Pearl Jam and Living Long Enough to Become the Villain

[Jammer XCI]

https://vsmusick.wordpress.com/2021/08/ ... e-villain/

Bringing my music blog back from the dead for the 30th anniversary of Ten. Features a shout out to the PRAMG in it.

[dad]

https://vsmusick.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/pearl-jam-and-living-long-enough-to-become-the-villain/

Bringing my music blog back from the dead for the 30th anniversary of Ten. Features a shout out to the PRAMG in it.

[Bammer]

In My Retiree

[Bammer]

I Got Quit

[Bammer]

Done

[Bammer]

Can’t Goodbye Me

[dad]

https://vsmusick.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/pearl-jam-and-living-long-enough-to-become-the-villain/

Bringing my music blog back from the dead for the 30th anniversary of Ten. Features a shout out to the PRAMG in it.

preach...all day.

While I do not enjoy No Code so much, with 1998’s Yield, the group released one of their greatest albums. This is not a position shared with much of the public, but Yield was a brief respite from what was a naturally trending downward consistency. In my opinion, Yield is one of Pearl Jam’s best albums, this was an underrated career highlight that goes ignored by a lot of people who like them only for their heyday. Songs like “Brain of J”, “In Hiding”, “Faithful” and “Do the Evolution” are some of Pearl Jam’s best, and the weird moments here are much more palatable than No Code’s or even Vitalogy’s “fuck off to the casuals” moments. The bad news from here on out is that there would never again be a Pearl Jam as consistent as Yield.

[tree_]

In 2014, they shocked everyone by performing the entirety of No Code and Yield at two random dates in Illinois and Wisconsin with no prior announcements. This was repeated again in 2016 with Ten in Philadelphia, Vs. in Greenville, South Carolina and Binaural in Toronto. Sorry Toronto, I don’t know what you did to piss them off that much.

[Leatherhead]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

[dad]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

do it.

[Bammer]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

You should get some readership stats from other RMers with blogs so you understand what kind of an audience you’ll be writing for. I bet the audience will be YUGE and you find that it’s totally worth your time

Spoiler: show

Binaural fucking rules by the way

[Strat]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

Just search strats posts. He gets it.

[Jammer XCI]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

You should get some readership stats from other RMers with blogs so you understand what kind of an audience you’ll be writing for. I bet the audience will be YUGE and you find that it’s totally worth your time

Spoiler: show

Binaural fucking rules by the way

I went from 2 visitors all last week to a little over 300 today. Not that I promote it much anyway, I’ve been keeping it dead ever since I got a new job and left working for concert venues until now. This was the first post there since January 2020.

I didn’t completely talk shit on Binaural though, I said it had good songs, which is more than I can say about horrible shit like Backspacer.

[nomorecrackpipes]

Let it all out - good read.

The true ending of artistic or risky PJ was the Someday at Christmas/Betterman with that choir single in 2004. The announcement to fans that they're going to be lazy and risk-averse was the 12/31/92 bootleg they edited and passed of as official that was included with avocado.

Glimpses here and there since then, and maybe a corner turned with Gigaton, but time will tell.

[Bammer]

Let it all out - good read.

The true ending of artistic or risky PJ was the Someday at Christmas/Betterman with that choir single in 2004. The announcement to fans that they're going to be lazy and risk-averse was the 12/31/92 bootleg they edited and passed of as official that was included with avocado.

Glimpses here and there since then, and maybe a corner turned with Gigaton, but time will tell.

Man do I still love listening to PJ and going to their concerts, though.

[RockPusher]

I need to start a Pearl Jam blog so that there's some shit out on the internet recognizing Binaural for the masterpiece that it is.

Please do

[RockPusher]

A few thoughts.

First, this is an opinion piece, so I'm not going to argue with an opinion.

Second, I wonder how you can hold up All of None as a classic but toss Come Back aside so easily. They are both waltzes that have crunchy guitar solos, and they (to me at least) carry very similar moods.

Third, while I am not necessarily in the PRAMG crowd, I do think that there was a reduction in quality in some noticeable ways. Two of the best songs were left off Avocado (Cold Confession and Let It Ride) and honestly, some of the best songs were also left off Binaural. Considering where things went with Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, I think a lot of the problem may have been rooted in Brendan O'Brien. It feels like he may have been steering production values toward a less potent mixture.

At any rate, I feel like the diehards are pretty united in proclaiming Gigaton a change of pace, regardless of record sales. Josh Evans helped the band find a more relevant sound again in my opinion, and I pray they stick with him.

[LetMeSleep]

[Jammer XCI]

There isn't really enough to write much as far as an addendum for Dark Matter goes yet. The song is okay I guess, better than Dances with Clairvoyants at least but not even close to any classic Pearl Jam I still go back and listen to. Would anybody actually read another update to this after the album comes out?

In the meantime, you can always read my ramblings regarding other bands, most recently an article lamenting the Slayer "reunion";

https://vsmusick.wordpress.com/2024/02/ ... ck-slayer/