First Experiences

[Bammer]

I’ve already made my version of this post over the years in various threads. You can look it up.

[Tsuga]

Ten - In 1992 I was 13. At my friend's house after school, he showed me videos he taped off of MTV (we didn't have cable at home) of "Even Flow" and "Hunger Strike." I bought Ten on cassette and later Temple of the Dog was my second CD (after EPMD's Business Never Personal). I just listened to Ten over and over on my boombox and my Walkman, and later I even figured out how to record "Wash" from the Japanese Alive CD single onto it after "Master/Slave." Before that though, I had a Stickman t-shirt whose back was made to look like a setlist scrawled on a sheet of paper. In junior high, kids used to try to tell me someone had stuck a note on my back before realizing it was the shirt. I was baffled that the setlist had entries for "State" and "Wash." I had no ideas bands had other songs they didn't put on their albums, and no idea where to find them. But soon enough I found that Alive import at a Sam Goody in Boston and spent waaaay too much money on it. And of course I also got the Singles soundtrack.

Vs. - My freshman year of high school at a different school. My dad surprised me with a copy of Vs. the day it came out. I think he stopped at Strawberries on his way home, and told me that his co-worker had gone to the midnight release and also got the Go single with "Alone" on it. I was super jealous but eventually I found that too. My CD copy of Vs. was the pressing with no album name on the spine. Years later I would buy the cassette at a flea market that had "Five Against One" on the tape. I listened to Vs. over and over on the stereo in our basement. Before the album came out I'd heard "Crazy Mary" on the radio and thought it was a new original.

Vitalogy - Sophomore year. Boston radio played nearly every song before the album's release and I taped as many as I could. Maybe by this point I'd also found a bootleg CD or two at Rock It Records in Nashua NH. Somehow I found "Hard to Imagine" which was like the Holy Grail. I bought the "Spin the Black Circle" CD single and was mystified by the album name "Life" on it. I absolutely adored "Tremor Christ." I really wanted to buy the CD in November but it was too close to Christmas so I wasn't allowed, but I think I got both the vinyl and CD for Christmas. In the winter/spring of 1995 on a school trip to Boston I begged a girl I had a severe crush on to lend me the money for the "Not For You" single at Newbury Comics.

No Code - Summer before my senior year of high school. This one came out when I was visiting colleges with my parents, specifically Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. There was a Coconuts record store within walking distance of the motel. I had a discman by this point and remember listening to to No Code on the motel bed, studying the card inserts. This is my favorite PJ album. I also adored "I Got Id," which I thought would be on the record before it came out, and I remember pre-release posters that listed "All Night" on the tracklist. Around this time I shelled out for a bootleg CD that had live versions of "Brain of J" and other songs on it, including the acoustic, reworked "Jeremy."

Yield - Freshman year of college. The "Given to Fly" single came out before Christmas, and I remember hearing it while on break from school, doing Christmas shopping at a mall in central Massachusetts. I also remember checking out the setlists for their opening sets for the Rolling Stones online, and taping their radio show, really loving the live version of "Pilate." I bought Yield on CD in Providence, Rhode Island, where I was doing an internship at Trinity Repertory Theater and staying with a host family. In September of that same year my dad took me to see my first Pearl Jam concert at what I still call Great Woods in Massachusetts, the second night, when they played "Last Kiss." I also think this is the show sometimes referred to as the "Quarters" show. We had lawn seating and were right up as close as we could get, and I remember a wall of dudes surrounded us so the moshers wouldn't slam into my dad.

Binaural - Junior year of college. My fandom was pretty much an anachronism at my tiny college, and I'd followed my high school love of bands like Wilco, the Jayhawks, and 16 Horsepower, into love for Songs: Ohia, Low, and Elliott Smith. But my friend who'd been my freshman year roommate and I were both excited. Our college town had lost its independent record store, so if memory serves we had to buy this at Wal Mart. I remember before it came out seeing "Grievance" on late night TV.

Riot Act - After college I lived in Chicago and worked at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I think I bought Riot Act the day it came out at a giant store in the loop, and had to go to work on Armitage St. right after, but I had time to spare so I went to a practice room that wasn't being used, laid down on the floor with the lights off, and listened without headphones. In 2003 one of my coworker friends and I went to the Chicago show. I remember him being rightly irritated with me after the show for complaining about the setlist.

Pearl Jam - I met my to-be wife in Chicago, and we moved to Massachusetts in 2005. When the Avocado album came out we were living in a tiny apartment in Deerfield, the second floor of a home, though with our own access. It had just a couple rooms and vaulted ceilings, but it was bigger than the studio we shared in Chicago. Pretty sure I ordered this from the Ten Club. We would end up going to the Hartford show and seeing the live debut of "I'm Open." Around this time, inspired by Matthew Perpetua's blog documenting every R.E.M. song at that point, I started a similar blog for Pearl Jam, which I think I "finished" in 2007. I was also writing CD reviews for PopMatters.

Backspacer - We were married at this point, and living in a bigger apartment in Turners Falls. I don't really have distinct memories for this album's release, though I like it just fine. I didn't end up keeping the blog going very well for the new songs.

Lightning Bolt - Now living in Vermont, with a months-old baby and a new job. I ordered the vinyl and the CD from the Ten Club. Again, being older I didn't form the memories around the release in the same way I did in high school and to a lesser extent in college, but I was still invested on record release day.

[Brett]

Around this time, inspired by Matthew Perpetua's blog documenting every R.E.M. song at that point, I started a similar blog for Pearl Jam, which I think I "finished" in 2007. I was also writing CD reviews for PopMatters.

Whoa, you're the guy who did More Than Ten? Corduroy13, wasn't it? I thought some of those stories sounded familiar. I loved your blog. It inspired me to do something similar with Explosions in the Sky that I also never kept up on when new material came out.

I've still got More Than Ten on my RSS feed, and I saw you recently did a post for "Cold Confession." It's nice to see you around these parts.

[Tsuga]

Around this time, inspired by Matthew Perpetua's blog documenting every R.E.M. song at that point, I started a similar blog for Pearl Jam, which I think I "finished" in 2007. I was also writing CD reviews for PopMatters.

Whoa, you're the guy who did More Than Ten? Corduroy13, wasn't it? I thought some of those stories sounded familiar. I loved your blog. It inspired me to do something similar with Explosions in the Sky that I also never kept up on when new material came out.

I've still got More Than Ten on my RSS feed, and I saw you recently did a post for "Cold Confession." It's nice to see you around these parts.

Thanks, Brett! Yes, that's me. Long time lurker on this forum. Now I want to check out Explosions in the Sky!

[LoathedVermin72]

Ten was the first music I ever remember hearing. My mom LOVED it. She also got Vs. but didn’t like that one as much.

I discovered the rest of their music in my early teens and they became my favorite band.

Avocado was the first album they released after I was already a fan. My passion for them had waned, I thought the album sucked, I stopped caring about them. Never even listened to Backspacer until I came back to RM.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Ten was the first music I ever remember hearing. My mom LOVED it. She also got Vs. but didn’t like that one as much.

I discovered the rest of their music in my early teens and they became my favorite band.

Avocado was the first album they released after I was already a fan. My passion for them had waned, I thought the album sucked, I stopped caring about them. Never even listened to Backspacer until I came back to RM.

See, I'll read a post this length. Most posts in this thread are too long.

[LoathedVermin72]

Ten was the first music I ever remember hearing. My mom LOVED it. She also got Vs. but didn’t like that one as much.

I discovered the rest of their music in my early teens and they became my favorite band.

Avocado was the first album they released after I was already a fan. My passion for them had waned, I thought the album sucked, I stopped caring about them. Never even listened to Backspacer until I came back to RM.

See, I'll read a post this length. Most posts in this thread are too long.

Yeah I haven’t read them either

[Jorge]

My first Pearl Jam album was one of the 2000 bootlegs from the European tour. Riot Act was the first studio album I bought, but it had already been out for a few years. Then I bought Yield, Lost Dogs and Rearviewmirror on the same week. Avocado was the first one I experienced as a fan, and I looooved it at the time.

[Vitalogy79]

I’m close in age to PhatJ, I just turned 41. So a lot of your experiences with each album and the corresponding life events are similar to mine. My most treasured PJ-related memory though is connected to Vs, so I figured I’d share that here...

It was 1993 and the new PJ album was coming out. I was 14 and got Vs that Christmas on CD. It was my first album to have on CD, and I had no CD player! When I got it, we were at my grandparents house in Kentucky. My folks are divorced and I lived with my mom and stepdad then. So when we came up to Kentucky I got to see my Dad. He picked me up from my grandparents house that Christmas Day afternoon and we drove to his house. I was holding the Vs CD case in my hands and he asked what it was. I told him about Pearl Jam and that they were my favorite, and that this was their newest album. He said “Well let’s pop it in, then!”

So we put it in and Go played. I was a bit nervous he’d think it was too “loud” or whatever and so I didn’t ask to turn the volume up. After Go finished, Animal started and he cranked it up LOUD. And he let it play LOUD for the entirety of the song. To this day, I don’t know if he turned it up loud because he was trying to understand what Ed was singing, or what. But I like to think he was just sharing a RAWK OUT moment with his son.

I still remember vividly and fondly that moment whenever I hear Animal.

[liebzz]

I’m close in age to PhatJ, I just turned 41. So a lot of your experiences with each album and the corresponding life events are similar to mine. My most treasured PJ-related memory though is connected to Vs, so I figured I’d share that here...

It was 1993 and the new PJ album was coming out. I was 14 and got Vs that Christmas on CD. It was my first album to have on CD, and I had no CD player! When I got it, we were at my grandparents house in Kentucky. My folks are divorced and I lived with my mom and stepdad then. So when we came up to Kentucky I got to see my Dad. He picked me up from my grandparents house that Christmas Day afternoon and we drove to his house. I was holding the Vs CD case in my hands and he asked what it was. I told him about Pearl Jam and that they were my favorite, and that this was their newest album. He said “Well let’s pop it in, then!”

So we put it in and Go played. I was a bit nervous he’d think it was too “loud” or whatever and so I didn’t ask to turn the volume up. After Go finished, Animal started and he cranked it up LOUD. And he let it play LOUD for the entirety of the song. To this day, I don’t know if he turned it up loud because he was trying to understand what Ed was singing, or what. But I like to think he was just sharing a RAWK OUT moment with his son.

I still remember vividly and fondly that moment whenever I hear Animal.

I hope I get to have a moment like that with my son someday.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Hatfield]

This is awesome to read, especially at this peak time of excitement because of the promise of Gigaton. Thanks for starting this PHATJ.

Ten - When Ten came out I was deep into my Pentecostal leanings and strictly listened to Christian rock: Petra, Stryper, and Carmen. Mainly I listened to oldies. I was 12.

Vs. - My brother is 10 years older, a lot cooler and a pretty heavy pot smoker. We drove to the record store to buy a cd for his girlfriend. There was a big display and he picked up Vs. for her...the cardboard trifold version. Classic Scottie, he thought it best that we open it up and give it a spin before he gave it to her. I remember being really intrigued by the package and the deep orange cd. We got through Glorified G and then arrived. I didn't know what I had just heard, but I felt like something completely different and new had just happened to me.

Vitalogy - I still hadn't jumped on board. My brother ended up in jail for a couple of years and I had no rock friends. Columbia House had come into my world so I got 12 "free" cd's, but none too great. I remember rocking out to Elton John's greatest hits and playing the local rock radio station. My shunning of secular music faded (fortunately) and I was ready for something. My friend came over to the house with two new cd's he'd bought: Vitalogy and the Jeremy single. I poured over the both cases, but really didn't connect with Vitalogy. My ears weren't ready. What I did connect with was the b-side Yellow Ledbetter. It hit me in such a deep way. I didn't know what he was singing, but it felt like the perfect voice, perfect guitar, perfect song.

Merkinball - This is where it all clicked. I'm 15, a Junior in high school and guys on my football team were seemingly "hip". They were talking shit about Pearl Jam and how they refuse to play in the US. "F^&K them!" I had no idea what they were talking about, but the bits and pieces I was picking up about them wanting to save their fans money and not support a monopoly seemed pretty cool to me. Then I heard I Got Id on the radio. To this day, I think it's up there with the best rock songs of all time, by anyone. No one else could have made that song. So much intent. So much passion. The tone, the depth, the lyrics, the voice. I KNEW this was my band. I immediately went back and bought Ten-Vitalogy and started to digest them. Ironically, I wouldn't buy Merkinball (and hear Long Road) until the next summer (1996).

No Code - I was working at Ace Hardware my Senior year of high school. I was so ready for the first single off of Pearl Jam's new record. I got the owner to put our in house music to the rock radio station which had announced when they would debut it. I had everyone prepped. Then Who You Are came on.
WTF? I tried to act cool, but people went on with their business within 30 seconds. I played it off, but to say underwhelmed and shocked was an understatement. Flash forward, freshman in college. I immediately found a guy that was as into Pearl Jam as I was. We ended up seeing 20 shows together over the next 8 years. We drove to Athens, GA and bought No Code the day it came out. My main thought was, "find the rockers". I liked it right away, but this was my first experience of having to work and wait for the songs to really come around. Ed's voice was so different and the rockers didn't feel like the Pearl Jam I had grown to expect. Now No Code is my favorite and I play it as much or more than any other record. It felt like Pearl Jam was stretching their fan base and exposing them to enjoying more. To enjoy No Code you had to expand. Around this time I got into Neil, Ben Harper, The Who, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, REM, etc. Pearl Jam opened me up and I'm forever grateful.

Yield - During the period between No Code and Yield I saw my first concert (10/5/96) and bought a couple bootlegs (No Fuckin' Messiah I and II). I couldn't get enough and was shocked at how great everything they put out was (Won't Back Down, Let Me Sleep, Brain of JFK live from 1995, etc.) We were ringing bells over Christmas Break, working 12 hour days, riding together in a van to the site and then back to the cheap motel. My friend James knew how much PJ meant and made everyone on the packed 15 person van be quiet while the rock radio station debuted Given to Fly. I'd never been more proud. They did it! The build up to Yield was perfect! There was a Yield billboard in Athens, GA. Pearl Jam did interviews. We drove to North Carolina just to hear and tape the Monkeywrench Radio show. This was the build up a fan needed. A few nights before the release The Georgia Theater (just down the street from the Uptown Lounge: the t-shirt Eddie is wearing in the No Code package) had a listening party. The place was packed and we all left completely satisfied. We went to Wuxtry Records in Athens for the midnight sale. I ended up with a Yield sign, the vinyl and cd. Yield fit every mood, every situation. Friends who hadn't connected as much with No Code were now all in and we dissected and enjoyed the hell out of that record. Yield had everything, all the way down to singles with non albums b-sides and the hidden yield signs.

Binaural - Peak PJ fandom. I had lots of bootlegs now (geeking out over hearing Save it For Later from 11/1/96), four shows under my belt and ready for a new album. My buddy and I got a wild idea when Dave Letterman said he was going to have Pearl Jam on for his birthday. We went onto MFC (Five Horizons) and found some tips for getting into the Letterman show. We drove through the night, fueled on some Ritalin we borrowed from an acquaintance (stopped in Philly to run up the Rocky steps) and arrived in NYC at 6:00AM day of the taping. We answered the Letterman trivia question, got into the show and ended up on the front row! Grievance BLEW US AWAY! Another midnight release. This album didn't hit the same way No Code and Yield had. I've still never been able to completely love it, but I love those songs live and saw 5 shows in 2000, with Pittsburgh being the obvious highlight.

Riot Act - I'd graduated, was living in Atlanta and getting into Widespread Panic. That's a band and fan base that know how to enjoy a show! (save it Strat) I had binged on Ed's acoustic/ukulele shows. I was alone for this midnight release. I enjoyed the feel of this record much more than Binaural, but I still wished I could feel that unabashed love I had felt for the first 5 records. This tour was better than 2000 (maybe I had learned how to enjoy shows more) and the Riot Act songs sounded great live. They got better over the 04 and 05 tours too.

Avocado - I had just gotten married, had plenty of money and was ready for fun. If you're with the right person, those years before kids can be a ball. S/T felt more like what I was hoping for from Binaural and Riot Act (although like for most of you it hasn't aged well). I loved Severed Hand, Life Wasted, MITS and lots more. I was a little off put by the artwork and fadeouts, but I still dug this record and after the great Canada shows was ready to see the 2006 tour. I got to see shows on the Eastern leg and 6 on the Western leg. What an amazing tour. A lot of that album is tied up in seeing those songs live.

Backspacer - I was in a hotel with my wife and twin girls. The album leaked on RM and I went down late at night to the computer in the hotel lobby to hear the mp3 version:) Backspacer felt good at first, but I rarely go back to it. I was sad to see Ed's performance of Got Some on Conan. I didn't see the band from 2008-2014.

LB - I was new to Colorado, LOVING the outdoor life here. LB felt just right when it came out. Swallowed Whole hit me in the right spot. I enjoyed it for what it was, but felt that this was probably the end.

Gigaton has me all kinds of excited. I really appreciate getting to share in the excitement with all of you. I need some GREAT music right now and I think we are in store for it.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Strat]

lol hatfield. no comment!!

Great read!

[PHATJ]

Nice post, Hatfield, that was a fun read.

[jam80]

Ten
I was only 11 when this came out, and pretty oblivious to music in general. A friend and I were paired up for a school project where we had to play a song for the class and then discuss what it meant. My friend asked if I had heard Jeremy... I hadn’t. My older brother begrudgingly gave us his cassette tape of Ten and we played the song for the class. I remember the teacher was a younger guy, and didn’t seem to mind the phrase “harmless little fuck” was on display in his class. When we did our speech on what the song meant we handled the subject matter pretty maturely and I think he appreciated that. After that, I was hooked on the album. Its so long ago I can’t remember what my first listens would have been like, but I do remember the album making me feel grown up.

Vs.
Again, credit to my big brother who brought vs home on release day. I poured over the booklet, which was much more interesting and easier to read than Ten’s terrible insert. Actual lyrics that I could read! I remember thinking how different it was than Ten...a lot angrier. I listened to this very loudly, mostly through headphones so my parents wouldn’t hear all the swearing. It probably fucked up my hearing forever. It was so much more diverse than Ten. Ten really is great...but does suffer from sounding like one long song from beginning to end. Every track on vs is pretty unique and overall the album was much more interesting to me. I'll never get sick of Go, Animal, or Rearviewmirror.

Vitalogy
This was a big one for me. I was 14 and deep into music at this point, and Pearl Jam was still at the top of the list. I remember going to buy the vinyl release a week early and the cashier was a total dick about it. “You know this is a record right? Why would you buy this?” I went back and bought a second one to keep sealed which I still have! I didn’t like this as much as Vs at first…I had heard a lot of the tracks live already in the lead up this ones release and thought they were better live (Satan’s Bed from the 94 Atlanta show comes to mind, Whipping as well). I didn’t get the filler tracks either...bugs, pry to… its was all so weird. I didn’t put this one down though. This was probably the first time in my young life that I realized an album could grow on you.

No Code
Now this one was tough. I was 16 and full of teenage angst and I wanted music that spoke to that. This album was not that. I bought the Who You Are single and was as perplexed as everyone else. I was too young to get it. Hail Hail, Lukin and Habit were pretty much all I liked since they were loud. I was pretty let down overall until…

Yield
A little older now, 18, and not so angry. I had been struggling for a few years with the death of a friend (see notes on anger above) and Given to fly hit me hard. It was a song I needed at that time. Powerful and aggressive, but uplifting...which is most of Yield to me. This album pulled me out of a dark place and is still one of my top 10 albums from any band. I went back and started rediscovering No Code as well and found it started to speak to me too. I started to get it. I saw vitalogy, no code and yield as their own trilogy in a way and they are my top 3 PJ albums to this day.
This was also around the time when mp3’s became a thing...and I discovered so many rarities I had only ever caught the tail end of on the radio, or had never heard at all. I remember a website having pretty much everything PJ had ever recorded up until that time all available for the taking. There’s a studio version of sonic reducer?!?!? Hard to imagine...whats that? ….holy shit. My fandom came back full force. I joined the fanclub that year and saw them live for the first time.

Binaural
By now Pearl Jam was my favourite band in the world and they could do no wrong. This was a huge time of transition in my life. I had just moved away from home and started college so I was hoping for another Yield or No Code type album to come along and be a soundtrack to that. What we got was something so completely different than what came before and ultimately I loved it for that. This album is like a soundtrack to a thunderstorm. The whole thing creates an unbelievable atmosphere and mood. I think it works well with Yield in a lot of ways too. Some of the sequencing of the tracks between both albums are like a mirror image, yield the light and binaural the dark. I love all the outtakes too but never felt they were needed on the album. The official tracklist is solid. Once again I could relate to almost everything. I remember first listen stand outs being god's dice, light years, and insignificance which I find doesn't get the love it deserves.

Riot Act
I bought Riot Act at a midnight release… and was the only person there. By now I accepted that pearl jam just wasn’t a big deal to most people anymore, but I didn’t mind. I felt like I could just enjoy this album free of a lot of reviews and people whining that they just wanted the old sound again. I enjoyed everything on this album almost immediately, and the b-sides too. Eddie sounds like a defeated man on this one though. You Are seemed like the weirdest thing ever at the time and I loved it, although now its the track I skip the most. Can’t Keep into Save You is the last great opening of a PJ album for me. This was the first time I remember thinking two songs on the same record sound too similar to each other (cropduster and ghost). It’s an album I still go back to a lot, however the last few times I found it to be a bit dull.

Pearl Jam
This album for me was the first sign of cracks in the armor. Its the first time the artwork seemed completely meaningless. An avocado? Severed heads in a pile? I didn’t get it then and I don’t care to get it now. Its the first PJ album where the bad outweighed the good for me. Way too many tracks that I just wanted to skip. I remember thinking after my first play through "hmm so that's it huh." I knew I was disappointed. The band sounds energized, and Eddie is singing with a fury again compared to Riot Act… but it all feels a bit forced. The production on this album is dreadful and gives me a headache. I probably stopped listening to this one after only two months. I go back for severed hand, marker in the sand, and unemployable and that's about it.

Backspacer
I remember the wait for this album was excruciating. I didn’t care for Avocado and had high hopes that PJ was going to come back strong with Backspacer. I flat out hate this album. Almost immediately I found it to be cheesy, boring, and forgettable. After a few listens, there was just nothing left to discover. Unthought known, which seems to be this albums centerpiece, is the most embarrassing moment for me. Its bad stoner philosophy and I don’t like it. Got Some on Conan was so good, but on the album it sounds like a first take and they said “ok that's good enough”. The production on this album also seems to be all over the place. Some songs are harder on the ears than others. I think its mostly hated around here but I don't completely hate Speed of Sound.

Lightning Bolt
By now I was keeping my fandom a bit more realistic. The band that could do no wrong was long gone. Avocado had a few good moments, backspacer didn’t have any...so who knows what Lightning Bolt will be like I thought. My first listen was positive and I liked a lot of it. I remember thinking getaway/mind your manners/my fathers son was the strongest opening in forever, although today I would only go back to My Fathers Son. They can’t seem to get getaway or my fathers son right live at all. Pendulum is ok but doesn’t fit the tracklist. As I’m typing this I’m really struggling to find anything to say about this album now 7 years later, good or bad. Overall I liked it... I guess? I think I forced myself to like it more than I really did.

[PHATJ]

Welcome to the board, jam80, nice post Your experience is very similar to mine. Same age too.