Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[dimejinky99]

One of the whatsapp groups I'm in tells me that tenclub have said that there is more footage to come from the film, complete interviews and more songs.

No date was mentioned but I think it will be in the run up to the release day or possibly shortly thereafter

[stip]

Part of the bonus pj 20 footage, perhaps?


Mirella or emineni, was there more to the epk that you saw?

[dimejinky99]

I think mirella said that was what they were shown.

[Fuzzcharger]

Did many folks here pre-order this from 10C?

I did!

Me too, vinyl and cd

I bought the CD from 10C

I just got the vinyl - I'm going to be away when this thing is released, so I'll probably just pick up the CD while I'm overseas

So aside from the digital content is it know if there is anything specific to the 10C vinyl?

[ABNorman]

Did many folks here pre-order this from 10C?

I did!

Me too, vinyl and cd

I bought the CD from 10C

I just got the vinyl - I'm going to be away when this thing is released, so I'll probably just pick up the CD while I'm overseas

So aside from the digital content is it know if there is anything specific to the 10C vinyl?

A shoulder massage from Boom.

[Release_Me]

This is part of what I received in my email from TC:

Description


This nine-minute piece features excerpts of Lightning Bolt performances and conversations with guest interviewers filmed in the band's hometown of Seattle.



Guest Interviewers


Judd Apatow (writer, director, filmmaker)

Carrie Brownstein (writer, musician, actress)

Mark Richards (4 x world champion surfer and renowned surfboard-maker)

Steve Gleason (former NFL player living with ALS disease)



Look for more segments from these conversations to come over the coming weeks.

For more information on when and where to tune in, visit pearljam.com.

[Fuzzcharger]

A shoulder massage from Boom.

That sold it for me.

[Mirella]

I think mirella said that was what they were shown.

Yes, thanks. I think it was the same selection.

groetjes,
Mirella

[harmless]

Having said that, we've only heard him perform two or three songs. The worst thing about FD was BoB's piano and Ed's lack of guitar skills, again not the voice. I think Ed's biggest voice challenge on this record will be Sirens.

I think it'll be Lightning Bolt. It goes way up there (specifically in the last verse/outro), and as we all know, Eddie's ability to sing up there without straining is severely limited. I feel like Sirens sits fairly comfortably in Eddie range, and he'll be able to emote at the live show.

There's nothing in that Wrigley performance which shows Ed struggling with LB. He pretty much nails everything except the outro where he goes off his game after getting mad at Mike. Singing high while 'straining' as you say is a stylistic choice. That gritty tone requires a certain amount of straining but LB is not the top of Ed's range. Ed's always done the gritty screams because they sound bad-ass and that goes with the style of most of PJ's rockers. Singing high in a clean voice is more metal, especially in the fifth octave. Ed has no issues going upto A4 (In Hiding, Present Tense, Yellow Ledbetter, etc.) in a clean voice. He has also sung a very clean and impressive Bb4 in a live version of Arc from 2009. So within the upper fourth octave, it's a stylistic choice.

Even if you think Ed's straining on LB live was a stylistic choice (which is odd considering he makes a largely different choice on the studio version, he sounds a far bit cleaner and reaches the notes), most of the lightning bolts were sung out of time at Wrigley, and timing is crucial to make that chorus work. He hardly "nails it". He forgets an entire verse of lyrics and the "she's your rock and roll" etc. sounds bad. That's at least partly because on the studio version Ed's voice is buried slightly underneath the instruments at that point, which sounds better.

[dimejinky99]

If they released a SVT type film I think it would do really well

Only if!

They include complete song performances.

It always boiled my piss that the songs were all clipped in SVT

The film was shorter than the album for chrissakes

[ABNorman]

It always boiled my piss that the songs were all clipped in SVT

The film was shorter than the album for chrissakes

What a delightful turn of phrase. I'm putting that one in the bank.

[dimejinky99]

It always boiled my piss that the songs were all clipped in SVT

The film was shorter than the album for chrissakes

What a delightful turn of phrase. I'm putting that one in the bank.

We specialise in great turns of phrase here in Dublin:)

[WtOB?]

Look for more segments from these conversations to come over the coming weeks.

For more information on when and where to tune in, visit pearljam.com.

there better be more carrie in the next one or i'm gonna go berserk.

[Release_Me]

Having said that, we've only heard him perform two or three songs. The worst thing about FD was BoB's piano and Ed's lack of guitar skills, again not the voice. I think Ed's biggest voice challenge on this record will be Sirens.

I think it'll be Lightning Bolt. It goes way up there (specifically in the last verse/outro), and as we all know, Eddie's ability to sing up there without straining is severely limited. I feel like Sirens sits fairly comfortably in Eddie range, and he'll be able to emote at the live show.

There's nothing in that Wrigley performance which shows Ed struggling with LB. He pretty much nails everything except the outro where he goes off his game after getting mad at Mike. Singing high while 'straining' as you say is a stylistic choice. That gritty tone requires a certain amount of straining but LB is not the top of Ed's range. Ed's always done the gritty screams because they sound bad-ass and that goes with the style of most of PJ's rockers. Singing high in a clean voice is more metal, especially in the fifth octave. Ed has no issues going upto A4 (In Hiding, Present Tense, Yellow Ledbetter, etc.) in a clean voice. He has also sung a very clean and impressive Bb4 in a live version of Arc from 2009. So within the upper fourth octave, it's a stylistic choice.

Even if you think Ed's straining on LB live was a stylistic choice (which is odd considering he makes a largely different choice on the studio version, he sounds a far bit cleaner and reaches the notes), most of the lightning bolts were sung out of time at Wrigley, and timing is crucial to make that chorus work. He hardly "nails it". He forgets an entire verse of lyrics and the "she's your rock and roll" etc. sounds bad. That's at least partly because on the studio version Ed's voice is buried slightly underneath the instruments at that point, which sounds better.

The straining is just the grittiness you hear when he sings the last verse, which is there in the studio as well. I think he reaches the notes fine live. I don't hear him making different choices in studio. I don't think the last verse in particular is cleaner, just that the audio is cleaned up whereas we had an audience recording on which to judge the live performance. The timing in the chorus is a bit off, possibly because he has to play the guitar in addition to singing it live and that is a distraction, but that's not a big issue for me. He doesn't miss notes and the best part of the song, the last verse, he does really well. The lyrics which he repeats the second time around instead of the different ones on studio do nothing to suggest that he'll struggle singing the song. Those verses are sung the same way. Only the outro where he has to scream out those lyrics was better in studio. There also, he was off his game after getting mad at Mike during the live performance. And he kept moving away from the mic while screaming; overcompensating for the loudness of the screams. Obviously, those issues won't appear in studio.

[harmless]

I wasn't necessarily talking about the grittiness of the final verse; I think he pulls that off live as well as on record. That last verse was my favourite part of the Wrigley version, actually, so I was more talking about the bit after that, the outro, which didn't sound good, for a possible combination of reasons: 1) too far away from the mic, which made half of it sound like hacking and coughing rather than words, 2) forgetting certain words, 3) not being confident enough to belt it out for the previous two reasons, and unconfidence doesn't help the part either. One of our recordings was a shitty audience recording, but the videogremmie one was a bit better. Would a professional recording have revealed a better performance? Possibly, I'm not sure.

The timing: it's a bigger issue for me because I think that perfect timing is crucial here; it really strengthens an already weak chorus, putting that drawn-out scream in the right place over the guitar riff. It all needs to be locked in or falls totally flat, in my opinion. I was really happy when the studio version sounded far more rehearsed in that section. There was a deliberate intent which got lost at Wrigley. All my opinion, of course, but I'm as adamant about it as you are about yours so we might never agree on this.

[Fuzzcharger]

Look for more segments from these conversations to come over the coming weeks.

For more information on when and where to tune in, visit pearljam.com.

there better be more carrie in the next one or i'm gonna go berserk.

I felt she was surely underutilised. She also looked quite nervous!

[Release_Me]

I see. I'm agreeing that the outro sounds better in studio. Ed had lost his temper by the time he got to that part live and I'm not sure he was even singing the same lyrics as studio. Moving too far away from the mic is something he does to compensate for the louder screams when he's really belting it out and he often overdoes it, i.e you can barely hear him.

The timing, I could understand why that would tick someone off but maybe because it's the least interesting part of the song for me, I didn't bother too much about it. My basic point was that Ed shouldn't be struggling too much with this song live based on hearing that Wrigley performance. Of course, if he's not on form, he can struggle with easier songs than LB.

[harmless]

I see. I'm agreeing that the outro sounds better in studio. Ed had lost his temper by the time he got to that part live and I'm not sure he was even singing the same lyrics as studio. Moving too far away from the mic is something he does to compensate for the louder screams when he's really belting it out and he often overdoes it, i.e you can barely hear him.

The timing, I could understand why that would tick someone off but maybe because it's the least interesting part of the song for me, I didn't bother too much about it. My basic point was that Ed shouldn't be struggling too much with this song live based on hearing that Wrigley performance. Of course, if he's not on form, he can struggle with easier songs than LB.

Sure. And the performance wasn't *that bad* for the first one ever; clearly some things were wrong and I'm fully confident they'll get those things right, if not next time then certainly very soon. I'm definitely interested to see a good performance of it, as I am for all of these songs really.

[dimejinky99]

You move away from the mic on big notes so as not to distort or blow the feed. Or the mic
Ed used to go through two or three mics a night for not doing this.

[Mirella]

I have 'lost' the link to the Ontario soundcheck on YouTube. Does anybody have it at hand?

groetjes,
Mirella