unreleased songs from Smith's archives are promised with artwork by Regan Hagar

This week was #36, and it is a song written and produced by Vs. and Vitalogy drummer, Dave Abbruzzese, Like the Child of the Water I Am.  No information is available about when it was recorded, but the song is very "Shawn Smith" and much more sedated that one might expect from Abbruzzese.  You can listen at BandCamp and buy the track for $2.