Red Mosquito

sweeper wrote:

warehouse wrote:

sweeper wrote:
and none of this is about making money, it's specifically partnering with a big box store.

It's related. The reason they did that Target deal is Target paid them a guaranteed amount of money that exceeded the amount they would have earned by not having the exclusive. Target paid them upfront for 1 million albums without PJ actually needing to sell a single unit. They hadn't sold 1 million copies of an album since Yield. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some other exclusivity fee involved too. So, basically, in an era where album sales were declining across the board, they were able to secure a deal that mitigated that.

That's probably the definition of "selling out" to some people but it doesn't bother me at all. As other have noted, they also did it on their own terms. They had the carve-out for 800+ indie stores to be able to sell the record. This deal was probably a boon for those stores since they now faced less competition (e.g. Best Buy) for who was selling it. So, yeah, they had to make a quick commercial promoting the album as part of the deal. Fwiw, that commercial barely even aired. It was like 1 or 2 times total. I wouldn't be surprised if few people here ever even saw it live.

Part of the backdrop on this too was it was on the relative heals of the Sony record deal being done. The band felt like they got screwed on that deal, as most musicians always do on their first contract. They saw an opportunity to be in a position of strength and took it. I think they also looked at Target and felt the values of the company aligned with their own values, for whatever that's worth.

bodysnatcher wrote:so, sweeper works for Target, right?

Birds in Hell wrote:

sweeper in July 2023 wrote:It sure beats the days when he had to force himself / pretend to like bands such as Fugazi, etc just help build credibility.

sweeper in July 2023 wrote:I like Ed but there isn't a lot about Pearl Jam that is anti-establishment. At their core, they're a mainstream, popular arena rock band. Ed's influences pre-Pearl Jam are about as mainstream as it could possibly get (The Who, The Beatles, Springsteen, U2, etc).

It wasn't until he got shamed about PJ being too corporate that he started championing bands like Fugazi, The Frogs, etc that had no connection to his musical style or influences.

It's actually refreshing now that he doesn't have to pretend to dislike Taylor Swift because he's afraid of what some douchewagon like Kurt Cobain is going to think. And ironically, Cobain was only annoyed because PJ was surpassing Nirvana's popularity. Ed, albeit with good intentions, exhibited some major follower behavior by caving in to the criticism vs. just being who he is (or was).

sweeper in March 2024 wrote:I think it's Ed being pressured into pretending he loves bands like Fugazi, The Frogs, etc due to the criticism of people like Cobain about PJ's music being too corporate. The extent to which Ed had to actually sell how much he liked those bands and then giving into letting it affect PJ's music was pretty embarrassing (to me). I wish he would have just rolled more with who he/PJ actually were, especially since most of Cobain's criticism came from a spot of jealousy.

Turns out this guy really, really hates Fugazi and The Frogs.

stip wrote:I am sure I deserved it, but what?

stip wrote:you can keep it to one thread.

igotworms wrote:Sorry to have missed the poll in this. FWIW I would have voted Oracle show. I've been to a lot of corporate events over the years as part of my job. The music shows are so cringe. I could possibly have understood it more if it was for a brand like Salesforce which is involved in a bunch of philanthropy. But Oracle are like the evil empire of the software world. Larry Ellison is basically a Bond villain in real life. I'm honestly still shocked that PJ agreed to that show.

Bammer wrote:New entry for next year is gonna be this half full European stadium cancellations debacle