Favorite Band

[Oh, Jimmy]

Pink Floyd.

I don't listen to them a whole lot these days, but every time I do I am reminded of why I still call them my favorite band.

I'm this way for both Zeppelin and Floyd a tad bit more than PJ.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

Every band that gets close to PJ for me ends up disappointing me at some point. But current close to PJ is my morning jacket

Actually, it's a bit the other way round for me. Contrary to Pearl Jam, Sigur Ros & Arcade Fire have yet to disappoint me. But in the overall scheme of things, they're still nowhere near PJ's status and what they meant over the last 15 years for me.

yeah, i dont think anything or anyone can ever take the place of PJ because they mean way more to me then just what their music sounds like, but in high school when PJ was starting to mellow their sound a bit, i found myself falling in love with the back catalog of Metallica because i still wanted some angsty music, but even though i like Load pretty well, Reload and st anger just turned me way off of them, as well as their seemingly endless string of law suits for anyhting that could make them a bit more money. then more recently i was very into Kings of Leon, but partially because of their music choices on the last album or 2, and really starting to think Caleb is a Douche has droped them way down for me. MMJ is a band i really respect, and have loved everything they have done musically over the years, so they are my current #2, but will never pass PJ

[RussellManiac12]

Pearl Jam was my favorite band from 1993 - 2009. My lack of enthusiasm for Backspacer and their lack of live shows in Northern CA over the last few years has something to do with it.

Since discovering Mastodon when Crack the Skye came out, I started to gravitate towards listening to a lot of heavier stuff although I've always listened to hard rock/metal.

Between the Buried and Me is my favorite band now.

[Kevin Davis]

Pearl Jam will always bear that arbitrary distinction of "my favorite band," though in practice they've been and will continue to be temporarily eclipsed by dozens of other artists. But I don't foresee making that same "favorite band" type connection with some other artist now that I'm (almost) in my thirties--those kinds of feelings seem increasingly and appropriately tied to the naive perceptions of limitlessness that accompany childhood and the hypercharged emotionality that accompanies adolescence.

I kinda agree with the sentiment here. But it all depends on your place in life and emotional state. For me, seeing the birth of my three children certainly came with some "hypercharged emotionality." As did some of the running accomplishments that happened in my thirties. These events all took place at a time when PJ had lost its stranglehold on me.

Understood. But as an adult that kind of super-emotion makes sense to me as triggered by highly emotional life events (wedding, birth of kids, etc.), not so much as it pertains to art, which I enjoy and appreciate and even sometimes get emotionally attached to but rarely anymore am struck by the sentiment that it contains, or itself is, the meaning of life. I feel like that's gone forever. I feel like, without it, forging that kind of 'favorite band' bond that I have with some of the bands from my youth would be next to impossible. Fortunately, as I get older, I realize how unimportant those kinds of distinctions are.

[Bob Loblaw]

I think I've outgrown unabashed fandom. PJ were the last and only band for which I felt that.

[Will]

I'm still telling people Pearl Jam, but I'm now always quickly following it up with "or Radiohead."

[psychobain]

last years...The National

[beat]

Porcupine Tree

[The Argonaut]

You threw a dinner party. My wife and I attended and it was pretty nice. The food was good and the company was better. Thanks!

[tattooedeverything]

R.E.M. became my favorite band in about 1996 or so and they still are.

[zeb]

Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age are my bands.

[Simple Torture]

It's probably still Pearl Jam, but (as others have intoned) it's not so much because of what they've done lately, but because there's such a wealth of stuff I can go back to with all the bootlegs and such, they just feel like old reliable.

If Jason Molina would stay clean I could probably call Magnolia Electric Co. my favorite band, but I find it weird to say that about a group that's on hiatus (and because the status of the group is/was pretty fickle, anyways).

[EJ]

pearl jam was an obsession for me from 92 to 98. it felt like a relationship. i also think that from 92 to 94 they were the most important band in the world, as far as bands and importance go. i saw them live once in 95 and twice in 98. nothing they've done since yield has had a lasting impact on me, though i genuinely like binaural, avocado, backspacer, and almost half of riot act. still, i've seen them live 25 times since 2000. i've come to terms with the possibility that they might never make another album that really matters or means much to me, and they have very little chance of doing anything that is relevant to the 18-34 demographic. i also tend to listen to them very rarely outside of the weeks leading up to a show. but they will always be my favorite band. the feeling i get when the lights go down just before they come on stage is something i cannot replicate with another band. i'll be just fine if i never see pearl jam play again, but the main reason i check this website every day is for the hope that i will.

This generally explains how I feel about them. Although, I still go in waves of listening to them heavily.

I'd probably put Arcade Fire up there as a current band that I have a lot of hope for. But, realistically, no other band will take away PJ's place as "my favorite band."

[lefty]

PJ is still my favorite band, but not my top band of the moment, so to speak. That would be the Drive-By Truckers right now, and are probably a very close second overall.

[bada]

Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age are my bands.

It has always been between PJ and SG for the top spot for me. I prefer to say 1A and 1B! If the question was who have you listened to the most over the last 10 years it would be QOTSA. Followed by DOWN.

[j's brain]

Radiohead and Pearl Jam but I am much more interested in hearing new music from Radiohead. Led Zeppelin will always be in the conversation as well. I'd also put Smashing Pumpkins up there. The National is climbing my list too.

[epilogue]

Pearl Jam.

But Tom Waits is gaining major ground. I've spent decades with Pearl Jam and only 2 years with Waits.

I listen to Waits more frequently right now. And I imagine he'll overtake the top spot sooner or later.

[McParadigm]

Tom overtook Pearl Jam for me back around the time of Binaural...not because of that record, just because I'd had enough time by then to collect his catalog and some bootlegs, and make the change. Really, my first listen to Mule Variations might have done it the year before, but we'd just had the combination of Vitalogy-No Code-Yield, so there was the feeling that Pearl Jam were in a good spot to break through to something just as cool.

Not that that's what this thread is about, but Neil Young overtook them not too long after with Greendale....again, some of that was just finally getting enough of his stuff to make the change, but Bandit helped a lot with that. And so many other acts have done great work (some sporatic, others not) that I'm not really sure where Pearl Jam are for me now. It's mostly a familial kind of connection, I guess. And I don't have a lot of those, so I hang on.

[Chloe]

Most days, Pearl Jam. I love to hate them though. As many have mentioned, it's more than just the music that keeps them at #1.
Other days, Fiona Apple or Animal Collective fall into that #1 spot.

[Norah]

The Mynabirds.