About your fandom...

[BurtReynolds]

My favorite band is Mogwai.

[bodysnatcher]

My favorite band is Mogwai.

They're up there for me too.

My alarm in the morning is their theme song for Les Revenants

[WaitingForBluey]

I usually mumble something about Pearl Jam and Radiohead in the same breath. That way whatever cool points I lost for mentioning PJ I usually immediately regain by saying RH.

p.s. I'll also throw in names like Sonic Youth, The Walkmen, Wilco, etc. But I'm almost always convicted to include PJ as one of my top bands. After 24 years, it just wouldn't feel right otherwise.

[LoathedVermin72]

I think I feel about The Melvins the way a lot of people in this thread feel about PJ. It's just ingrained to say that they're my favorite band at this point. It'll probably always be that way.

But, inevitably, Kanye is making a hard push to claim that top spot these days. We'll see.

[BurtReynolds]

I had no problem preaching the gospel of pearl jam for awhile. Unfortunately, my old friends still think I like them, so when they visit or something, they'll play PJ "for me". I just smile politely. It doesn't help that it's always something off of Ten or Betterman.

[LoathedVermin72]

I had no problem preaching the gospel of pearl jam for awhile. Unfortunately, my old friends still think I like them, so when they visit or something, they'll play PJ "for me". I just smile politely. It doesn't help that it's always something off of Ten or Betterman.

all this imagery makes me giggle warmly

[Birds in Hell]

Pearl Jam was never my favorite band, but I liked them very intensely for a while, and I'm still very fond of a certain period of their history. The fact that I come to a message board and discuss their discography in such detail does put them in a somewhat exclusive category among the bands I listen to, along with only two or three other artists, of "large catalogues I am intimately and unnaturally knowledgeable of".

So when someone asks me about my favorite band, I never say Pearl Jam. If someone asks me if I like Pearl Jam, I say "yeah, the middle records".

Something close to this for me, though thankfully I can't remember the last time anybody asked me who my favourite band was. If they did, I definitely wouldn't say Pearl Jam, probably opting for an anodyne "oh, I like all kinds of things" or similar.

Some of my friends know that I like Pearl Jam a lot, so I haven't gone to any lengths to distance myself from the band necessarily, but I'd probably avoid mentioning them unless specifically asked or I otherwise couldn't help it.

[Lament]

Follow-up question: To those who answered that PJ is not your favorite band, who is your favorite band(/artist)?

Manic Street Preachers.

[Brett]

They're not my favorite band. They were for the last few years of high school and the first couple of college, but then the internet broke open a much wider musical world for me. My favorite band now is Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, and they have been for something like eight or nine years now, so I don't imagine it will change. I would still list Pearl Jam among my favorites though, if compelled to make a list of them.

[Rangi Guy]

I think I'd probably still put PJ as my favourite band - they're the band I follow the most closely anyway.
Other then that it would probably be R.E.M. or Shihad

[Norah]

Most people don't even have favorite bands anymore.

[Chris_H_2]

The National

[verb_to_trust]

I was very into them from about 17 to 23 or so. I really wish they weren't so terrible now since a lot of my close friends do associate them with me. It could be worse though, I could have a stickman tat.

[CopperTom]

I haven't been asked that question in years. I would answer PJ though.

[warehouse]

i walked into a coworkers office yesterday and 'yellow ledbetter' was playing. i told the guy it is my favorite song, so i obviously have no problem preaching the good word of pearl jam to anyone. if it ever comes up, i usually say i have 3 favorite bands led by pearl jam. dmb and radiohead are the other 2. its a religious thing, like the father/son/holy ghost.

[96583UP]

i usually say it with a declining intonation like... "weEEELLLLLLL I grew up listening to a lot of PEARL JAM buuttt now I'm more intooooooo [whatever that person looks like they're into so I can try to not be judged] buuuutt yeaahhh you know I pretty much just like ALL goOOD music aheh heh heh.... go yankees."

thing is, a lot of people I roll with, i.e. white male 30-somethings, like pearl jam. so, there's that. we're all victims of our honkiness, and somewhere in the back seat is a tupac cd that makes us feel big.

[digster]

I think in the past few years, there are bands that have become my favorite in the sense that I feel like they're doing amazing work now, and their music also has the emotional, nostalgic feeling that PJ used to, and still often can, evoke in me. They were a nostalgic favorite for years even after I felt like their quality dropped off, but I can honestly say not there's a few bands that are both making better music and hit me just as hard or harder. But they'll always be up there, and if I got into a conversation that went beyond the surface "what's your favorite band" thing I'd probably bring them up.

But when I did call them my favorite band, I absolutely did have to preface sometimes that they were more than Ten or that Just Breathe song on the radio, that there was a whole treasure trove of amazing records in between. And usually if people were willing to listen it worked.

[Simple Torture]

Most people don't even have favorite bands anymore.

When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, we went to a teppanyaki place, and the very racist cook had us go around the table and tell everyone what our favorite band was. That question ranks up there with, "This weather, huh?" as my least favorite conversation filler. It's only worse when people answer with, "You know, I love every kind of music!"

[BurtReynolds]

Most people don't even have favorite bands anymore.

When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, we went to a teppanyaki place, and the very racist cook had us go around the table and tell everyone what our favorite band was. That question ranks up there with, "This weather, huh?" as my least favorite conversation filler. It's only worse when people answer with, "You know, I love every kind of music!"

i feel like you are leaving out a very important part of this story.

[Birds in Hell]

Most people don't even have favorite bands anymore.

When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, we went to a teppanyaki place, and the very racist cook had us go around the table and tell everyone what our favorite band was. That question ranks up there with, "This weather, huh?" as my least favorite conversation filler. It's only worse when people answer with, "You know, I love every kind of music!"

I would much rather talk about the weather.