Red Mosquito

Last Exit vs. Do The Evolution

Two surprising but worthy finalists.

Last Exit. 5-10 years ago I would have gone DTE

DTE and it isn't even remotely close.

I see Faithfull got fucked over, I'll vote DTE I guess.

I was surprised to see that it wasn't even close this time. Faithfull beat DTE by one vote in the division finals

Why did we even have regional finals and semifinals?

CopperTom wrote:Why did we even have regional finals and semifinals?

DTE is a worthy champion

Two worthy finalists indeed.

In a sense, "Last Exit" was the song that certified me not only a Pearl Jam fan, but a lifelong music disciple. Having purchased "Vitalogy" on the grounds of "Better Man" being "a song on the radio that I liked well enough to want to own on tape," I've often described that little free-jazz noodle at the beginning of "Last Exit" as the sound of everything I previously understood to be true about rock music being put into a blender, and the ensuing drum blast exploding that jumbled mess of preconceived notions to smithereens like a ton of dynamite. I say this with full understanding of how overwrought it will sound, but about sixty seconds into my first listen of this song, I was a changed person. And unlike so many songs that set the stage for my young obsessions, "Last Exit" has not aged a day -- it is, for all intents and purposes, the apex of what the first 3-4 years of Pearl Jam's career was climbing to, the raw passion and fury of their sound fused with the more calculated melody and structure of their craft, minus any of the embarrassing excess and melodrama that marked so many stops along the way. 20 years later, it still sounds wonderful.

That said, the first cut ain't always the deepest. "Yield" has meant a lot more to my life than "Vitalogy" has, and while my lasting impression of "Do the Evolution" has been tainted by years of rote live performances that are too fast and too irreverent to the subtler qualities of the song (strange of a quality though "subtlety" would seem in reference to a song like this), one listen to the studio version of this song and I am immediately overwhelmed by a number of sensory details that elevate this song to a level that far exceeds what even the best live versions are capable of achieving. Eddie's phrasing feels decidedly "in character"; on live versions, he sounds like Eddie Vedder singing sarcastically, but here his depth of phrasing -- the way he gradually grows in intensity as the song progresses, starting with a sort of detached snarl that evolves verse by verse into the shredded, depraved howl it becomes by the end, against the gnash and grind of the crunching guitars -- transforms the song into a piece of theater. I swear I hear a keyboard coming through the left channel during the second bridge, too -- residue from the "hallelujah" interlude. The definition of instruments on "Yield" (and "No Code" too -- it's a marvel how Brendan O'Brien is at once this band's best and worst producer) is so perfect, how clear set across the spectrum everything is, yet how flawlessly it all collides coming out of your speaker. Even for a song as primitively vulgar as "DTE," those touches really give it life.

If this were an earlier round, I might be compelled to vote for "Last Exit," because breaking it down it is probably the stronger musical composition. But when push comes to shove, "DTE" -- as the centerpiece of my favorite piece of long-form recorded music in history -- is the song I'd be sadder to never hear again. With deepest respect to "Last Exit" -- vote for "DTE."

Vitalogy for the win.

And while Last Exit is not even in the top 3 tracks for me on that album, I'll gladly vote for it here. DTE is fun, it's a nice rock song, and it's a good example of PJ at its finest. But even with the far superior studio cut with Jack (as compared to Matt live versions), it still doesn't quite capture what makes Pearl Jam what they are to me. Brain of J did that better on Yield. And that DNA just oozes out of Vitalogy.

So, Last Exit it is.

CopperTom wrote:Why did we even have regional finals and semifinals?

because voting for the songs from the same era was a nice change of pace, and the regional semis and finals determined the seeding for the interdivision tournament.

You know, how every single sports tournament ever basically works.

Last Exit 2015!

stip wrote:Two surprising but worthy finalists.

Last Exit. 5-10 years ago I would have gone DTE

I'm surprised. I remember on the last board, you coudln't get enough of this song.

stip wrote: You know, how every single sports tournament ever basically works.

Except for March Madness.

Fuck You Jobu wrote:

stip wrote:Two surprising but worthy finalists.

Last Exit. 5-10 years ago I would have gone DTE

I'm surprised. I remember on the last board, you coudln't get enough of this song.

DTE is still a top 10 song for me. It's just that last exit is top 5 these days

cutuphalfdead wrote:

stip wrote: You know, how every single sports tournament ever basically works.

Except for March Madness.

aren't half the teams non-conference winners?

stip wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:

stip wrote: You know, how every single sports tournament ever basically works.

Except for March Madness.

aren't half the teams non-conference winners?

The brackets are divided into four regions. They don't finish those and then take top four from each and do the sweet sixteen, they just go through them and the winner of each advances to the final four. The sweet sixteen just happens when there are four remaining in each region.

yes, but how do people get into the brackets in the first place?

NCAA Basketball-
32 conference champions (31 of which are determined by end of season conference tournament)
36 at-large selections by committee

Four play-in games
Single elimination 64 team tournament.

-----

Suggestion for next year's PJ March Madness-

Set up 15-20 "conferences" based on albums, b-sides, collections, etc...
Have "conference tournaments" to start narrowing field to 64
"Conference" winners (or maybe top 2) automatically get into field of 64 and seeded on the top lines
Have all remaining songs be put into a large pool and have everyone vote for their top 10-15 from the pool.
Top remaining vote getters fill out the rest of the seeds
Single elimination 64 song tournament

With this, we get individual album winners, plus a vote driven field of the 64 best tunes.

Spoiler: show

"Conferences"
1. Ten
2. Vs
3. Vitalogy
4. No Code
5. Yield
6. Binaural
7. Riot Act
8. Lost Dogs 1
9. Lost Dogs 2
10. S/T
11. Backspacer
12. Lightning Bolt
13. Stray Cats (non Lost Dogs B-sides)
14. Misc Covers
15. Misc Demos/Rarities 1
16. Misc Demos/Rarities 2

Top 2 from each gets automatically in as a 1, 2, 3, or 4 seed

stip wrote:yes, but how do people get into the brackets in the first place?

I get that part, but that's the part no one cares about. The reason people mimic the march madness basketball tournaments to set up all sorts of things against each other in a bracket style tournament is because of the one and done nature of it. No one mimics march madness and has a regular season first, because that's just silly.

I understand fully what you did here, I just think it's a decision that throws out the exciting nature of this type of tournament. There were essentially a bunch of matchups towards the end of this tournament that were meaningless games. In regular sports, when you've clinched the playoffs and are just playing for seeding, you don't take those games nearly as seriously than if you were playing for your life.