Post-Riot Act Moneygrab

[McParadigm]

Mike is an almost archetypal example of the "wears his influences" type musician. The one thing that prevents this from defining him is that he is also a very reactive musical personality...he plays in response to his surroundings, not in an attempt to control them. So if the band is making Immortality, he will respond to that particular tone and mood. If they are making Do the Evolution, the same.

If, however, the music is fairly personality-free...or if he is writing a piece of his own...he will generally put the imprint of whatever of his influences it most closely resembles directly to it, in very broad and unaltered strokes.

Very interesting take.

Explains his relative disappearance over the last few albums. He was just reacting to the quality of the music. Not a whole lot of tone and mood for a ripping lead guitarist to react to.

I didn't say quality

Spoiler: show

but my brain did

[BurtReynolds]

you're on the list. the 'nice' list.

[hlniv]

I basically agree with all that. Even though I'm a big fan of their current output if they spent even more time working on stuff I have no doubt it would be even better, that tours would be improved by making them longer, and that they in general have less time to invest in the band, or less time they are willing to invest. But, again, this is not exactly the same thing as not caring about the outcome, or even caring less, in the sense that I suspect many in this thread (and in similar conversations) are using it.

I also get how this raises the stakes for each album, and I'm lucky there. The records I was less enamored with were only 2 years apart.

And you aren't imagining that BoB comment.

Who in this thread has said the that they don't care ( or care less ) about the outcome ?

I, for one, certainly believe they care about the outcome, it's just that the specific outcome that they care about has shifted full-on towards a commercial outcome.

I was thinking about how proud Mike is of Sirens. I guess he would have been proud of it at any given point in their career since it seems closer to his taste in music than most of their music is.

You think this guy would have been proud of Sirens?

you mean the guy who based the Alive solo on a kiss song. Yes. Yes I do

How is that relevant? The Alive solo kicks major ass. It's one of the greatest in rock history performed over 90+ seconds of a classic rock anthem, with a full-on heavy hitting electric rythym behind it.

If you had put sirens on a cassette tape, shoved it in Mike's 1990 Sony walkman, and told him this a song he would write in the future, he never would have believed you. I don't care how 80's hair band Mike or Shadow or his Kiss influences are, Sirens is some adult-comtemporary pearl jam musak (as stated above) that would have been embarassing to 1990 Mike.

[hlniv]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

[Strat]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

[LetMeSleep]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

They wrote what they thought the album needed. That isn't inspiration. That's a fucking job. Session 1 has some great tracks. Session 2 has 2 very good tracks.

[EJ]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

I'll try to dig up that quote. I wouldn't say session 1 had anything too experimental in there. Sirens is probably the biggest outlier because its a type of ballad they'd never done before.

Olé
Sleeping By Myself
Pendulum
Sirens
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon

[southp]

I suspect that Stone and Jeff would also prefer a more "divisive and challenging" approach, and the variance between their preferred path and the path that the group is on could explain the relative apathy towards devoting more time and energy towards Pearl Jam. This is the root of my lack of leadership argument, i.e. a good bit of the "team" doesn't buy in to the plan. Again, this is certainly all suspicion. Maybe they really loved the Fixer and believe Sirens is a stellar artistic achievement, I just doubt these types of tunes really inspire either of them

Stone may be a bit apathetic but didn't Jeff write 4 songs on LB? (MFS, Infallible, Pendulum, YM) Which are generally considered around here to be the best on the record. I would add that those four could fit perfectly well on some of the beloved "challenging" albums. This ultimately brings us full circle... there are still plenty of experimental, non-commercial and introspective songs coming from this band. Just as there has always been sappy Ed songs on every record.

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum. What's the problem here? Did you want more Thumbing my Way?? Love Boat Captain?? Thin Air?? Did Stone think those were stellar artistic achievements? (yeah I know he wrote Thin Air)

[LetMeSleep]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

I'll try to dig up that quote. I wouldn't say session 1 had anything too experimental in there. Sirens is probably the biggest outlier because its a type of ballad they'd never done before.

Olé
Sleeping By Myself
Pendulum
Sirens
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon

There is the basis of an interesting album, a potentially really good album. I don't think we got it.

[LetMeSleep]

Ed's material on LB is the weakest (plus Stone's LTRP but I'm not convinced that was intended to be anything. I blame Bo'B for that).

[hlniv]

I suspect that Stone and Jeff would also prefer a more "divisive and challenging" approach, and the variance between their preferred path and the path that the group is on could explain the relative apathy towards devoting more time and energy towards Pearl Jam. This is the root of my lack of leadership argument, i.e. a good bit of the "team" doesn't buy in to the plan. Again, this is certainly all suspicion. Maybe they really loved the Fixer and believe Sirens is a stellar artistic achievement, I just doubt these types of tunes really inspire either of them

Stone may be a bit apathetic but didn't Jeff write 4 songs on LB? (MFS, Infallible, Pendulum, YM) Which are generally considered around here to be the best on the record. I would add that those four could fit perfectly well on some of the beloved "challenging" albums. This ultimately brings us full circle... there are still plenty of experimental, non-commercial and introspective songs coming from this band. Just as there has always been sappy Ed songs on every record.

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum. What's the problem here? Did you want more Thumbing my Way?? Love Boat Captain?? Thin Air?? Did Stone think those were stellar artistic achievements? (yeah I know he wrote Thin Air)

Yellow Moon and Infallible are hardly divisive or challenging. They're good tunes, but I don't think they can be accurately described with those terms.

MFS and Pendulum are 2 of the best 3 tracks on the record, and yes, they certainly are the outliers. I enjoy these more than almost everything since Riot Act, and more than a bunch of Riot Act, precisely for that reason.

In my response concerning apathy, it was a more general statement from 2005 onward. Jeff certainly is a star on this album, and it's probably the main reason why this challenges Riot Act in my personal album rankings. I've never said I don't like Lightning Bolt the album as whole. I even think that LB and SW are two of the better tracks, even though both are fairly straightforward Ed tunes. he gets them right here.

[EJ]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

I'll try to dig up that quote. I wouldn't say session 1 had anything too experimental in there. Sirens is probably the biggest outlier because its a type of ballad they'd never done before.

Olé
Sleeping By Myself
Pendulum
Sirens
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon

I think this may be it, not sure:
March 2012
A couple of new interviews with Stone Gossard and Mike McCready revealed that Pearl Jam have officially entered the studio to begin working on a new record, their tenth. Stone Gossard told Rolling Stone: "We've recorded some songs, and we're going to record and write some more. You never know, it might be that we're a song away or two, or it might be that we're going to record six or seven more songs. I think the main thing is that were not in a rush and there's no urgency to it. The most important thing is that we put something out that continues to expand our boundaries rather than trying to follow what we've done in the past. I think it's a good time to hopefully continue to experiment, and continue to shake it up. So that people can go "Wow, that's kind of weird for Pearl Jam," and then 10 years later they can go, "Oh, that’s my favorite period." Which is always kind of what happens. You try something and at first everybody doesn't necessarily understand it, and then you look back and you go, thank God we tried something new, because it really opened a door up for us to be able to do this and this and this beyond that.

...another recording session and expectations are tempered:

April 30th 2013
Stone Gossard told twistedradio.com that Pearl Jam's new studio album is about to be completed and will likely come out in 2013. "Sounds like Pearl Jam" Gossard told guerrillacandy.com, "You’re going to hear some rock songs and you’re going to hear some quiet songs and you’ll hear some songs in between. That’s all I can really say about it because we aren’t talking about it yet so it doesn’t make much sense for me to say anything.”

[Jorge]

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum

If you were looking for a juicy 16oz ribeye, here's a Big Mac.

[Birds in Hell]

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum

If you were looking for a juicy 16oz ribeye, here's a Big Mac.

Seriously!

[McParadigm]

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum

If you were looking for a juicy 16oz ribeye, here's a Big Mac.

Between this and the corpsefart, I think you've pretty much summed up this record.

[southp]

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum

If you were looking for a juicy 16oz ribeye, here's a Big Mac.

And if I was looking for someone clamouring for a re-write of a certain type of song, here's...

[warehouse]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

I'll try to dig up that quote. I wouldn't say session 1 had anything too experimental in there. Sirens is probably the biggest outlier because its a type of ballad they'd never done before.

Olé
Sleeping By Myself
Pendulum
Sirens
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon

this is the first batch of songs they recorded for the album? everything else is from the second batch? anything besides ole that didnt make it?

[McParadigm]

And if I was looking for someone clamouring for a re-write of a certain type of song, here's...

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum. What's the problem here? Did you want more Thumbing my Way?? Love Boat Captain??

[EJ]

When they were working on LB, didn't Stone say it might be a bit divisive for fans, like No Code was?

Don't think so. I just remember him saying it "sounds like Pearl Jam"

After the first sessions he did say that. Got everyone all excited. Said there were some experimental things. unfortunately, they turned into pussies on session 2 and we got only somewhat interesting end result.

I'll try to dig up that quote. I wouldn't say session 1 had anything too experimental in there. Sirens is probably the biggest outlier because its a type of ballad they'd never done before.

Olé
Sleeping By Myself
Pendulum
Sirens
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon

this is the first batch of songs they recorded for the album? everything else is from the second batch? anything besides ole that didnt make it?

yes, yes, no (well, Of The Earth supposedly was never recorded as part of the LB sessions with BoB.)

[southp]

And if I was looking for someone clamouring for a re-write of a certain type of song, here's...

If you were looking for more NAIS, you got it in YM. If you were looking for more SOH, you got it with Pendulum. What's the problem here? Did you want more Thumbing my Way?? Love Boat Captain??

eh?