Red Mosquito

yeah, i dont really take what Mike says very seriously but yeah to know its a more guitar oriented album, of course makes me exited. I hope we get a more tight unit pj than quick rockers with Mike soloing at the end tough.

Gigaton had a lot of a very tight unit jamming and i love that.

VinylGuy wrote:yeah, i dont really take what Mike says very seriously but yeah to know its a more guitar oriented album, of course makes me exited. I hope we get a more tight unit pj than quick rockers with Mike soloing at the end tough.

Gigaton had a lot of a very tight unit jamming and i love that.

Yes please.

The interviews suggest to me an effort to sound as close to their original product as possible, though I may be extrapolating that from the interviews and what Hackney Diamonds kind of scratches, but I of course this want them to dig deeper into the sonic textures that they are best at, and less big loud sounds for the sake of them. We’ll see how this goes.

Pearl Jam hasn’t jammed on an album since the outro of Army Reserve maybe? They’ve become a very part oriented, “everyone stay in their lane just like we rehearsed” sort of band.

tragabigzanda wrote:Pearl Jam hasn’t jammed on an album since the outro of Army Reserve maybe? They’ve become a very part oriented, “everyone stay in their lane just like we rehearsed” sort of band.

There’s some of that on Gigaton, a little hidden in spots by Eddie being Eddie and singing on top of it. Who Ever Said, Dance of the Clairvoyants, the breakdown in Quick Escape, Seven O’Clock, the end of Retrograde for sure. It’s not always big Mike solid, but the interplay of the band on Gigaton that constantly impresses me when I put that on. More of that please.

Yeah that’s fair (I’d argue against Who Ever Said, which has some controlled detours).

I would just note that this is nearly precisely why I hold Gigaton in high regard where the guitars and instruments were nearly afterthoughts on Lightning Bolt and Backspacer.

i don’t think they were afterthoughts - if anything it feels like the opposite, especially on Lightning Bolt where a lot of musical choices (especially with Mike) feel calculated and clinical rather than organic.

It could very well be I have the wrong impression but I think of both those albums as being Ed first - as if all the songs were written for Ed, and the rest of the band kind of fits around whatever he’s doing. The intros and breakdowns in much of the songs feel less like a band exercise and more a transition to what Ed does next. Gigaton to my imagination is less that, and even where Ed asserts his stuff, it feels part of the whole rather than the focus in and of itself.

I don’t deny that Eddie Vedder is rightfully an important focus of the band, but the complaints of laziness as they pertain to those two albums in particular I think is ultimately leaning on him as the focal point than engaging with the twists and turns the music takes when they are put together as a whole. Even if the world at large sees him as the strongest gear in the machine, all the gears really need to move together to optimize the band.

GSMF doesn’t get enough love. Matt’s on fire and everyone else is having a blast. There’s nothing “jammy” about it but there’s a lot of individual personality from each bandmember.

liebzz wrote:It could very well be I have the wrong impression but I think of both those albums as being Ed first - as if all the songs were written for Ed, and the rest of the band kind of fits around whatever he’s doing. The intros and breakdowns in much of the songs feel less like a band exercise and more a transition to what Ed does next. Gigaton to my imagination is less that, and even where Ed asserts his stuff, it feels part of the whole rather than the focus in and of itself.

I don’t deny that Eddie Vedder is rightfully an important focus of the band, but the complaints of laziness as they pertain to those two albums in particular I think is ultimately leaning on him as the focal point than engaging with the twists and turns the music takes when they are put together as a whole. Even if the world at large sees him as the strongest gear in the machine, all the gears really need to move together to optimize the band.

Agreed. Lightning Bolt, in particular, is really musically uninteresting.

tragabigzanda wrote:GSMF doesn’t get enough love. Matt’s on fire and everyone else is having a blast. There’s nothing “jammy” about it but there’s a lot of individual personality from each bandmember.

I listened to a few Backspacer songs the other day and i agree. Matt´s very good. I also feel Johnny Guitar and Force of Nature belong there.

I also listened to RA, and Matt´s performance in the whole album is amazing.

Johnny Guitar is fucking kickass

I still listen to Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Johnny Guitar.

liebzz wrote:It could very well be I have the wrong impression but I think of both those albums as being Ed first - as if all the songs were written for Ed, and the rest of the band kind of fits around whatever he’s doing. The intros and breakdowns in much of the songs feel less like a band exercise and more a transition to what Ed does next. Gigaton to my imagination is less that, and even where Ed asserts his stuff, it feels part of the whole rather than the focus in and of itself.

I don’t deny that Eddie Vedder is rightfully an important focus of the band, but the complaints of laziness as they pertain to those two albums in particular I think is ultimately leaning on him as the focal point than engaging with the twists and turns the music takes when they are put together as a whole. Even if the world at large sees him as the strongest gear in the machine, all the gears really need to move together to optimize the band.

You nailed it.

why can't they see it's the 10th

Isn’t it usually 10:00 local Ten Club time?

Mine always show up around 10:06-10:07am PST.

Oversize wrote:Mine always show up around 10:06-10:07am PST.

Well, it's late... must be big, big news, right!?

lol. nope. nothing.

This band is so frustrating

Hatfield wrote:

liebzz wrote:It could very well be I have the wrong impression but I think of both those albums as being Ed first - as if all the songs were written for Ed, and the rest of the band kind of fits around whatever he’s doing. The intros and breakdowns in much of the songs feel less like a band exercise and more a transition to what Ed does next. Gigaton to my imagination is less that, and even where Ed asserts his stuff, it feels part of the whole rather than the focus in and of itself.

I don’t deny that Eddie Vedder is rightfully an important focus of the band, but the complaints of laziness as they pertain to those two albums in particular I think is ultimately leaning on him as the focal point than engaging with the twists and turns the music takes when they are put together as a whole. Even if the world at large sees him as the strongest gear in the machine, all the gears really need to move together to optimize the band.

You nailed it.

I think we have a tendency to either vilify or over determine Ed's influence on their music. It obviously looms large, but lots of songs on Lightning Bolt, for instance, were not musically written by Ed (though you did say written for Ed, which is different). The dynamic you describe also applies to songs Ed had less of a hand in (Sirens, Infallible, Pendulum, Yellow Moon, etc)

My (also probably overdetermined) theory is that the bigger challenge is that folks are coming in with more complete songs and so there is less time for people to have their specific parts shape someone else's song, and the overall visions are more monochromatic. Even when they were not in the room at the same time for some of the Giagton songs we've heard about (7 Oclock, Dance) the iterative nature of their process left more room for interplay. But this dynamic transcends who wrote the song.

Alternately, they just need someone to push them to keep going regardless.


I do love the dynamics on most of the Backspacer songs