pearl jam
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam
Name Jeff Ament Current city Missoula, MT Really want to be in Essaouira, Morocco Excited about Top secret soundscape scoring gig. My current music collection has a lot of EG Records stable, US hardcore 1978-1984, NY avant, Windham Hill. You wouldn’t expect me to listen to Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood. Preferred format Vinyl by far, but I’m lazy so MP3s in the car. [embedded content][embedded content] 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: 1 Discreet Music Brian Eno I just get lost in these pieces and hear different rhythms and melodies every time I listen…perfect companion for a fella by himself on an island. 2 Bitches Brew Miles Davis So many layers, incredible shifts and colors. Bill Laswell remix is stunning. 3 Agaetis Byrjun Sigu...
The Beat of a Different Drummer: 10 Albums Where a New Drummer Put a Spring in the Band’s Step
The drummer is the job in a rock band with the highest turnover rate — a cliché lampooned memorably in This is Spinal Tap. And if it takes a few albums for a group’s definitive lineup to click into place, the drummer is often the final piece of the puzzle to arrive. But it’s often that change behind the drum set that makes a good band great, thanks to the addition of faster, louder, or more complex rhythms. Sometimes a versatile percussionist can even expand the band’s sonic palette and contribute to the songwriting. Here are 10 albums where the arrival of a new drummer marked an important transitional moment in an artist’s catalog. Nirvana – Nevermind (Dave Grohl) [embedded content][embedded content] Nirvana let go of early drummer Chad Channing in 1990 before they had a permanent replace...
Pearl Jam to Make Up Gigaton North American Dates Starting in May 2022
Last year, Pearl Jam was the first major band to postpone tour dates just as the pandemic was beginning. Now, a year and a half after that announcement (and the release of Gigaton), the band revealed that they’re planning on hitting the road in May 2022 to make up those dates. The tour was originally scheduled to begin in March 2020 at a show in Toronto. Pearl Jam is currently working to finalize the tour’s details, including safety requirements and measures, and will announce the rescheduled dates early next year. “For nearly two years, the band has wanted nothing more than to play their new music live for you,” Pearl Jam wrote on their social media account. “The whole Pearl Jam team shares your excitement for us all to be safely on the road again together.” Thank you, Pearl Jam fans...
Watch Coldplay Cover Pearl Jam’s ‘Nothingman’ at Seattle Concert
Coldplay christened Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena last night, and Chris Martin took the opportunity to pay homage to the city’s hometown heroes Pearl Jam by covering their Vitalogy song “Nothingman.” “So, ‘cause we’re here in Seattle, we wanted to pay tribute to one of the bands we fell in love with when we were just young teenagers in the ‘90s,” he explained to the crowd before urging fans not to upload footage to YouTube because this was not going to a pristine rendition of the 1994 track. “This is a 44-year-old man remembering how much he fell in love with Pearl Jam in 1991. If you told that kid he’d be here singing this song, he would’ve said ‘You sure that’s a good idea?’ And I’d say ‘Maybe not, but I’m doing it.’” Martin then brought up drummer Will Champion to play p...
Watch Brandi Carlile Sing ‘Again Today’ With Pearl Jam
Brandi Carlile has had quite the week. The big news, obviously, is that her terrific new album, In These Silent Days, is out now. On Sunday, she performed “Better Man” with Pearl Jam at Ohana Festival, and on Saturday night on the second night of the festival’s Encore Weekend, the band returned the favor. Calling Carlile up to the stage again, this time Pearl Jam tackled one of her songs, “Again Today.” Previously at their first show at Seattle’s Safeco Field in 2018, they brought Carlile up to perform it. “Again Today” originally featured on 2007’s The Story was covered by Pearl Jam on the 2017 covers album Cover Stories. Check it out below. [embedded content] Carlile wasn’t the only guest during Pearl Jam’s set. For the finale, the band brought up every person who performed on Satur...
Watch Brandi Carlile Perform ‘Better Man’ With Pearl Jam
Throughout the first weekend at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival, a number of artists dropped in on each other’s sets (not just year, but over the course of the festival’s history). Day three was no different. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready popped in to close Brandi Carlile’s set with a cover of Soundgarden’s “Searching With My Good Eye Closed,” a song she released for Record Store Day in 2020 with the surviving members of that band. Later in the night during Pearl Jam’s set, Vedder invited Carlile to come out and sing with them during their weekend closing set. Prior to playing “Better Man” with Carlile, Vedder joked with the crowd about a line that Carlile told him earlier about the women on the bill (including Yola and Sharon Van Etten) and that he was allowed permission to share it. He added t...
Watch Pearl Jam Live-Debut Gigaton Tracks at First Show in Three Years
When Pearl Jam released their 11th studio album, Gigaton, last March, there was no way of knowing just how bad the pandemic was going to be. They performed its single, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” at a virtual COVID-19 fundraiser, but like so many other bands weren’t able to play new material in front of an audience. On Saturday night, Pearl Jam finally got to play a number of songs off the record live during their headlining set at the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey. In addition to giving “Dance of the Clairvoyants” its proper live-debut, they also performed “Quick Escape,” “Seven O’Clock,” “Never Destination,” “Superblood Wolfmoon,” and “Take The Long Way.” Pearl Jam also treated fans to a few covers during the 20-song set, including Bruce Springsteen’s “My City Of Ruin...
Eddie Vedder Unveils New Song ‘Long Way’ From New Album Earthling
It’s been a long time since Eddie Vedder released a proper solo album—10 years to be precise. After that long layoff, “Long Way” is your first taste of what’s to come. The Pearl Jam frontman’s new track was a collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt (who, when we spoke with him last December, made no mention of the collab, but did mention new albums with Miley Cyrus and Ozzy Osbourne). The track comes from Vedder’s upcoming album, Earthling, which doesn’t have a release date yet. Fans can pre-order a special limited edition 7-inch vinyl featuring “Long Way” and a soon-to-be-released track, “The Haves,” via Pearl Jam’s Ten Club. This fall, Vedder will perform with Pearl Jam at a string of festivals, including the Sea.Hear.Now. Festival on September 18 and both with and w...
The Road Less Traveled: Our 1997 Pearl Jam Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the February 1997 issue of SPIN. In honor of No Code turning 25, we’re republishing this article here. Here is a joke Eddie Vedder told me. It wasn’t the only joke he told, but it was probably the best, and it bears repeating. “How many members of Pearl Jam does it take to change a lightbulb?” When Eddie Vedder asks a question of you, or you of him, or when he makes an important point, or when he shares something with you and wants a reaction, his eyebrows shoot up so they’re suddenly at right angles to each other. It brings to mind disbelieving girlfriends, mean teachers, and Satan. It’s an altogether unwelcoming look, and it’s immediately amplified by a steely glare and furrowed brow. For a moment—a long moment—you can’t help but believe thos...
Pearl of Wisdom: Our 1991 Pearl Jam Feature
This article originally appeared in the September 1991 issue of SPIN. In honor of Pearl Jam’s Ten turning 30 today, we’re republishing this article here. It’s a rock ‘n’ roll comfort thing—you wouldn’t understand. Especially if you’re a guard at Harrod’s department store in London, where Seattle’s Pearl Jam discovered that the ensemble the band wears—cut-off fatigue shorts accessorized with electrical tape, tie-dyed long underwear, and rock T-shirts—is completely misunderstood. The members of the seductively churning rock band found this out when a guard asked them to leave the premises, even though vocalist Eddie Vedder offered to go straight to the men’s department and buy something else to wear. He was denied, and Pearl Jam was escorted from the store. The guard obviously didn’t ge...
30 Artists Reflect on 30 Years of Pearl Jam’sTen
The story has been told thousands of times, but it bears repeating: Pearl Jam should never have happened. The ’90s had just begun. In March 1990, the promising Seattle rock band Mother Love Bone was about to unveil their debut album. But on the eve of the release, the band’s lead singer, Andrew Wood, died tragically of a heroin overdose. His band members, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament were blind-sided, devastated, and decided to end the band. Over the next few months, Gossard slowly found his way back to music. He made a few demos that landed in the hands of a surfer from San Diego via Chicago who got them from ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. The surfer’s name was Eddie Vedder. The songs he sent back? “Alive,” “Once,” and “Footsteps.” Pearl Jam formed around t...
Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament Talks Anniversaries and I Should Be Outside
When I spoke with Jeff Ament a little over a year ago, he was as bummed as the rest of us. The pandemic was in its early stages, and Pearl Jam was one of the first bands to make the smart decision to indefinitely postpone their 2020 tour. That meant not playing shows in support of Gigaton, their first album in nearly seven years. The Pearl Jam bassist said, from his hideout in Montana, that he was in “Bob Pollard mode.” He’d been writing and writing and writing. Ament wrote about 70 songs during the lockdowns. The first result of channeling his angst into music was the hardcore-infused American Death Squad EP, a solo project released last July. Now? He’s onto his fourth solo effort, with a title so perfect that it echoes how most (if not all) of us feel: I Should Be Outside. Being hom...
