Red Mosquito

I've been listening to these quite a bit. They all range from good to really good. 2x4, The Only Cloud In The Sky, and Rearranged Furniture could actually be outstanding Pearl Jam songs, if completed by a pre-PRAMG Ed.

stip wrote:I think his point was that the song was initially delayed for those reasons. I'm glad its seen the light of day, and the fact that it's become a live mainstay might mean the band is ready to take another look at the concert viability of these kinds of songs.

Well, the reason its a mainstay at this point is because they were able to find a rather awesome placement for the song in their live show :\

Mine wrote:

jtmack20 wrote:

Tuolumne wrote: I think the whole idea that the band somehow ran out of steam creatively is hogwash. It's just the choices they made. .

Totally agree with this statement. These demos again sort of emphasize that. I loved CC and Let it Ride. I also think 2x4 and Only Could in the Sky in particular could have been killer Pearl Jam songs (hoping they eventually became that anyway), but my take is the band- and Eddie in particular - tried to steer the last 3 albums towards straight forward immediate rock music that would play well live, and kept the more atmospheric stuff on the shelf. The history of Pendulum could be more evidence of that. Recorded during Backspacer, but not fitting the melodic, poppy feel of that album, and shelved for 4 years before being released. I hope dearly that Lost Dogs 2 is coming, and includes more gems like Pendulum, Cold Confession, and who knows what else.

The fact that Pendulum is played regularly really weakens your point.

My main point is that their best stuff is often left off the album it was recorded for. Pendulum is the best thing on LB, and it doesn't shock me that it was actually a leftover from a previous album. My hope is that there is more material of high quality (like Pendulum) that has not been released.

stip wrote:I think his point was that the song was initially delayed for those reasons. I'm glad its seen the light of day, and the fact that it's become a live mainstay might mean the band is ready to take another look at the concert viability of these kinds of songs.

Or it might mean "concert viability" had nothing to do with it being delayed. I guess they can tell how "performable" a song is after having performed live all of their adult life.
Pendulum isn't any less accessible than most of the recent material as evidenced by the fact it was well accepted from the very beginning but its popularity didn't last universally, which is common for very accessible music.

It's popularity didn't last?

stip wrote:It's popularity didn't last?

It certainly declined here.

I don't think a songs accessibility has anything to do with its quality. Pearl Jam has plenty of great songs that are highly accessible. Pendulum is accessible too. Its also dark, atmospheric, and a little unique- qualities PJ has avoided for the most part over the last 10 years.

What about these demos make them 'atmospheric', other than maybe the Cloud instrumental? Something like 10 Billion Years may not be a three-minute pop song, but we're not talking about Sleight of Hand, either.

I agree that Only Cloud in the Sky is the only atmospheric piece in this bunch.

I am also wondering if 10 Billion Years is a Stone solo demo. Sounds like it could be him drumming on this as well.

jtmack20 wrote:I don't think a songs accessibility has anything to do with its quality. Pearl Jam has plenty of great songs that are highly accessible. Pendulum is accessible too. Its also dark, atmospheric, and a little unique- qualities PJ has avoided for the most part over the last 10 years.

Unique being the key word here. If 1/2 of the album were "pendulums" meaning yes atmospheric,dark and what not but otherwise very monotonous none would stand out or "feel" unique and consequentially interesting. It may be a "different" Pearl Jam song but the songwriting weaknesses there don't really make that direction for PJ particularly promising. This kind of song offers endless possibilities - it could go in a lot of places while retaining all of it's atmospheric and dark qualities. Pendulum goes nowhere which i suspect is why it didn't make the cut before.

I don't think that judging Pendulum on the basis of not making the cut for Backspacer is a good approach when you consider what did make the cut for that record.

Anyways, it's a fine song. It's a 3 or 3 and a half out of 5 but it's probably one of the better ones off the new record. The lyrics are a bit drab but it doesn't kill the piece. I think LB is a pretty spotty record, so the good points tend to shine a little brighter.

Mine wrote:

stip wrote:It's popularity didn't last?

It certainly declined here.

I wonder how it's done on the main message board, which is probably a more accurate barometer for the larger fan community.

guys, pendulum is really good.

stip wrote:guys, pendulum is really good.

stip wrote:

Mine wrote:

stip wrote:It's popularity didn't last?

It certainly declined here.

I wonder how it's done on the main message board, which is probably a more accurate barometer for the larger fan community.

I don't know. The main message board represents well only a specific part of the fan base. RM is much more varied.

there are currently 460 people online on the official board. There are 33 on RM. RM is probably not more diverse in terms of total number of opinions. While I can't prove this, the disgruntled fan is probably also pretty overrepresented here, as opposed to the main board.

My uncle was shocked when Bush won reelection in 2004. He didn't know a single person who was voting for him. I had to explain that gay fashion professors living in New York were probably not indicative of the pulse of the rest of the country.

stip wrote: While I can't prove this, the disgruntled fan is probably also pretty overrepresented here, as opposed to the main board.

prove? just read the board

I think there's absolutely no way, shape or form either of these boards can really be indicative of anything. It makes perfect sense that there'd be more people on the official site, and that those people would have a more positive outlook on the band. That's where you buy tickets, buy merch, etc. There's more reasons to be there than just the board.

digster wrote:I think there's absolutely no way, shape or form either of these boards can really be indicative of anything. It makes perfect sense that there'd be more people on the official site, and that those people would have a more positive outlook on the band. That's where you buy tickets, buy merch, etc. There's more reasons to be there than just the board.

I think using a much larger primary fan board as opposed to a much smaller secondary fan board is as good a measure as we're going to come up with for gauging broad fan reaction to a band's music.

And if 450 people were logged in at 11:30 on a wed. afternoon (with no tickets on sale) just to buy merchandise then I'm going to go buy stock in 10c.

After listening to these numbers, I quite like them. To me, it's a peak into the recording process of Pearl Jam. Like how it's trying to nail down his voice inflections in these songs with vocals, just trying to find out what works before he pens lyrics. Also, what I think is important here is this is Pearl Jam with their real, authentic sound where it's just 5 guys sitting around in a room playing music. Not worrying about perfection. It's before a producer and/or Ed muck it up, rearrange pieces of the music, add all the fancy stuff and nonsense. I think the consistant complaint over the last few albums has been it's been to polished and shiney. Like BoB is trying to make it perfect thus leading to some flat spots in their music. They aren't perfect, they are effectively sloppy and it works for them, it makes their lives shows so go. They have always struggled capturing that live feel to their studio albums and these recordings capture that. I like the tone of the gutairs and Matt's drum sound. I felt in LB things were flat. I think BOB is trying to turn them into a band they aren't at their core, adding so much piano, organ, and other orchestration. These songs are just them.

So, my proposal for their next album would be Pear Jam Unmastered. Just be minimal as possible, forget the polish and shine. Just capture them in the raw, capture them in nature so to speak. All their imperfections make them, them. These leaks are what they are supposed to sound like, it's very natural. They have become formatted and try to hard to write songs that fit the live show. Who cares about that? We will like them if they are good and we will make them fit into the live show. Just be you. Alas, with Brandon O'Brian in the picture that won't happen because he wants to be in the band. It's more his band then theirs now. Just be 5 friends in a room, having fun and not caring what it sounds like, just playing. When they do that, chances are it will be good. Trust your nature guys. Good early Christmas gift indeed.