Celebration Rock with Steven Hyden (PJ Audio History)

[Norah]

[evenslow]

I never realized how much he looks like the cowardly lion until now:

[Tuolumne]

Overall, Mr. Hyden is doing a decent and earnest job at this. He knows he's not a middle years super fan, but he's open-minded to it and he even mentioned Riot Act as a favorite now. Mainly hardcore fans will listen to this podcast, but he provides a window to what most fans are - which is they loved the band through the 90s,dropped off, and then realized sometime in the late 2000s that they were still a going concern. Hardcore fans should be more familiar with this perspective, which ironically is not well-respected enough. I get that cause people like Mr. Hyden ditched the band when they should have been paying attention. But atleast he fesses up to it. They are valid fans, and it's to our credit (hardcore fans who stuck it out through the early 2000s) that we kept the flame alive and now have given people motivation to going back to this era. In the big picture, this era really is sort of a left turn into the wilderness, and the fact that some people followed and can vouch for it's legitimacy makes it worthwhile for others to go back to. I probably would have never checked out Bruce's Nebraska if certain people didn't swear by it. They did, and I decided not to be dismissive of it. All time well spent by the band.

Jessica is a very cool superfan. She doesn't have the pretense and elitism that the other 5 horizons folks did, and she's sincere, knowledgeable, and pretty insightful. I'm glad she's one of the ones who really stuck around from a superfan and writer perspective. Her and Jonathan Cohen.

[digster]

I don't think there's really anyone who wouldn't be aware that a bunch of people dropped off at Ten, Vs. or Vitalogy or whenever. I think that much is clear; they're a band that will be remember for their earliest records, if any records are remembered at all. I just think if you're going to do an hour and a half on a band's entire career, it might help to have some perspective on the albums in that career. From what I heard, Hyden seemed like a guy that really only liked the first few records, which is fine; there's plenty of people like that. But I mean, it didn't really give me that much hope that there would be much of interest from any other part of the band's career in these podcasts. That's the impression I got from what I heard thus far, though I've definitely not heard enough to make a definitive statement one way or the other.

Which is too bad, because I think the seismic popularity of Ten has made it more difficult to view the music and themes at play in their other albums (and I include Vs. and Vitalogy in that).

[tyweed]

I don't think it's that simple. Ed's on record as saying that he listens to music very loud, and that his hearing has taken a hit. It could be a simple case of the band being in the mix room saying "Louder! Turn me up!"

I think both you and evenslow are right: Pre-Backspacer, BOB did what he could to produce PJ but struggled with the limited amount of influence the band afforded him. As a result, I think he focused on getting them in the room, getting a good performance to tape, and making it sound good. It really wasn't about his vision as a producer. So yeah, he gave in to their way of thinking and realized he couldn't have more of an impact.

However, by the time they went to make BS, they wanted to be more produced. Stone has specifically spoken about this in the interview he did with Chad Smith and in the LB promo interviews with Apatow, Brownstein, Gleason, Richards. Ed also referred to him as a "double filter" in those interviews and admitted that they didn't even really know what they had by the end of the LB recording session because he had them do some many different things until he found what he wanted. So, over the last few years, they've given in to his vision or allowed him to put a stronger imprint on the last two records or trusted him more or whatever.

BOB's production style has definitely changed over years to one, unfortunately, fixated on radio play -- hence the loss of dynamic range, the overuse of compression, louder vocals and drums, etc. They could've use any number of big-name producers working today and gotten very similar results, sonically.

I think "Yield" is somewhat of an exception. Prior to recording it, they initially told BOB that they wanted to go in a slightly more accessible direction but were going to produce it themselves and then have him come in to mix at the end. He freaked out and insisted that he absolutely needed to produce this more accessible record because he slogged through the previous three waiting for his chance to actually produce a PJ record. He talks about this in the PJ20 book.

Overall, I think "Yield" is their best in terms of production -- nice use of space, good separation of instruments but still cohesive and live-sounding with some inventive, tasteful production touches that enhance the tracks in all the right ways.

[evenslow]

great post ^^

[tyweed]

great post ^^

Thanks! I'd really like to see PJ work with a different producer at this point. I think BOB is obviously very talented, but he seems more interested in trying to sound up-to-date and commercially relevant than he is in encouraging depth, nuance, or innovation.

[epilogue]

I'd really like to see PJ work with a different producer at this point.

[VinylGuy]

I love Jessica´s take on Binaural. Its such a deep layered album...and i agree with Matt´s performance..its amazing. He nails it so much.

[LetMeSleep]

Episode 7 is up. The Legacy Years.

[EJ]

Episode 7 is up. The Legacy Sweatpants Years.

[Tuolumne]

I just listened. Overall, I think this was a worthwhile broadcast, across the 7 episodes. I wish he interviewed a little better and stayed more focused (and quit fumbling through Dave A's name), but Hyden took this seriously and I was pleasantly surprised he dug into the middle and late years the way he did and gave them credence. Also, he's gives a fresh outlook, he's not some jaded superfan that went to 215 shows and is stroking his chin upset when they bust out a hit at a show. And he's also glad when they take it a little easy and just relax and have fun like they did on Backspacer. I thought his comments that Riot Act reminds him of The National is really interesting, also how he compares Lightning Bolt as a compendium of what they did before similar to how Bowie's Next Day was. Also he was spot on in how the band has learned from the older guys. I don't need to agree with him on everything, I just wanted him to take this seriously, and he did. Pretty insightful thoughts. He's not an entitled fan, and lord knows that is necessary around some parts.

[digster]

So, the last podcast is everything post-Riot Act? That's a lot of time to fit into one podcast. I haven't listened past the Vitalogy podcast and probably should.

[evenslow]

Agree with a lot of what Tuolumne said about this.

This last one was maybe the worst of the series (along with Yield guy who I'm not convinced has ever listened to that album all the way through). The interviewee just didn't have a ton to offer and it seemed like Hyden was kinda done by this point. Which would make him right at home on RM!

Letkemann definitely had the most insight. The first one about Ten really set the scene well too.

But overall it was just cool to hear people outside our bubble talking Pearl Jam.

[VinylGuy]

I agree (once again) with Tuolumne. Even if i didnt agree in a lot of things this was really cool. I havent listened to the last one, but the Binaural RA was amazing, the Vs and Vitalogy were up there next.
Very good.

[stip]

I still haven't had the chance to start this series. It'll keep me going after the march madness buzz ends (but I have what I hope will be a fun tournament idea to follow up)

[VinylGuy]

I still think we should do our RM version of this.

[stip]

that would be fun, but I sure ain't organizing it

[VinylGuy]

that would be fun, but I sure ain't organizing it

Maybe keep it more easy, and let two people organize their own talk, and then other two do the same...

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now