Song of the Moment: Mind Your Manners

[MemoFromTurner]

Wanted to let this one sink in before I evaluated. After 30 clicks of overly compressed YouTube I'm all in:

This is a great song.

The opening riff grabs your balls which is a class way of saying there's a primal urgency. It rawks.

Good Ed comes out on this track. He is inspired, unstuffed, loose. We hear the inspiration, despair, and optimism that mark his best qualities as a vocalist.

The guitars are still a little too clean for my taste. I'm stuck at Vitalogy / No Code / some Yield as the high point of Pearl Jam's sound. The band isn't there now.

Lastly, an outstanding punk song from Pearl Jam: Wow. We know they've been trying. I love Lukin, hate Habit, hate Supersonic, love Comatose. For me it's pretty hit and miss and when they misfire on punk it's gawdawful. This latest is all good.

That last bit -- I don't like Comatose as much as that, but I agree with you otherwise. This might be their best punk song ever, if only because although I like loads of the others, they didn't seem as authentically punk as this (with the possible exception of STBC, but was that too full of rage?).

I never embraced STBC but I always figured it was because it lacked melody and was the lead single. I liked Blood's pure rage and deceptive catchiness. Blood also felt interstitial. Like Lukin it's a punk dinner mint. STBC is full rage and riff and odd message about loving vinyl and devoid of melody which makes it a flat liner for me. STBC is an inside joke: Ed loves thrash punk + Ed loves vinyl = spin, spin, spin the black circle!! I wasn't on board.

Sneaking a melody into Mind Your Manners with the bridge is the secret sauce to its success.

I'm not a musician, so maybe I'm getting terms confused, but I never thought STBC was devoid of melody. In fact, I think the thing as a pretty catchy melody. I just don't like the way Ed forces the words in the thing, or his phrasing. Well, I like it fine enough. I just don't think its as successful as it could have been. And I don't like the lyrical content much either. Really, as an instrumental, I think I'd like it a lot more.

I'm no musician either and after a quick google search the distinction isn't becoming clearer. By riff in STBC I mean the repeated guitar phrase. The song is built around that phrase and is repetitive. We associate catchy riffs with AC/DC, Jack White, the Rolling Stones. A strong melody I associate with someone like McCartney.

So you're talking about Ed's melody, the vocal melody he's chosen for the song?

No, I meant the musical melody. A musicologist can send me a life line. The vocal melody and song melody are usually different.

Right, which is why I thought you were talking about the vocal melody. Because there I agree that it could be stronger, or better/more interesting choices could have been made. But I think the song melody is really nice.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the riff / melody. Pearl Jam gets dinged for writing uninspired riffs. On this one I agree. Usually I like the band's ideas.

[epilogue]

Wanted to let this one sink in before I evaluated. After 30 clicks of overly compressed YouTube I'm all in:

This is a great song.

The opening riff grabs your balls which is a class way of saying there's a primal urgency. It rawks.

Good Ed comes out on this track. He is inspired, unstuffed, loose. We hear the inspiration, despair, and optimism that mark his best qualities as a vocalist.

The guitars are still a little too clean for my taste. I'm stuck at Vitalogy / No Code / some Yield as the high point of Pearl Jam's sound. The band isn't there now.

Lastly, an outstanding punk song from Pearl Jam: Wow. We know they've been trying. I love Lukin, hate Habit, hate Supersonic, love Comatose. For me it's pretty hit and miss and when they misfire on punk it's gawdawful. This latest is all good.

That last bit -- I don't like Comatose as much as that, but I agree with you otherwise. This might be their best punk song ever, if only because although I like loads of the others, they didn't seem as authentically punk as this (with the possible exception of STBC, but was that too full of rage?).

I never embraced STBC but I always figured it was because it lacked melody and was the lead single. I liked Blood's pure rage and deceptive catchiness. Blood also felt interstitial. Like Lukin it's a punk dinner mint. STBC is full rage and riff and odd message about loving vinyl and devoid of melody which makes it a flat liner for me. STBC is an inside joke: Ed loves thrash punk + Ed loves vinyl = spin, spin, spin the black circle!! I wasn't on board.

Sneaking a melody into Mind Your Manners with the bridge is the secret sauce to its success.

I'm not a musician, so maybe I'm getting terms confused, but I never thought STBC was devoid of melody. In fact, I think the thing as a pretty catchy melody. I just don't like the way Ed forces the words in the thing, or his phrasing. Well, I like it fine enough. I just don't think its as successful as it could have been. And I don't like the lyrical content much either. Really, as an instrumental, I think I'd like it a lot more.

I'm no musician either and after a quick google search the distinction isn't becoming clearer. By riff in STBC I mean the repeated guitar phrase. The song is built around that phrase and is repetitive. We associate catchy riffs with AC/DC, Jack White, the Rolling Stones. A strong melody I associate with someone like McCartney.

So you're talking about Ed's melody, the vocal melody he's chosen for the song?

No, I meant the musical melody. A musicologist can send me a life line. The vocal melody and song melody are usually different.

Right, which is why I thought you were talking about the vocal melody. Because there I agree that it could be stronger, or better/more interesting choices could have been made. But I think the song melody is really nice.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the riff / melody. Pearl Jam gets dinged for writing uninspired riffs. On this one I agree. Usually I like the band's ideas.

It's all good. They got like 170-some other songs to listen to. God knows I don't love all of them. Habit is the one that I can't seem to get past. I just really dislike that song.

[dimejinky99]

Really liking Mikes solo more. The gaps though? Sounds like its been chopped up in protools almost.

[Strat]

Really liking Mikes solo more. The gaps though? Sounds like its been chopped up in protools almost.

Just the last stop. Every other stop at "Mind your manners" you can hear mikes guitar ringing and feed back...its fucking great


"Congratulations, douchers, you made it to "heaven", whatever the fuck that means, how was it wasting your entire fucking time on earth making everything and everyone miserable with your pious bullshit?"


Thats swell!

[EJ]

Try my patience
My patience tried

This is my favorite part of the song, and where I think the song really captures me.

My only really minor criticisms, thus far, are:
1) its either the guitar tunings or just the recording of them. But, they really needed to sound a bit more ragged for this song. They are just too clean for a song with "raw" intentions. Just listening to that Brazilian band do a cover of it (that Jorge posted) gave me a bit of blue balls after he divulged the fact that it wasn't PJ. They played it raw. Really sounded like 1994 PJ. Can PJ pull this off live?

2) the song needed a little more space. Again, this might be the recording of it. But, those little stops in the song shouldn't come off as so perfectly abrupt and clean. Too digital. There should be some space there.

I'm impressed that I've listened to this song at least 30x (not yet today), and I haven't come close to getting that new song hangover yet. I actually think I may be moving from "I like it" to "I love it."
Good news for me.

[dimejinky99]

Really liking Mikes solo more. The gaps though? Sounds like its been chopped up in protools almost.

Just the last stop. Every other stop at "Mind your manners" you can hear mikes guitar ringing and feed back...its fucking great


"Congratulations, douchers, you made it to "heaven", whatever the fuck that means, how was it wasting your entire fucking time on earth making everything and everyone miserable with your pious bullshit?"


Thats swell!

Yeah. That last gap. Doesn't feel natural if that makes sense?
Wonder if ed was fixing again?

[harmless]

Try my patience
My patience tried

This is my favorite part of the song, and where I think the song really captures me.

My only really minor criticisms, thus far, are:
1) its either the guitar tunings or just the recording of them. But, they really needed to sound a bit more ragged for this song. They are just too clean for a song with "raw" intentions. Just listening to that Brazilian band do a cover of it (that Jorge posted) gave me a bit of blue balls after he divulged the fact that it wasn't PJ. They played it raw. Really sounded like 1994 PJ. Can PJ pull this off live?

2) the song needed a little more space. Again, this might be the recording of it. But, those little stops in the song shouldn't come off as so perfectly abrupt and clean. Too digital. There should be some space there.

I'm impressed that I've listened to this song at least 30x (not yet today), and I haven't come close to getting that new song hangover yet. I actually think I may be moving from "I like it" to "I love it."
Good news for me.

A sharp pause doesn't necessarily mean pro-tools. It's easy enough to achieve live if you have good enough musicians. And you can hear Mike's guitar ringing over all but one of those pauses.

[Jorge]

1) its either the guitar tunings or just the recording of them. But, they really needed to sound a bit more ragged for this song. They are just too clean for a song with "raw" intentions. Just listening to that Brazilian band do a cover of it (that Jorge posted) gave me a bit of blue balls after he divulged the fact that it wasn't PJ. They played it raw. Really sounded like 1994 PJ. Can PJ pull this off live?

For folks who haven't heard it

MYM DEMO (REHEARSAL?)

[harmless]

Wanted to let this one sink in before I evaluated. After 30 clicks of overly compressed YouTube I'm all in:

This is a great song.

The opening riff grabs your balls which is a class way of saying there's a primal urgency. It rawks.

Good Ed comes out on this track. He is inspired, unstuffed, loose. We hear the inspiration, despair, and optimism that mark his best qualities as a vocalist.

The guitars are still a little too clean for my taste. I'm stuck at Vitalogy / No Code / some Yield as the high point of Pearl Jam's sound. The band isn't there now.

Lastly, an outstanding punk song from Pearl Jam: Wow. We know they've been trying. I love Lukin, hate Habit, hate Supersonic, love Comatose. For me it's pretty hit and miss and when they misfire on punk it's gawdawful. This latest is all good.

That last bit -- I don't like Comatose as much as that, but I agree with you otherwise. This might be their best punk song ever, if only because although I like loads of the others, they didn't seem as authentically punk as this (with the possible exception of STBC, but was that too full of rage?).

I never embraced STBC but I always figured it was because it lacked melody and was the lead single. I liked Blood's pure rage and deceptive catchiness. Blood also felt interstitial. Like Lukin it's a punk dinner mint. STBC is full rage and riff and odd message about loving vinyl and devoid of melody which makes it a flat liner for me. STBC is an inside joke: Ed loves thrash punk + Ed loves vinyl = spin, spin, spin the black circle!! I wasn't on board.

Sneaking a melody into Mind Your Manners with the bridge is the secret sauce to its success.

I'm not a musician, so maybe I'm getting terms confused, but I never thought STBC was devoid of melody. In fact, I think the thing as a pretty catchy melody. I just don't like the way Ed forces the words in the thing, or his phrasing. Well, I like it fine enough. I just don't think its as successful as it could have been. And I don't like the lyrical content much either. Really, as an instrumental, I think I'd like it a lot more.

I won't comment on your dislike of STBC except to say it's weird. But I will say that yes, underneath all the snarling and yelling, there's a tune and he sings it really well. And it's similar on MYM, where on the surface it's off, but there are notes underpinning the force, which make even the shouty bits feel "melodic".

Do you mean that if Pearl Jam slowed down STBC and played it acoustic that it would be a strong song? I have trouble imagining that. A melodic song, based on my shaky understanding of music and music vocabulary, sounds pretty amazing at slower tempos. That STP song where the "dogs begin to smell her" has a strong melody so the acoustic version is "sweet". A riff heavy song where the foundation of the music is the the riff would collapse.

Well, if it was acoustic there would be no screaming so they'd have to fine-tune the melody, but yeah, it's there.

[MemoFromTurner]

Try my patience
My patience tried

This is my favorite part of the song, and where I think the song really captures me.

My only really minor criticisms, thus far, are:
1) its either the guitar tunings or just the recording of them. But, they really needed to sound a bit more ragged for this song. They are just too clean for a song with "raw" intentions. Just listening to that Brazilian band do a cover of it (that Jorge posted) gave me a bit of blue balls after he divulged the fact that it wasn't PJ. They played it raw. Really sounded like 1994 PJ. Can PJ pull this off live?

2) the song needed a little more space. Again, this might be the recording of it. But, those little stops in the song shouldn't come off as so perfectly abrupt and clean. Too digital. There should be some space there.

I'm impressed that I've listened to this song at least 30x (not yet today), and I haven't come close to getting that new song hangover yet. I actually think I may be moving from "I like it" to "I love it."
Good news for me.

Two things:

1. It's amazing how a simple turn of phrase can make a song so much better. That "patience tried" line is great.

2. Sounds like you and I both want the guitars to recapture the grit of Vitalogy. It's over. Done finished. I blame Mike. His love of bad metal inspires him to make that clean sound and I'm not a fan at all.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I just changed my vote from "like it" to "its okay".

[tommymtcom]

I just changed my vote from "like it" to "its okay".

My vote just went in the opposite direction.

[darthvedder81]

All my friends who either care less or are casual pj fans don't like mind your manners. All my friends who are pretty big pj fans love it. Good sign for this album, I think. Considering the same casuals loved the fixer..

I think that if you're a casual fan who hasn't been really into them for a long time, it's virtually impossible to jump on board at this point. And I don't mind that at all.

I would say this has been the case since No Code.

P.S. It's pretty amazing to chart the band from Ten to No Code. That was only FIVE YEARS people. Does the PJ of 2008 sound that different then the one now?

[dimejinky99]

Is it just my copy or does MYM's riff start again after the song appears to be over?

[Jorge]

Is it just my copy or does MYM's riff start again after the song appears to be over?

It's from the youtube video. After the song, a short album "ad" appears, and it features the opening bit. Sounds like your copy was ripped from the youtube video.

[dimejinky99]

Balls. Thanks Jorge.

Made a little playlist of PJ punk songs. Punk is Not they're strong point but it actually works.
Spin the black circle
Comatose
Severed hand
Marker
Olé
MYM

I'm completely allergic to the avocado record. It's the low point in their entire career for me but severed hand and comatose from it are actually ok. Liking them more than I remember.

[malice]

Balls. Thanks Jorge.

Made a little playlist of PJ punk songs. Punk is Not they're strong point but it actually works.
Spin the black circle
Comatose
Severed hand
Marker
Olé
MYM

I'm completely allergic to the avocado record. It's the low point in their entire career for me but severed hand and comatose from it are actually ok. Liking them more than I remember.

uhhh... lukin isn't included?

[dimejinky99]

Balls. Thanks Jorge.

Made a little playlist of PJ punk songs. Punk is Not they're strong point but it actually works.
Spin the black circle
Comatose
Severed hand
Marker
Olé
MYM

I'm completely allergic to the avocado record. It's the low point in their entire career for me but severed hand and comatose from it are actually ok. Liking them more than I remember.

uhhh... lukin isn't included?

It and Brain of j & maybe habit just don't fit that frame in the same way If you get me?
The ones I listed above all seem to have some similar parts n styles.

[malice]

Balls. Thanks Jorge.

Made a little playlist of PJ punk songs. Punk is Not they're strong point but it actually works.
Spin the black circle
Comatose
Severed hand
Marker
Olé
MYM

I'm completely allergic to the avocado record. It's the low point in their entire career for me but severed hand and comatose from it are actually ok. Liking them more than I remember.

uhhh... lukin isn't included?

It and Brain of j & maybe habit just don't fit that frame in the same way If you get me?
The ones I listed above all seem to have some similar parts n styles.

i suppose... i just think of lukin as their most successful punk type song is all.

I'm sure people will bash on me for this opinion as well as my next comment, but I think I liked MYM upon initial listen because it reminded me of lukin - maybe not as sincerely put out, but there's something in it that gives me hope for their music again- and that's going out on a limb for me - I haven't been able to stomach anything from them in years.

[spike]

i'd almost label lukin more heavy metal than punk.