Red Mosquito

Kurt hated them, so...

I don’t think PJ is unpopular no. Maybe in the 90s were the camps were more divisive; the whole nirvana vs pj was still kinda tracking but it’s been a long time since then.

I mean it makes sense on a number of levels that Pearl Jam tracks the least with grunge loyalists. First, Dead hero worship. Second, in terms of sound, Pearl Jam might be the least like the others. Third, Pearl Jam fairly or not earned the reputation as the fame seekers whilst Kurt Cobain sold a street cred-like image that stuck despite the evidence right in your face to the contrary, so if Kurt idolization membership cards require you to believe Eddie is a poseur and the Pearl Jam guys are a bunch of hacks, then that’s what you have to believe.

I never understood the juxtaposition of PJ and Nirvana back in the day.
To me these two bands existed in two completely parallel musical realities.
The only thing to tie them together was them both being from Seattle.
Not to mention that "grunge" as a musical genre doesn't even exist.
It's a clothing style ffs.

VinylGuy wrote:I don’t think PJ is unpopular no. Maybe in the 90s were the camps were more divisive; the whole nirvana vs pj was still kinda tracking but it’s been a long time since then.

Unpopular no, but tired yes.

Jorge wrote:I came across this post on the grunge subreddit asking "if you had to lose one of the 4 big grunge bands, which would you pick?"
https://www.reddit.com/r/grunge/comment ... _four_who/

I had no idea that Pearl Jam was so widely disliked in the grunge fan community. The answers seemed to overwhelmingly pick them as the disposable one of the four.

It would easily be Nirvana for me. I never really got into them like most everyone else did. I’m a much bigger Foo Fighters fan. That said, Breed is perhaps the most ball-to-the-wall jamming song of the four bands.

all those other 3 are hard rock / metal

pearl jam is basically a pop band

so not really apples to apples

but those other 3 also got careers cut short and all their albums are listenable (but yes 2nd stint AIC has released more that are average)

PJ by contrast has the last 20 years of useless shitty albums that are chock full of bizarre songs that sound like ass

so the dislike on a forum like that is understandable

even peak (first 3 album) PJ was an outlier soundwise compared to those others

but add in mid/late career PJ and their $82 sticker set artistic ethos and the poll results write themselves

I think on the sonic level, AIC and Soundgarden leaned metal with punk flourishes, Nirvana was punk with some metal influence…and Pearl Jam was always coming from a place most influenced by the classic rock that preceded all that with a nod maybe at best to the other bands’ influences. It was never really heavy sludgy rock like the others. That makes sense to me without all the baggage that Cobain added to the equation.

bye bye AIC

Strat wrote:bye bye AIC

Take that back

tragabigzanda wrote:

liebzz wrote:I think on the sonic level, AIC and Soundgarden leaned metal with punk flourishes, Nirvana was punk with some metal influence…and Pearl Jam was always coming from a place most influenced by the classic rock that preceded all that with a nod maybe at best to the other bands’ influences. It was never really heavy sludgy rock like the others. That makes sense to me without all the baggage that Cobain added to the equation.

Nirvana broke with a pop record.

Yeah, remember a few comments ago about all the evidence to the contrary…major label, pop record, numerous music videos, interviews with any member of the press within shouting distance…but no, being a rock star was the totally thrust upon him and he wanted nothing to do with it cause he was real while all those other poseurs were just looking for fame.

tragabigzanda wrote:Nirvana broke with a pop record.

100%.

Strat wrote:bye bye AIC

To be honest, I wouldn’t miss any of the others. They all have records or songs that I like, but they never “meant“ anything to me.

They just weren’t writing songs that expressed or spoke to anything that mattered to me in a deeper tissue way, and their sonic ambitions weren’t broad enough to keep me coming back.

I have a playlist for when I’m in the car that is sort of my “whenever I hear a song and I’m really excited about it, I add it here so it’ll show up from time to time” list. It’s 1,300 songs right now, and I think I have 4 songs total from early 90’s Seattle bands. I think the only Soundgarden song in there is Ty Cobb. Nirvana I don’t think has made the list, but maybe School is there.

yeah I've recently got that impression as well

McParadigm wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Nirvana broke with a pop record.

100%.

Strat wrote:bye bye AIC

To be honest, I wouldn’t miss any of the others. They all have records or songs that I like, but they never “meant“ anything to me.

They just weren’t writing songs that expressed or spoke to anything that mattered to me in a deeper tissue way, and their sonic ambitions weren’t broad enough to keep me coming back.

I have a playlist for when I’m in the car that is sort of my “whenever I hear a song and I’m really excited about it, I add it here so it’ll show up from time to time” list. It’s 1,300 songs right now, and I think I have 4 songs total from early 90’s Seattle bands. I think the only Soundgarden song in there is Ty Cobb. Nirvana I don’t think has made the list, but maybe School is there.

I made one of those but for my drive up to Maine, which was 60 hours long (damn!). It has plenty of all this music but also other stuff too. No repeats of course, and I think I got through about a third of it in all the driving I did there and back.

I always had an issue with deeper connections to AIC maybe more than the others. I love the riffs and the phrasing and such, but the songs never quite hooked me in to the same level as say a Nirvana when I was a teenager or the way some songs do now, except Jar of Flies, which I really love.

Someone make a poll. Soundgarden easy for me.

I never cared that much for Nirvana while PJ, SG and AIC are essential for me. And im going to add STP and Smashing Pumpkins too. And Mudhoney. And the Trees.

Fuck it pretty much everyone.

That’s not as interesting.

Soundgarden obliterates those other bands. Except for the Pumpkins, of course.

I’d cut Nirvana and still die very happy