Red Mosquito

Rolling Stone wrote:Seriously, You’ve Got to Hear This New Pearl Jam Song

Long ago, during a brief “ecstasy phase,” Eddie Vedder tried to write some techno music. “I was listening to all this stuff on ecstasy,” he told me in 2006, during an all-night chat in a Cleveland hotel room. “But I was wondering, ‘Are they writing it on ecstasy?’ I decided that the pure way to do it is to actually take ecstasy, and then write ecstasy music. That didn’t work out. But I enjoyed the ecstasy.” Around the same time, guitarist Stone Gossard revealed a desire to experiment with Pearl Jam’s sound — if it were up to him, he said, the band might record a song or two that sounded like Steely Dan.

The band’s shockingly light-on-its-feet new single, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” from March 27th’s Gigaton, doesn’t sound anything like either “ecstasy music” or Steely Dan, but it is definitely the band’s funkiest song in forever, with an obvious debt to Talking Heads (Vedder comes close, at points, to an actual David Byrne impression, which somehow works) rather than the Jane’s Addiction/Red Hot Chili Peppers vein the band liked to tap back in the days when Jeff Ament was borrowing his hats from Strawberry Shortcake.

There are also welcome touches of mid-’00s dance rock, with guitar stabs that could be off Franz Ferdinand’s debut (or perhaps from Vedder faves the Strokes) alongside what sounds like a mix of live and programmed drums and a striking bass line played by Gossard. It’s also illustrative of Pearl Jam’s continuing commitment to anti-commercial perversity that they’d choose to release one of their most radio-friendly songs of the century now, when the prospect of Top 40 radio playing Pearl Jam is about as likely as MTV rehiring Kennedy for an Alternative Nation revival.

In 2013, on the eve of the release of the band’s last album, Lightning Bolt, Vedder told me that his goal for every Pearl Jam release, even now, is to top the rest of the band’s catalog. The vibrancy of “Dance,” alongside quotes from band members suggesting the song, co-produced by the band and longtime engineer Josh Evans, was a true collaboration, are welcome signs that — despite fears that solo projects, touring, and family life were taking priority over new music — they’re still trying.

evenslow wrote:stip still got it!

stip wrote:

PHATJ wrote:Give me 11 more songs with the same direction/energy/vibe. I’m totally in.

given how they described the making of this song I'm not sure this is indicative of the musical direction of the album. But hopefully the spirit that produced it is.

Most users ever online was 247 on January 16th, 2020, 2:35 pm

Stone Gossard revealed a desire to experiment with Pearl Jam’s sound — if it were up to him, he said, the band might record a song or two that sounded like Steely Dan.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Stone Gossard revealed a desire to experiment with Pearl Jam’s sound — if it were up to him, he said, the band might record a song or two that sounded like Steely Dan.

stip wrote:I feel oddly vindicated. Someone, somewhere, who isn't me, loves Lightning Bolt and Backspacer

wease wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Stone Gossard revealed a desire to experiment with Pearl Jam’s sound — if it were up to him, he said, the band might record a song or two that sounded like Steely Dan.

I was fond of that particular quote as well.

bune wrote:

Most users ever online was 247 on January 16th, 2020, 2:35 pm

you'd think the actual release of the song would have topped that.

Birds in Hell wrote:

digster wrote:One thing I find pretty interesting about this song (and fairly unique for PJ) is that it doesn't build itself around (or even include) a big Eddie vocal moment. Even some of the songs I love the most, like All or None, Parting Ways, Sleight of Hand, or stuff like that, often builds to a bit of a crescendo in Eddie's vocals; this song is entirely built around an Eddie vocal that doesn't ever really attempt to do that. I like that they were able to write a song like that, and I especially like that they wanted to lead off the rollout for the record with it. I just can't imagine them making a choice like that even a few years ago.

This is speculative (and probably unfair) but I suspect it was Brendan's influence which pushed them away from making choices like that on the last two records, even if the band might've done so if left to their own devices.

I'd be ecstatic if Josh Evans's greatest asset to the band is encouraging them to lean into, rather than away from, their idiosyncrasies.

Homeboyd wrote:

evenslow wrote:stip still got it!

That's a very nice and meaty review. Surely Stip didn't have that many words for MYM.

digster wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

digster wrote:One thing I find pretty interesting about this song (and fairly unique for PJ) is that it doesn't build itself around (or even include) a big Eddie vocal moment. Even some of the songs I love the most, like All or None, Parting Ways, Sleight of Hand, or stuff like that, often builds to a bit of a crescendo in Eddie's vocals; this song is entirely built around an Eddie vocal that doesn't ever really attempt to do that. I like that they were able to write a song like that, and I especially like that they wanted to lead off the rollout for the record with it. I just can't imagine them making a choice like that even a few years ago.

This is speculative (and probably unfair) but I suspect it was Brendan's influence which pushed them away from making choices like that on the last two records, even if the band might've done so if left to their own devices.

I'd be ecstatic if Josh Evans's greatest asset to the band is encouraging them to lean into, rather than away from, their idiosyncrasies.

I think that last part is what is striking me most about the song; it's a song being written by a band that's unafraid of their idiosyncrasies. There are so many moments and choices in PJ songs that could be awful decisions if they go the wrong way, but the band has the confidence to follow the odd idea despite the possibility of it falling on its face. This song is full of those kinds of things. Eddie's line about boys and dicks and firing things is quite a choice. And it could be so, so bad. But the song has enough confidence in its own personality to make sure it delivers. I'm happy those odd avenues aren't getting sanded out, or at least haven't been with this song.

bune wrote:are the Steely Dan recording engineers even still around? they'd need someone really good for that.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

wease wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Stone Gossard revealed a desire to experiment with Pearl Jam’s sound — if it were up to him, he said, the band might record a song or two that sounded like Steely Dan.

I was fond of that particular quote as well.

I’m dangerously close to posting Steely Dance of the Clairvoyants

stip wrote:

Homeboyd wrote:

evenslow wrote:stip still got it!

That's a very nice and meaty review. Surely Stip didn't have that many words for MYM.

I was curious and checked. Apparently I wrote a lot during the Lightning Bolt build.

Mind Your Manners Review: 686 words
Mind Your Manners Video Review: 995 words
Lightning Bolt Partial Leak: 2332 words (getaway, lightning bolt, swallowed whole, let the records play. I forgot this happened!)
Sirens review: 1175 words
Lightning Bolt review: 4688 words


The Dance of the Clairvoyants was 1781, but in fairness at least half of that wasn't really talking about the song.

theplatypus wrote:Roger Nichols is alive

Spoiler: show

theplatypus wrote:Roger Nichols is alive