Red Mosquito

Coach, what do we think of "everyone one in the band playing at the top of their game"?

coming back 100 pages too late, but everything I heard has me excited for this album.

i love the idea of people coming in without having written songs. They do their best work when they play off each other and organically make space for everyone to shine, rather thabn folks having to slot themselves into someone else’s work.

plus i really likes earthlings. I am coming off a post concert high and full of pearl
jam good will, but I felt that way before

The best news so far is Matt drumming like he's playing for Soundgarden.

I'm interested in what's coming; the only downside, as far as I see, is that the band managed to course-correct on so many of the things I thought had left them astray in the past decade by making Gigaton, from being willing to take their time and experiment and allow themselves to indulge in the studio more than they had (which I think is when they tend to be at their best). It showed an impressive amount of self-awareness for a band that's been around that long, and I would have been curious to see what the partnership and setup could have led to with a follow-up.

While Gigaton improved immensely over LB, it sounds brutally overworked at times. Despite Earthling’s imperfections, there’s a “first idea - best idea” quality to it that I hope carries over

tragabigzanda wrote:While Gigaton improved immensely over LB, it sounds brutally overworked at times. Despite Earthling’s imperfections, there’s a “first idea - best idea” quality to it that I hope carries over

Brutally is a bit harsh, but I agree about the Frankenstein's monster element to the album.

Yeah, my disconnect may be that while Earthling was fun, I thought Gigaton far exceeded it (and honestly exceeded my expectations on what I thought PJ was capable of at this point). After Backspacer and LB which they really prioritized working fast, I thought they benefitted from giving themselves time to tinker in the studio. But I know so little about the most recent sessions, and haven't been keeping up, so I'm not passing judgment by any means yet.

i got the impression this was less a focus on fast and more on collaboration . we shall see…

digster wrote:I'm interested in what's coming; the only downside, as far as I see, is that the band managed to course-correct on so many of the things I thought had left them astray in the past decade by making Gigaton, from being willing to take their time and experiment and allow themselves to indulge in the studio more than they had (which I think is when they tend to be at their best). It showed an impressive amount of self-awareness for a band that's been around that long, and I would have been curious to see what the partnership and setup could have led to with a follow-up.

Strong agree with this. Even though I'm excited and optimistic about the Watt partnership, what they did and who they worked with to create Gigaton worked so, so well.

stip wrote:i got the impression this was less a focus on fast and more on collaboration . we shall see…

I don’t think Gigaton had much in the way of collaboration. Apart from album highlight DOTC, wasn’t everything brought in as a roughly finished composition then fleshed out by the band?

There’s a difference in collaborating at pre-seed vs Series C, so to speak.

no i agree - i was differentiating between even gigaton and what I think we are being told about this one

tragabigzanda wrote:

stip wrote:i got the impression this was less a focus on fast and more on collaboration . we shall see…

I don’t think Gigaton had much in the way of collaboration. Apart from album highlight DOTC, wasn’t everything brought in as a roughly finished composition then fleshed out by the band?

There’s a difference in collaborating at pre-seed vs Series C, so to speak.

7:00 was them jamming for an extended amount of time and then making it into a song. I'd be surprised if the middle of WES wasn't due to collaboration, though it is credited to only Vedder.

Oh yeah, forgot about 7:00

wease wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:

joostone wrote:

I always thought that hat was pretty strictly solo gig attire -- is this the first time he's worn it at a PJ show?

No. He wore it at least both nights in Ft Worth

Every time he wears that hat I think of Donald Gennaro in Jurassic Park.

Leatherhead wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

stip wrote:i got the impression this was less a focus on fast and more on collaboration . we shall see…

I don’t think Gigaton had much in the way of collaboration. Apart from album highlight DOTC, wasn’t everything brought in as a roughly finished composition then fleshed out by the band?

There’s a difference in collaborating at pre-seed vs Series C, so to speak.

7:00 was them jamming for an extended amount of time and then making it into a song. I'd be surprised if the middle of WES wasn't due to collaboration, though it is credited to only Vedder.

Was 7:00 everyone jamming in a room?

I think it was more individual studio additions to underlying tracks then a pro tools edit to pull it all together

Yea from what I read the band had jammed on the idea for a very long time and Josh Evan's kind of cut it all together to make a more complete song

so I guess this is the album where we find out if Matt passes Jeff's Buzzcocks test

be wary of Stone's brunch invites Mr. Cameron

The Matt 'drumming like Soundgarden' comment feels like it may speak to this very thing. if the rest of the band is bringing in a largely fleshed out song, I imagine there may be particular ways he needs to work to fit the bones of the composition, whereas if they are creating together from scratch the rest of the band can also play off of what he is doing. I imagine the give and take is a lot more robust that way.