The most embarrassing thing from PJ’s career - RESULTS

[daft twat]

the whole PJ20 time was weird, that was when it became clearest that they were just pretending the middle records didn't exist

Right...as if they were simply wandering through the wilderness for a spell, until the world summoned them back.
Not quite a fugue state, but, definitely an odd disassociation there, to a degree

and the whole "oops, suddenly mainstream all-American rock Gods on the level of Springsteen" thing; it's easy enough to allow them the notion that they'd worked for it, but it *felt* unearned while they were only really promoting the first three records

I would have been SO much more impressed had they gone forward with "no, Binaural, Riot Act and No Code are good actually"

Have they not since come around on those?
Other than Mike saying he was so stoned that he doesn't even recall making Binaural, I mean

I think things have slightly improved in that area, yeah

Irrespective of quality, the first three records are the only ones that have culturally mattered, and maybe No Code and Yield as the tail. That was by their design, but it does mean that they have an oversized role to play in understanding their legacy. There have been occasional hits since then, but Pearl Jam's ongoing legacy is their endurance, live shows, certain moves like what they did with bootlegs, activism, etc. Even the continued existence of music matters, as a testament to a fan base that remains interested in what they did, rather than having intrinsic importance. But Pearl Jam has had a (large) hermetic footprint post vitalogy.

On the other hand, I guess it depends who the audience for PJ 20 was, which was never entirely clear.

It was me. I loved it. What a great weekend!

[15showsandcounting]

Target was pretty bad. But Ed just won this award with what appear to be botox injections. Uncle Neil should kick him in the dick.

[liebzz]

PJ20 had its ups and downs. Agreed about pretending the middle records didn’t happen. They could have used it as an opportunity to push that they had all these albums that were great that they had not previously celebrated. Focusing on the first three albums is fine, but for hardcore fans just the sort of tip of the iceberg. Probably the most influential move in the end was releasing all those concerts at once. The long term impact resulted in the viability of companies like Nugs where artists now can easily make their live shows accessible to fans without that underground bootleg trade.

[Ms Harmless]

PJ20 had its ups and downs. Agreed about pretending the middle records didn’t happen. They could have used it as an opportunity to push that they had all these albums that were great that they had not previously celebrated. Focusing on the first three albums is fine, but for hardcore fans just the sort of tip of the iceberg. Probably the most influential move in the end was releasing all those concerts at once. The long term impact resulted in the viability of companies like Nugs where artists now can easily make their live shows accessible to fans without that underground bootleg trade.

agreed

[Clem Halibut]

So what I gather from this thread is that Pearl Jam sucks now and they're a bunch of sellouts.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Ms Harmless]

that's very literally what a few RMers think; it's a great time on the internet

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

amazingly, reddit attracts and rewards people bitching. I know. I’m shocked too.

[BurtReynolds]

Eh I'm not gonna hold them to beliefs they had 30 years ago. They're just a bunch of silly little guys making silly music.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Ms Harmless]

it's a Samsung

[stip]

amazingly, reddit attracts and rewards people bitching. I know. I’m shocked too.

how is that worse than a place that rewards constant praise?*

*even if they're listening on iPhone speakers

What place rewards constant Pearl Jam praise, outside of this thread?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

amazingly, reddit attracts and rewards people bitching. I know. I’m shocked too.

how is that worse than a place that rewards constant praise?*

*even if they're listening on iPhone speakers

What place rewards constant Pearl Jam praise, outside of this thread?

RM, The Porch, (and I'm assuming) Facebook all seem like they skew largely towards "rah rah rah pearl jam!" and that any criticism immediately gets pegged as being "negative" or some such

In my twenty years of posting here, I think this may be the first time someone has described RM as a 'rah rah pearl jam' forum.


We are in a very brief window where people are excited about new pearl jam material. This forum will snuff the life out of that soon enough. But during that stretch people who are excited are maybe a little more annoyed than usual about rah rah negativity. People generally don't pile on critiques even during a cycle like this. I'm sure there is an exception. I'd hope and trust that people can tell the difference between someone expressing an opinion in a thoughtful way and hate spamming their opinion during one of those so rare windows of optimism and unasterisked joy.

[stip]

and every thought is a new thread on the Porch, so I don't know how people actually talk to each other there at all.

[Ms Harmless]

"unasterisked joy" is a good phrase

I just think some people are immediately poised to write it off and dismiss it when they aren't experiencing it themselves; I don't know why

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Jorge]

amazingly, reddit attracts and rewards people bitching. I know. I’m shocked too.

how is that worse than a place that rewards constant praise?*

*even if they're listening on iPhone speakers

What place rewards constant Pearl Jam praise, outside of this thread?

RM, The Porch, (and I'm assuming) Facebook all seem like they skew largely towards "rah rah rah pearl jam!" and that any criticism immediately gets pegged as being "negative" or some such

In my twenty years of posting here, I think this may be the first time someone has described RM as a 'rah rah pearl jam' forum.


We are in a very brief window where people are excited about new pearl jam material. This forum will snuff the life out of that soon enough. But during that stretch people who are excited are maybe a little more annoyed than usual about rah rah negativity. People generally don't pile on critiques even during a cycle like this. I'm sure there is an exception. I'd hope and trust that people can tell the difference between someone expressing an opinion in a thoughtful way and hate spamming their opinion during one of those so rare windows of optimism and unasterisked joy.

What I can't relate to is this idea that other people disliking something and voicing that dislike somehow stamps down your own enjoyment of it. I like disagreement and it's only ever amplified my enjoyment of a thing because (if I decide to engage and actually defend it) it pushes me to examine and bolster the things I like about it. But we've had this conversation so many times, lol.

[Ms Harmless]

nobody should have to defend anything, but more often than not it's dumb ideas like "explain to me in a 500 word essay why you would still like this song if you'd never heard of this band; and LOL, LMAO, ROFLCOPTER that you're listening on your phone"

often enough, it's not challenging, respectful discourse, it's playground "name 3 songs if you're wearing their T shirt" behaviour