ten's main issue is that it's big-hair rock written for a new generation. it's old school arena stuff with wanky solos; the only difference is the plaid shirts and more aware lyrics. i have no problem with that aspect of it; it just makes it a bit facelift compared to what came afterwards. and it's rather hit and miss

some awesome songs on there, but in the same way there are some awesome songs on skyscraper by david lee roth

spot on for the most part.

when Ed took the reigns fully, that's when things were at their best. as much as i value the other band members contributions on later records, the band is clearly at their best when Ed writes a majority of the music and ALL of the lyrics. the only collaborative record that they've done that worked for me as much is Yield.

There are a lot of groan-inducing moments for me on Ten. That's why I brought up the "first 40 seconds" bit. I like "Once", but that intro shouldn't be on a Pearl Jam album. It's such a lame rock-band-trying-to-be-serious-and-having-some-world-music-bullshit thing to open a record with. Why they chose to do that instead of just launching into the riff and opening the record with a pretty good anthemic 3-minute rock song still boggles my mind. I never said the album is bad because it's been overplayed. It's bad because the production is straight out of 1988 major-label rock and some feel differently, but a lot of the songs don't hold up for me anymore. I was never huge on "Alive", "Evenflow" or "Jeremy" anyway - but having them drilled into my head over the years doesn't make me anxious to ever hear them again. Doesn't make them bad - just not something I want to listen to. I could do without "Deep", as well. And "Garden"? Without the '90s-guitarz-chorus and wanktastic git-tar solo, the first minute or so sounds like a song from a '90s Sting solo album.

you do realize that the intro from Once is the outro of Release called Master/Slave right?

i recall someone from the band talking about why they did that, in that they wanted the album to flow circular, in that if you let it play and then repeat, the end meshes into the beginning.

not saying that makes it more worthy, just thought i'd clarify

Agree with what many have said so far.
Some things come to mind:

-PJ is best when Ed does most of the writing, he doesn't have to be as prominent as in the Vitalogy era, but I feel the No Code/Yield time was the bands best overall output. Stone is the only other band member that should be allowed to write.

-Binaural is their most underated album for me, some great songs, (Thin Air/ Light Years/ Grievance) and some interesting experiments (Slieght of Hand, Soon Forget).

-Some great live shows to get:

East Troy 6/21/03-People still talk about this show and the fact that PJ has not been back since. Alpine is due a show.

Live At Beneroya Hall 10/22/03-A great overview & one of the best "sounding" live albums I have ever heard.

Atlanta Fox Theatre 4/3/94 Considered a classic show

And as others have mentioned Mansfield 03, Seattle 00, and Soldier Field 95.

Album rankings: No Code>VS>Yield>Vitalogy>>>>>Ten>Binaural>>>>S/T>>>>>>>>>>Riot Act

This thread made me want to listen to Pearl Jam for the first time in a long time. I was shocked to find a band that had, for a short but important time, been my favorite band in the world has fallen out of my main book of CDs. This wrong must be righted.

The outtakes are good, but I don't think they would have added anything to Ten, as a whole. Brother's kind of generic, I can see why they left it off. I prefer the faster version of Wash, too. Was Footsteps even recorded in the studio? I think the version that's circulated is from a radio show. Dave A is on the geetar. It really didn't matter back then if those tracks were on the album because they were such a popular band those songs made it onto people's radars anyhow through radio. So I don't see why it matters now, you know?



See, what came afterwards was a deliberate attempt to keep the band small. Which, at the time, you had to respect their sort of 'anti-star' way of thinking. But, I wish the records were as good as Ten was. They sacrificed what made the band jaw-dropping great and didn't give as much of a shit as they maybe should have. No Code to me marks the end of an era for them. That record is so half-assed for the most part and band tensions were at an all-time high, listening to it now, it just feels like they didn't want to be in the same room together, much less record. For me, it's a tie between that and Binaural as the worst studio records. But hey, it's their career and they definitely deserved to do what they wanted to it, and it looks like NC ended up being the wake-up call as to whether or not they wanted to continue. They emerged, but it seems they've focused too much on compromise from Yield to the present, and not on putting out the best songs.

I certainly wouldn't call it 'big-hair rock.' Bands have been doing the whole anthemic, arena song thing way before Poison came around. So, to dismiss it as that is kind of short-sighted, I think. Sort of goes back to the whole 'it sucks because it's popular' mentality.

Yes, but don't you see...? That's precisely why it's so baller!

you sure you've heard the full on original Brother with vocals? and not the abomination that was released on Lost Dogs?

http://www.pearljamonline.it/SongOfTheMont...%20Version).mp3

i don't think it's all that generic honestly... that hook is pretty killer, as is the guitar work. not sure why the even bothered putting that half-assed instrumental take of it on Lost Dogs.

i have a MUCH better quality copy of this original version with vox somewhere, but that's all i could find w/ a quick google search

as for those songs not adding anything to Ten, possibly, but like i said, i'd still take State, Breath, Alone, or Footsteps above most any song on Ten. those songs (especiall SOLAT) are all in my top 10 PJ songs, and SOLAT is my all-time fave PJ song live.

but no, there was never truly a proper studio Footsteps (at least released anyway...)

maybe you hold Ten up to a higher standard than I ever did, even back in '91? that could be some of the disparity i suppose. while i bought Ten around Oct/Nov of '01, i honestly didn't fall in love with the band until June of '92 when the Singles soundtrack came out with SOLAT & Breath, and then Vs. solidified it.

patchy albums aren't jaw droppingly great by and large


please don't put words in my fingertips. i like big hair rock and was just observing the similarities. temple of the dog is one of my favourite records of that era and is totally 80s sounding. white dudes with long hair doing bluesy rock with big choruses. pj was the mother love bone that succeeded, the less smug rhcp, the less consistent living colour

mentality is more 'it's popular because it sounds rather like stuff that was already popular, but with aspects tweaked'

sure bands were doing anthemic rock before poison. however, big hair rock had been the primary mode of rock currency til that point and pj, like early alice in chains, did little to distance themselves apart from the superficial. ten is as bombastic as something like operation mindcrime, as desperate to be rock star-epic, similar guitar work. only difference was baggier clothes and a vocalist with less range than geoff tate

i think records 2-4 were better than Ten. eddie took over the group after the debut and has pretty much bent it to where he's wanted it to go ever since. it's true that he was always uncomfortable with the massive stardom, which is why he sort of consciously downsized the sound. then when he made the decision not to carry the weight of the world on his back so much (somewhere between 'no code' and 'yield') things shifted again away from the more punk aesthetic


see, now i think this is all just horseshit


but i think that's sort of the world ament and gossard had just come from with mother love bone. and you can certainly hear a large dose of that on Ten

Thanks for posting that. It's a song I've always been curious about, but was too lazy to seek out.

Thanks for enabling my laziness

Is there a good book about Pearl Jam out there? I have $20 burning a hole in my pocket and a Barnes and Noble discount card.

I'm curious to know how Eddie was hired to be the lead singer and how he got the rest of the band to tone down their rock star ambitions in favor of longevity. I know he pretty much disowned the "Rolling Stone" story that came out about 10 years ago or so.

I also think it's interesting that while Cobain was more ambitious about fame than he led on during his lifetime that nobody talked about Pearl Jam's desire for stardom.

I can't stand "Better Man," "Nothingman," "Yellow Ledbetter," "Daughter" and "Wishlist." I don't understand a band that produced so many good songs can also produce so many horrendous ones.

I think Yield is pretty bad. "In Hiding" does nothing for me. Binaural is probably their best album or at least the ones with the most good songs. No Code is their second best.

if pressed to put together a 15 song PJ mix, i'd probably fill 1/3 of it with songs from No Code. that's a great place to start.

i believe i have cd's from their 6 boston area shows several years back where they didn't repeat 1 song. if i get around to it i'll try to upload that. it'll give you something to soundtrack your summer by the pool trying to write that novel.

I owned this album in college and wore it out. I loved this album:



I like it better than 10.

Oh yeah, I've had that for years. The riff is cool, but the vocal melody sounds unfinished in spots.




I played the shit out of that record when I got it. Went through two cassette tapes before Vs. came out.

Like the rest of the PJ catalog? I'd agree.



You're going to have to define what bands ToTD or PJ sound like from the 80s, because I ain't hearing it. Hard rock groups from the 80s were all spandex and makeup for the most part.



Lyrically, PJ and Alice in Chains were about the opposite of superficial. Unless there's some hidden album where they sing songs about pussy that I'm unaware of. They totally made all those 80s bands that came before them look like morons. I guess I don't see the problem with an unknown band at the time making something catchy and anthemic and seeing millions of people respond positively to it. They've never been able to duplicate Ten's success, both critically and commercially. Twenty years from now, it will still be seen as their best record (unless they do an abrupt about-face in terms of how they record).



I think songs like 'Hail Hail,' 'Habit,' 'Smile,' 'Lukin,' and the dreaded 'Red Mosquito' sound way better live than on record. The tempos are faster, there's more of a groove to them. It just seems like the faster songs on No Code are recorded slower, thereby losing a lot of the wallop. I think of it as the record that could have been a lot better, unlike Binaural, where they had the great songs, but didn't put them on the album.

And to answer zen arcade's question, yes there are PJ biographies in existence, but they're all unauthorized, and I don't think any of them cover the period from 1998 on forward. There's a cool book of live photos Charles Peterson put together, but if you're looking for something to read, there's not much that wasn't compiled from magazine interviews out there.

I'd hope there'd be an in-depth book about the band at some point, seems like there are some interesting stories that either never got the press they should have, or the whole story wasn't told.

'90-'91 is when i transitioned from my metal (Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, etc.) to Alt/Hard Rock (Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Jane's Addiction, RHCP, etc.) phase

My favorite record from 10-15 was Slippery When Wet. Take that.

and thankfully commercial success and critical analysis means jack squat in the grand scheme

Well, the point of this thread was to see if there are any other essential albums a casual fan should own besides Ten which critically and commercially is their best, so I'd say it's at least kind of relevant, yes?

No Code is something I'd give a casual fan if they liked 2-3 other albums in the catalog. I just don't see why that's the next step after Ten, necessarily.

right, i'd give them Vs. then Vitalogy, but that wasn't Bob's point really i don't think, just that there's a lot more love for No Code than the album's sales numbers would have you show, especially amongst PJ's hardcore fans.

besides, the reason Ten has sold 12 million copies, is because like you said, we've all worn out 3-4 copies a piece

I know, but I was referring to the first post in the thread. I'm not trying to rip on the people who dig No Code, but that and Binaural I do not like.

Hey, I've still gone through less copies of Ten than I have Slanted & Enchanted.

ha, i see what you did there


this is precisely what i mean. there was no spandex any more and eddie sang about more 'personal' themes, but that was it. you fell for the con

i still try to take beer and piss breaks during evenflow, alive and jeremy at their concerts

Eddie Vedder Embarks on Second Leg of Solo Tour

Tour Kicks Off August 1st in Boston and Ends August 22nd in Chicago

TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 11th

SEATTLE — Eddie Vedder will embark on a month-long solo tour beginning August 1st in Boston and ending August 22nd in Chicago with select dates in Canada (full list of tour dates below).

Tickets for the general public will go on sale on Friday, July 11, 2008 through www.ticketmaster.com or at Ticketmaster outlets.

The base ticket price for all shows is $75 plus additional venue, service and handling fees. There is a four-ticket limit for the public on sale.

A special, limited ticket pre-sale for current active members of Pearl Jam's Ten Club will begin at 9 am PDT on July, 7, 2008 and run through 5 pm PDT on July 9, 2008 at www.pearljam.com. There is a two-ticket limit for the Ten Club pre-sale.

Liam Finn will open these shows.

The second leg of Eddie Vedder’s solo tour comes on the heels of his sold-out West Coast solo tour in April 2008.

Eddie Vedder Solo Tour Dates:

DATE CITY VENUE

8/1/08 Boston Opera House
8/2/08 Boston Opera House
8/4/08 New York United Palace Theater
8/5/08 New York United Palace Theater
8/7/08 Newark New Jersey Performing Arts Center
8/9/08 Montreal, QC Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier/Place
8/12/08 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
8/13/08 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
8/16/08 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
8/17/08 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
8/19/08 Milwaukee The Riverside Theater
8/21/08 Chicago Auditorium Theatre
8/22/08 Chicago Auditorium Theatre

i think i'd like to see one of those solo shows but not sure for $75. has anyone seen it or are there boots available?

there's pretty good audience recordings available

i'd be on the fence myself...

for one, Ed has never been that great of a solo performer, mostly due to his very limited guitar playing skills. that said, he does some fantastic covers solo.

the setlists of the West Coast tour comprised of all of Into The Wild (so there's about 1/3 of the set), the usual PJ songs Ed plays solo (Around The Bend, Dead Man, etc.), and a ton of very great covers (specifically the 3 Cat Stevens ones):

here's the Berkely show:

1. Walking the Cow
2. Around the Bend
3. I am Mine
4. Dead Man Walking
5. I’m Open
6. Man of the Hour
7. Setting Forth
8. Guaranteed
9. No Ceiling
10. Far Behind
11. Rise
12. Millworker
13. Goodbye
14. Satellite
15. Drifting
16. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
17. Here’s to the State
18. Trouble
19. If You Want to Sing Out. Sing Out
20. Parting Ways
21. Forever Young
22. Porch

1st ENCORE

23. Society
24. Growin’ Up
25. Lukin
26. No More
27. Arc

2nd ENCORE

28. Hard Sun

im not paying $75 for it

solace what did you think of the show u saw in DC? i saw them in Columbia, but wasnt into it too much. WMA and Who You Are were pretty bad live. I would rather hear the reworked In My Tree. Highlights were Present Tense, Red Mos. and Cant Keep.

Would anyone be willing to up Merkinball? I had completely forgotten about those two songs... my roommate bought it and we listened to it like crazy (it came out my freshman year at IU), but it all but fell out of my head completely since then.

I was at the aforementioned Soldier Field show... amazing. When they brought up the stage lights as the first guitar notes of "Release" started... one of the best concert moments of my life.

This thread makes me want to go back and revisit No Code... never really liked it. I kind of gave up on them after Vitalogy, but I was pleasantly surprised by Yield. Vs. to me is still the classic... I don't really see a weak song on there.

I'm still pissed at Eddie Vedder because every time someone wants me to count off a song, a voice in my head says "ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE AGAIN FOUR FI-FI FIVE FIVE FIVE AGAIN FOUR".

No probs Rabbi

just got back from mansfield, traveled all the way from canada for the last 3 shows of the mini-tour

what a time, some great shows hartford was my fav, but the second mansfield was pretty great as well

great band, treat there fans better then any other band...but what does it for me is the setlists...i had seen them 6 times before these 3 shows and between the 3 shows i saw 22 songs i had never seen before....great stuff like satans bed, immortality, in hiding, off he goes, who you are, glorified g, god's dice, all night and there cover of love reign is one of the greatest live performances i have ever seen

my fav album is vitalogy....just sucha dirty album and all over the place and no code is for sure 2nd...i would say my least favs are ten and s/t

even if you don't dig pearl jam you have to respect there morals and work ethic, i just cannot say a bad thing about this band.

why is a pearl jam thread 5 pages long...

How long do you think a thread should be about a band that is still very popular w/ a lot of the contributors around here? Not to mention that a lot of the contributors around here might have first been getting into music when albums like Ten & Vs. were released so despite the quality of the work released by the band in recent years they manage to hold a special place in the heart of a lot of people.

So, I think 5 pages (or more) is fine for a band like Pearl Jam.

to answer your question the thread should be two posts long

one with the original question asked...

the second saying something to the effect that nothing by this band is really worth being checked out and that there is plenty of stuff both now and from that era that are much more worth your time...

$75 bucks for a solo Eddie show is a little steep for me.

$75 to see the whole band in that same venue, I'm there.

Like your board output.

If you don't like Pearl Jam, don't click a thread entitled "pearl jam 101."

yep.

i MAY try and do that Milwaukee show, as it's half the size of Chicago, but we'll see, middle of the week shows out of town suck

taken from the girl talk thread



so your posting on a thread of an artist and agenre youre not a fan of...and this took me two minutes to do...im sure if i dug deeper i could find much better evidence that you post plenty in threads of bands you dislike as well

Yup, the exact same thing.

Keep digging. It's making you look better.

Muchas gracias! Thread puts me in the mood to make a trip to Bloomington, where I did most of my PJ-listening...

Hell yes. It's why I saw them 10+ times back in the day. It's the first (and still best?) example of that Pearl Jam signature... the slow build followed by a hot, sweaty climax. On record, this one hits around 2:20, but live, it was so drawn out and exponentially more explosive.

I'll go with a wee mix, a favorite from each:

Porch (from Ten)
Rearviewmirror (from Vs.)
Corduroy (from Vitalogy)
Present Tense (from No Code)
In Hiding (from Yield)
Insignificance (from Binaural)
(I can't recommend anything from Riot Act, their only true bomb)
Marker in the Sand (from S/T)

OK.

So my mother wants to see Eddie Vedder. She hasn't seen a show in thirty years, and just learned about this thing today, and she wishes to end the streak. Obviously, it's sold out by now. If any kind-hearted SOMBie has 2-3 extra tickets, or knows someone who does, please let me know, and we can discuss terms.

Thanks.

Bumped in the dim hope work SOMBies have tickets/hearts.

A Mix for Curious Types Exhausted by Daughter, etc.

1. Oceans (Ten)
2. Comatose (Avocado)
3. In My Tree (No Code)
4. Tremor Christ (Vitalogy)
5. Unemployable (Avocado)
6. Can't Keep (Riot Act)
7. Blood (Vs.)
8. Satan's Bed (Vitalogy)
9. Of the Girl (Binaural)
10. Low Light (Yield)
11. In Hiding (Yield)
12. WMA (Vs.)
13. Arc (Riot Act)


Favorite and/or Best Pearl Jam

1. VITALOGY - The angst, the disillusionment, the immediacy and absolute rawness of the recording. Really spoke to me and I still find it their most interesting artistic statement - which is why I like the inclusion of weird-ass songs like Bugs, Pry To, Aye Davanita & Stupid Mop. Has a very distinct vibe to it from the album art to the production.
2. YIELD - Love the wide-open, optimistic feel of this album. Great production and Jack Irons kicks ass. Still their best drummer.
3. NO CODE - their eclectic, world-music sounding trip. And "In My Tree" is arguably the best thing they've committed to tape.
4. VS. - Their most cohesive, consistent rock & roll record. Songs like "Animal" and "Blood" just make you want to climb the rafters and fucking torch the place. Thank God they're getting back with Brendan O'Brien.
5. TEN - The classic that started it all. However, they sound like they're playing inside a tin can, which is why almost every last one of these songs is better live. Anthemic. But like everyone else, I'm tired of most of it.
6. AVOCADO - A solid hit up the middle. Not a huge fan of Adam Kaspar on the boards, but they managed to show some life again on this one.
7. BINAURAL - The more I get away from this record, the more disappointed I am that they didn't have more balls. Should have experimented to the hilt, in the mode of "Nothing As It Seems", "Of the Girl" and "Sleight of Hand." They went wrong when they made it more of a mishmash. Could have been their Pink Floyd album.
8. RIOT ACT - Clearly their worst effort. I think the main problem is Vedder just sounds uninspired and depressed - a real lack of focus on delivery, lyrics, melody, etc.


RECOMMENDATION FOR THE UNINITIATED SEEKER: Vs.

RECOMMENDATION FOR THE INITIATED DABBLER: No Code

RECOMMENDATION FOR "NAGODE": Assert Hipster Cred Somewhere Else

well, i picked up a couple of their albums a week or so ago in the used bin:

VS. ~ i think someone mentioned in here something about listening to Pearl Jam and thinking, "yeah, those all sound like Pearl Jam songs." i kind of understand that way of thinking on this record. i like it. the songs are solid. i was vaguely familiar with a handful of the songs prior to this. they all kind of sound like Pearl Jam songs. i don't think there's anything particularly wrong with this record. perhaps more listening will send more songs forward to my ears. at the moment, it's a decent record that doesn't stand out for me.

YIELD ~ now, this record i much more prefer. songs like "In Hiding," "Wishlist," "Do The Evolution," "Faithfull," "Given To Fly" and "Pilate," i think, are better than the other songs on this record. i dig it.

thanks, everyone.

on to whatever is next in the used bins.

well, NO CODE arrived in the mail today via Half.com.

great record.

you guys were right. it's probably the best of their records to start off with. all the songs that were generally mentioned ~ "In My Tree," "Red Mosquito," "Present Tense," "Lukin," "Hail Hail" ~ are probably the better songs. better than anything else i've heard by Pearl Jam.

thank you very much for all the discussion.

I wish I could go back and hear No Code again without the expectations... after Vs. and Vitalogy, I was expecting something different. I was pretty disappointed, and unfortunately that has forever colored my opinion of No Code. I still prefer Yield. At any rate, glad you like, Bob! Give Vs. a few more chances... still think that's the pinnacle.