Red Mosquito

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Rats by a wide margin, though there are plenty of songs that got eliminated I would have taken over either

These are both mid level PJ songs for me. I think I like In Hiding a little better.

RATS HAS A MICHAEL JACKSON REFERENCE AND IT DESERVES YOUR VOTE

Easily In Hiding for me.

Bammer wrote:RATS HAS A MICHAEL JACKSON REFERENCE

Who gives a shit? In Hiding has Single Video Theory.

In Hiding and this is the easiest match on the whole tournament.

"In Hiding" is one of Stone's finest musical contributions to Pearl Jam -- it's astonishing how he manages to stake out such a singular emotional space using simple variations on and suspensions of basic major chords. I'm no fan of Eddie in Deepak Chopra mode and "In Hiding" is probably his worst offense on "Yield," but it's not enough to drive me to vote for the gangly alterna-monkey-funk that is "Rats."

Love the funkiness of Rats. It's always been a favorite of mine from Vs.

Stone wrote so many cool little guitar parts for In Hiding. Nice restrained playing, on the money use of piano, Jack's drum fills are fucking killer, that sweet sweet Yield production, etc.

In Hiding. The lyrics on this one never bothered me too much; they just act as a simple story, not trying to do more than they say. I still don't know what "I swallowed my face to keep from biting" means, but it wouldn't be a PJ lyric if there weren't a few muffed lines along the way.

Kevin Davis wrote:gangly alterna-monkey-funk

Haha, perfect - and it's Rats for me.

Both are good songs that I enjoy. Rats is Dave and Jeff at their finest though and it gets Stone in the groove.

Both are great songs. I love Yield - the tone, the production, the whole band firing..... but I love the funky groove of Rats.

In Hiding is probably the better song and I'm probably more likely to listen to it... but I might throw some food to the Rats!

C'mon folks... RATS is Pearl Jam at their best. Remember when these guys used to enjoy just jamming together? Stone's actually having fun in this song.

Am I the only one who feels like the "groove"/"funk" element of early Pearl Jam is kind of overstated?

it's definitely more prevalent there then on later records but it hardly defines the sound.

Kevin Davis wrote:Am I the only one who feels like the "groove"/"funk" element of early Pearl Jam is kind of overstated?

During their initial breakthrough, it certainly felt like they had quite a bit of that groove/funk element to their music. But, looking back now, it was probably more related to Jeff's hats.

The "groove/funk" thing has a lot to do with Dave A's playing.

But also Stone was bringing it with the funky riffs on those first two records.
Evenflow (so funky Prince covered it)
Animal
Blood
Rats

Ya know, rhythmic things that butt up against each other.

After that though, Ed comes more to the forefront and things got punkier for Vitalogy.

bluestate wrote:C'mon folks... RATS is Pearl Jam at their best. Remember when these guys used to enjoy just jamming together? Stone's actually having fun in this song.

I don't if it's PJ at their best, but it is a really good song (and fun).