Red Mosquito

I don't think 'Ole' was ever meant to be taken seriously. It's a song about saying Fuck It to the world and cheering yourself up. Same as The Fixer. I don't want any more songs on that theme for a while, but they're both OK for what they are (even if what they are is not much). They're definitely not bad enough to be called offensive or terrible, imo.

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

The big hoopla about a new release and it being an Ed demo from years ago, compared to the almost silent release of Olé, just as a by the way, tells us a lot:)

dimejinky99 wrote:I wonder what each Pj members favourite, or more telling, least favourite record is.

Jeff - Favourite: Vs, Least favourite: Avocado
Ed - Vitalogy, Riot Act
Stone - Vs/Yield, Vitalogy
Mike - Ten, Backspacer
Dave - Vs, No Code
Matt - Avocado, Ten
Jack - No Code, Backspacer
Boom - Riot Act, Backspacer

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

stip wrote:

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

I guess not wanting to be identified by something is a bit antithetical to my idea of making a statement. The way you describe it I wonder what does not constitute a musical statement then.

stip wrote:

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

i don't believe anyone in the band cares to make a 'message' record or cares about its long term association with them.

stip wrote:

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

Yep. Backspacer in my view is an extension of the carefree elements of parts of Lost Dogs. The band's had it in them for a long time, and they finally focused it and put it on one cohesive piece and balanced out their catalogue a little. It's a welcome addition in the canon for me, cause without it you have too much heavy-handedness, which is good but a whole catalogue of that is too much. Not so much a specific statement as it is a burnishing or 'correction' to add into their body of work. When I want something heavy I'll pop in Vitalogy or Riot Act, but sometimes I just want to throw something on for 40 min and be carefree. I used to have to rely on other bands for that, with Backspacer PJ helped fullfil that piece. My only desire for the band is for them to do exactly what they want they want to do, to follow their muse whatever it is. Seems like that 's why alot of hardcore fans jumped on board in the first place, but loks like alot of folks are projected what they want out of the band now......

harmless wrote:I don't think 'Ole' was ever meant to be taken seriously. It's a song about saying Fuck It to the world and cheering yourself up. Same as The Fixer. I don't want any more songs on that theme for a while, but they're both OK for what they are (even if what they are is not much). They're definitely not bad enough to be called offensive or terrible, imo.

Yep.

Tuolumne wrote:

harmless wrote:I don't think 'Ole' was ever meant to be taken seriously. It's a song about saying Fuck It to the world and cheering yourself up. Same as The Fixer. I don't want any more songs on that theme for a while, but they're both OK for what they are (even if what they are is not much). They're definitely not bad enough to be called offensive or terrible, imo.

Yep.

The Fixer is much better than Ole. Ole ranks down with Sweet Lew for "why the fuck did this see the light of day". If Ole is the direction they are going for PJ-X, it's gonna be a tough year.

I like Sweet Lew quite a bit, especially the demo version.

Thread no longer official. MERGE.

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I wonder what each Pj members favourite, or more telling, least favourite record is.

Dave - Vs, No Code

I think I still haven't even heard Olé.

cutuphalfdead wrote:I like Sweet Lew quite a bit, especially the demo version.

demo? where do you people get this stuff?

Tuolumne wrote:

stip wrote:

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

Yep. Backspacer in my view is an extension of the carefree elements of parts of Lost Dogs. The band's had it in them for a long time, and they finally focused it and put it on one cohesive piece and balanced out their catalogue a little. It's a welcome addition in the canon for me, cause without it you have too much heavy-handedness, which is good but a whole catalogue of that is too much. Not so much a specific statement as it is a burnishing or 'correction' to add into their body of work. When I want something heavy I'll pop in Vitalogy or Riot Act, but sometimes I just want to throw something on for 40 min and be carefree. I used to have to rely on other bands for that, with Backspacer PJ helped fullfil that piece. My only desire for the band is for them to do exactly what they want they want to do, to follow their muse whatever it is. Seems like that 's why alot of hardcore fans jumped on board in the first place, but loks like alot of folks are projected what they want out of the band now......

I don't see Backspacer as carefree at all. It seems like their most calculated album, more so than Binaural even. It comes across to me as a caricature of carefree, especially after Ed's solo album that gives a much better insight into what Ed's carefree is.

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

I guess not wanting to be identified by something is a bit antithetical to my idea of making a statement. The way you describe it I wonder what does not constitute a musical statement then.

Well I do think all pearl jam albums are statements in that they are documents of their time. Backspacer was the stamp pearl jam wanted to put on the world at that moment. But that doesn't necessarily make it what you want to be identified with you on the whole. And due to the long gap that's what Backspacer has become

surfndestroy wrote:

Tuolumne wrote:

stip wrote:

Heathen wrote:

stip wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:On that last point, I wonder if the band hadn't anticipated such a lengthy gap between records and whether they would've perhaps done things differently had they known back in 2009 Soundgarden would reunite, Cameron Crowe would make that film, etc. Mike had (almost infamously, at this point) talked about an upcoming EP quite a bit for a while around that time.

yeah, I wonder the same thing.

The idea that they would have made it different had they known they wouldn't be able to put it behind by releasing something else shortly after makes it kinda hard to take the theory of Backspacer being a musical statement seriously.

why? Backspacer was an intentional album that was designed to be a breath of fresh air after how heavy the last few records were. The album had a point that it wanted to make. But that can be the case and not having something necessarily want to be the statement you have identified with you for the long term. If a serious actor wanted to suddenly make a comedy or an action movie because they always wanted to/thought it would be fun/wanted to try something new they might do that without wanting to have that film define them.

There might be a difference between making a record you want to make and are proud of right now as opposed to making a record you want to make that you also intend to be what you are identified with for a long period of time.

Yep. Backspacer in my view is an extension of the carefree elements of parts of Lost Dogs. The band's had it in them for a long time, and they finally focused it and put it on one cohesive piece and balanced out their catalogue a little. It's a welcome addition in the canon for me, cause without it you have too much heavy-handedness, which is good but a whole catalogue of that is too much. Not so much a specific statement as it is a burnishing or 'correction' to add into their body of work. When I want something heavy I'll pop in Vitalogy or Riot Act, but sometimes I just want to throw something on for 40 min and be carefree. I used to have to rely on other bands for that, with Backspacer PJ helped fullfil that piece. My only desire for the band is for them to do exactly what they want they want to do, to follow their muse whatever it is. Seems like that 's why alot of hardcore fans jumped on board in the first place, but loks like alot of folks are projected what they want out of the band now......

I don't see Backspacer as carefree at all. It seems like their most calculated album, more so than Binaural even. It comes across to me as a caricature of carefree, especially after Ed's solo album that gives a much better insight into what Ed's carefree is.

Fair enough--a full band effort will always feel more calculated than one person playing by himself since songs have to be crafted. But there is a lightness to Backspacer that was never there before

stip wrote: But there is a lightness to Backspacer that was never there before

Well, yeah, Ed does sing about some red dress-wearing womans' cooter.

(Melissandre, I hope.)

so... what the hell happened in here?