General Pearl Jam Praising

[hlniv]

Watching SVT.

What a great minimalist document of a band at the end of a tumultuously productive era that should be placed alongside the Stones in Nelcote, the Beatles after Rishikesh, and Neil in the aftermath of Harvest.

The Binaural sessions seem to be pretty dang tumultuously productive, so I'm not sure I'd say SVT was the end of that.

Binaural was a case of a band with waning popularity wanting a sonic change, not getting quite there on their first attempt, and then retreating in frustration rather than sticking to the fight. That's a different breed of conflict than the one Yield marks the end of.

yield also wasn't a particularly productive session, was it?

It's kind of hard to say, when dealing with a band that has since made a habit of turning "number of rough sketch ideas and riffs we bothered listening to" into "number of songs we have right now," in interviews.

What Yield does have is a greater amount of presentative thought and tinkering put into the songs, compared to the band's usual "we have a verse, a chorus, and an amp setting that I'm using for this album...so we're done. We'll just play them straight and throw a solo in the middle." The range of guitar tones, the number of odd side-steps or "what if we did it this way?" bridge sections, the relative absence (for a Pearl Jam record) of rote verse-chorus-solo-biggerchorus stylings....*

I sometimes wonder if that's why Brain of J made it onto the record...to give it an opener that was a little more straight-ahead rock than anything the newer ideas brought to the table.

Anyway, here's the list of songs credited to those sessions. This album exists in the era before they took to randomly listing song titles in interviews, leaking tracklists that subsequently changed, and all that jazz...but I'd imagine that, like the couple of records that came before it, it's probably not huge on completed-and-unreleased material. It was their fifth album in six and a half years (ahhh, those were the days), so I figure that's got some part to play in it.

All Those Yesterdays
Bayleaf
Brain Of J.
Bulldozer
Color Red, The (a.k.a. Red Dot)
Do The Evolution
Faithfull
Fallen (a.k.a. Falling Down)
Given To Fly
Happy When I'm Crying
Hummus
In Hiding
Leatherman
Leatherman II
Low Light
MFC (a.k.a. Mini Fast Car)
No Way
Of The Girl
Parting Ways
Pilate
Push Me, Pull Me
Thin Air
Whale Song, The (a.k.a. Whales)
Wishlist
U


* I realize that No Code had some of the same, but I always felt like it was for the opposite reason. Where Yield seems like the most they've ever thought about how to construct their songs, No Code feels sort of stream-of-consciousness at times.

I love that they recorded whale song, and I love that they put in on Lost Dogs , and I really love that it is fucking awesome

[Kaius]

Yes it is. Was it recorded for the Music for our Moter Ocean benefit soundtrack or just thrown on there for obvious reasons?

[Tuolumne]

Watching SVT.

What a great minimalist document of a band at the end of a tumultuously productive era that should be placed alongside the Stones in Nelcote, the Beatles after Rishikesh, and Neil in the aftermath of Harvest.

The Binaural sessions seem to be pretty dang tumultuously productive, so I'm not sure I'd say SVT was the end of that.

Binaural was a case of a band with waning popularity wanting a sonic change, not getting quite there on their first attempt, and then retreating in frustration rather than sticking to the fight. That's a different breed of conflict than the one Yield marks the end of.

yield also wasn't a particularly productive session, was it?

It's kind of hard to say, when dealing with a band that has since made a habit of turning "number of rough sketch ideas and riffs we bothered listening to" into "number of songs we have right now," in interviews.

What Yield does have is a greater amount of presentative thought and tinkering put into the songs, compared to the band's usual "we have a verse, a chorus, and an amp setting that I'm using for this album...so we're done. We'll just play them straight and throw a solo in the middle." The range of guitar tones, the number of odd side-steps or "what if we did it this way?" bridge sections, the relative absence (for a Pearl Jam record) of rote verse-chorus-solo-biggerchorus stylings....*

I sometimes wonder if that's why Brain of J made it onto the record...to give it an opener that was a little more straight-ahead rock than anything the newer ideas brought to the table.

Anyway, here's the list of songs credited to those sessions. This album exists in the era before they took to randomly listing song titles in interviews, leaking tracklists that subsequently changed, and all that jazz...but I'd imagine that, like the couple of records that came before it, it's probably not huge on completed-and-unreleased material. It was their fifth album in six and a half years (ahhh, those were the days), so I figure that's got some part to play in it.

All Those Yesterdays
Bayleaf
Brain Of J.
Bulldozer
Color Red, The (a.k.a. Red Dot)
Do The Evolution
Faithfull
Fallen (a.k.a. Falling Down)
Given To Fly
Happy When I'm Crying
Hummus
In Hiding
Leatherman
Leatherman II
Low Light
MFC (a.k.a. Mini Fast Car)
No Way
Of The Girl
Parting Ways
Pilate
Push Me, Pull Me
Thin Air
Whale Song, The (a.k.a. Whales)
Wishlist
U


* I realize that No Code had some of the same, but I always felt like it was for the opposite reason. Where Yield seems like the most they've ever thought about how to construct their songs, No Code feels sort of stream-of-consciousness at times.

Good assessments. I, too, think that stretch of 94-98 is their most productive and fruitful era. What sets me apart from the RM pack, I believe, is that I don't fall into the trap of comparing current with past. ANY band that lasts 20+ years has that problems with their fans, I can't think of one that doesn't. What I do is compare there latter period not to themselves so much as peers. Other "big" bands that have gotten to that 15-20 point - REM, Metallica, RHCP, Radiohead, Stones, Aerosmith, etc, etc not to mention the many many bands that break up and do a REAL cashgrab (ie. The Who, Pixies, etc, etc) have what I believe lesser efforts than PJ at that point.

Yield was a great time where it looks like each band member got input over a pretty focused period of time. The process was good - demo, write, studio session, take a break, and do it all again over a distinct 7-8 month period served the record well. I think they should do that process again. Binaural is an album of massive potential that they just didn't execute well and if they just took a little more time and had better luck production wise could have been a career high water mark. Instead, it's the album I rank the lowest for them. That says alot for how strong I think their catalogue is, cause it's good stuff on that record.

I think they put just as much effort into Backspacer and LOB, but just spread it out over alot of time. I'm a Backspacer fan, so I think it worked out pretty well. And my problems with LB is that as a song sequence it just flow for me, so I think they may have split the production of the album over too long a time, although I think some individual songs last better for me than on the previous record. Avacado they put a lot of time into, it's just that their decisions were about streamlining and skimming the songs down, rather than make them weirder. Different directions, sure, but they're trying on those records.

I love discussions like this on process, rather than lazily relgating shit to "cashgrab", "sell out", and "lack of commitment". The 2 variables that most drive album quality for this band are: 1) process of writing and recording and 2) choice of producer. Not the other BS people talk about here.

[Tuolumne]

Watching SVT.

What a great minimalist document of a band at the end of a tumultuously productive era that should be placed alongside the Stones in Nelcote, the Beatles after Rishikesh, and Neil in the aftermath of Harvest.

The Binaural sessions seem to be pretty dang tumultuously productive, so I'm not sure I'd say SVT was the end of that.

Binaural was a case of a band with waning popularity wanting a sonic change, not getting quite there on their first attempt, and then retreating in frustration rather than sticking to the fight. That's a different breed of conflict than the one Yield marks the end of.

yield also wasn't a particularly productive session, was it?

It's kind of hard to say, when dealing with a band that has since made a habit of turning "number of rough sketch ideas and riffs we bothered listening to" into "number of songs we have right now," in interviews.

What Yield does have is a greater amount of presentative thought and tinkering put into the songs, compared to the band's usual "we have a verse, a chorus, and an amp setting that I'm using for this album...so we're done. We'll just play them straight and throw a solo in the middle." The range of guitar tones, the number of odd side-steps or "what if we did it this way?" bridge sections, the relative absence (for a Pearl Jam record) of rote verse-chorus-solo-biggerchorus stylings....*

I sometimes wonder if that's why Brain of J made it onto the record...to give it an opener that was a little more straight-ahead rock than anything the newer ideas brought to the table.

Anyway, here's the list of songs credited to those sessions. This album exists in the era before they took to randomly listing song titles in interviews, leaking tracklists that subsequently changed, and all that jazz...but I'd imagine that, like the couple of records that came before it, it's probably not huge on completed-and-unreleased material. It was their fifth album in six and a half years (ahhh, those were the days), so I figure that's got some part to play in it.

All Those Yesterdays
Bayleaf
Brain Of J.
Bulldozer
Color Red, The (a.k.a. Red Dot)
Do The Evolution
Faithfull
Fallen (a.k.a. Falling Down)
Given To Fly
Happy When I'm Crying
Hummus
In Hiding
Leatherman
Leatherman II
Low Light
MFC (a.k.a. Mini Fast Car)
No Way
Of The Girl
Parting Ways
Pilate
Push Me, Pull Me
Thin Air
Whale Song, The (a.k.a. Whales)
Wishlist
U


* I realize that No Code had some of the same, but I always felt like it was for the opposite reason. Where Yield seems like the most they've ever thought about how to construct their songs, No Code feels sort of stream-of-consciousness at times.

Good assessments. I, too, think that stretch of 94-98 is their most productive and fruitful era. What sets me apart from the RM pack, I believe, is that I don't fall into the trap of comparing current with past. ANY band that lasts 20+ years has that problem with their fans, I can't think of one that doesn't. What I do is compare their latter period not to themselves so much as peers. Other "big" bands that have gotten to that 15-20 point - REM, Metallica, RHCP, Stones, Aerosmith, etc, etc not to mention the many many bands that break up and do a REAL cashgrab (ie. The Who, Pixies, etc, etc) have what I believe lesser efforts than PJ at that point.

Yield was a great time where it looks like each band member got input over a pretty focused period of time. The process was good - demo, write, studio session, take a break, and do it all again over a distinct 7-8 month period served the record well. I think they should do that process again. Binaural is an album of massive potential that they just didn't execute well and if they just took a little more time and had better luck production wise could have been a career high water mark. Instead, it's the album I rank the lowest for them. That says alot for how strong I think their catalogue is, cause it's good stuff on that record.

I think they put just as much effort into Backspacer and LB, but just spread it out over alot of time. I'm a Backspacer fan, so I think it worked out pretty well. And my problems with LB is that as a song sequence it just doesn't flow for me, so I think they may have split the production of the album over too long a time, although I think some individual songs last better for me than on the previous record. Avacado they put a lot of time into, it's just that their decisions were about streamlining and skimming the songs down, rather than make them weirder. Different directions, sure, but they're trying on those records.

I love discussions like this on process, rather than lazily relgating shit to "cashgrab", "sell out", and "lack of commitment". The 2 variables that most drive album quality for this band are: 1) process of writing and recording and 2) choice of producer. Not the other BS people talk about here.

[Thejambi]

1994-1998
Thanks PJ

[stip]

Watching SVT.

What a great minimalist document of a band at the end of a tumultuously productive era that should be placed alongside the Stones in Nelcote, the Beatles after Rishikesh, and Neil in the aftermath of Harvest.

The Binaural sessions seem to be pretty dang tumultuously productive, so I'm not sure I'd say SVT was the end of that.

Binaural was a case of a band with waning popularity wanting a sonic change, not getting quite there on their first attempt, and then retreating in frustration rather than sticking to the fight. That's a different breed of conflict than the one Yield marks the end of.

yield also wasn't a particularly productive session, was it?

It's kind of hard to say, when dealing with a band that has since made a habit of turning "number of rough sketch ideas and riffs we bothered listening to" into "number of songs we have right now," in interviews.

What Yield does have is a greater amount of presentative thought and tinkering put into the songs, compared to the band's usual "we have a verse, a chorus, and an amp setting that I'm using for this album...so we're done. We'll just play them straight and throw a solo in the middle." The range of guitar tones, the number of odd side-steps or "what if we did it this way?" bridge sections, the relative absence (for a Pearl Jam record) of rote verse-chorus-solo-biggerchorus stylings....*

I sometimes wonder if that's why Brain of J made it onto the record...to give it an opener that was a little more straight-ahead rock than anything the newer ideas brought to the table.

Anyway, here's the list of songs credited to those sessions. This album exists in the era before they took to randomly listing song titles in interviews, leaking tracklists that subsequently changed, and all that jazz...but I'd imagine that, like the couple of records that came before it, it's probably not huge on completed-and-unreleased material. It was their fifth album in six and a half years (ahhh, those were the days), so I figure that's got some part to play in it.

All Those Yesterdays
Bayleaf
Brain Of J.
Bulldozer
Color Red, The (a.k.a. Red Dot)
Do The Evolution
Faithfull
Fallen (a.k.a. Falling Down)
Given To Fly
Happy When I'm Crying
Hummus
In Hiding
Leatherman
Leatherman II
Low Light
MFC (a.k.a. Mini Fast Car)
No Way
Of The Girl
Parting Ways
Pilate
Push Me, Pull Me
Thin Air
Whale Song, The (a.k.a. Whales)
Wishlist
U


* I realize that No Code had some of the same, but I always felt like it was for the opposite reason. Where Yield seems like the most they've ever thought about how to construct their songs, No Code feels sort of stream-of-consciousness at times.

okay, that's certainly more songs than I thought.

Do we know what Bulldozer is?

[Thejambi]

Bulldozer ended up on Jeff's Tone, yeah?

[McParadigm]

holy shit

[BurtReynolds]

[Jorge]

Elements of "Life Wasted" in there, particularly the bridge.

[stip]

some big wave, too

[LetMeSleep]

I was forgetting that even as I was listening to it.

[McParadigm]

It's quirkier than those songs, though. Or it has more row in its boat. I could imagine a 1998-era band take fitting in well on a mix that includes Black Red Yellow, Happy When I'm Crying, and Don't Gimme No Lip.

[EJ]

Wow, I'd never known about that Bulldozer connection. Pretty good song, that would've been a much better PJ song, especially with 1998 Ed vocals and of course, Jack on drums. The only part I'm not a fan of is the "get out of my way" chorus - sounds way too much like Stone Temple Pilots.

[bodysnatcher]

kinda reminds me of Gods' Dice for some reason. Either the tempo, or the drums.. not sure why

[gardenparty]

It's quirkier than those songs, though.

that's just because it hasn't been "fixed" yet

I hear a little Severed Hand as well

[bodysnatcher]

i hear every past pearl jam song ever recorded

[CopperTom]

i hear every past pearl jam song ever recorded

And 1 or 2 from a future album. At least.

[mastaflatch]

i hear every past pearl jam song ever recorded

hear the sirens?

[BurtReynolds]

It sounds like everything except Yield.