Archive for the ‘Pearl Jam’ Category

We Be Pearl Jammin’

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Here is the rare Pearl Jam I was going to post a few weeks ago, but was too disgruntled to bother. My heart really isn’t in talking about the group still, which is why this post is kind of brief. Good tunes though.

Pearl Jam
Of The Earth (Live)
This is a new song that Pearl Jam premiered on their 2010 European tour. This live recording is an after-credits easter egg on the concert documentary film The Kids Are Twenty, the “for the fans” documentary about the band that the fans can no longer buy because the band chose to make it a limited edition release. But I’ve bitched about that enough…moving on.

Foldback
Harmony
Thunderclap
These three tracks are instrumentals that were used as background music for a couple of montages from the Touring Band 2000 DVD that came out in 2001. Slight, but still worth a few listens. Much like their origin suggests, they make for great background tunes.

No Jeremy
Falling Down
The annual “holiday” single is the only reason why I stick with the Ten Club (Pearl Jam’s fanclub). Over the years the band has used the Ten Club single to premiere many great tunes, including “Last Kiss,” and their covers of “Sonic Reducer” and “Love, Reign O’er Me.” This year’s single was one of the best, featuring these two incredibly rare tracks. “Falling Down” is an entirely original song that was only performed once, while “No Jeremy” is a radical reworking of “Jeremy” that restructures the song into something else entirely. Both recordings are taken from the same 1995 concert at Red Rocks.

Even though it’s Thanksgiving this week, I hope to get at least two more posts up before the holiday, including another Duane Bruce bootleg.

The probability of this happenings is directly related to how insane my family drives me and how much vodka is in my father’s house.

Posted in B-sides, live, Pearl Jam | 7 Comments »

Being a Fan is a Losing Battle: Pearl Jam, Selling Out and Sell Outs

Friday, October 21st, 2011

I’ve been told by many people that I like music too much. My usual response is “that’s not possible.” But today I think they may be right. If I don’t like music too much, I definitely expect too much from the people who make it, the people who give me one of my few sources of joy and happiness (in case you’re wondering, my other sources of happiness are kung fu movies, sushi, root beer and vodka – sometimes all at once).

I love a lot of bands and I don’t really have a favorite, but whenever I’m pressed to pick on I usually say Pearl Jam, although my fandom with Pearl Jam kind of came about in an odd way.

I was in junior high when Ten first came out and I liked it enough, but by the time Vitalogy was released I had pretty much lost interest in the group. That’s about when I discovered electronic music, and that consumed my popular music interest for a few years.

I didn’t fall in love with Pearl Jam until 2000, when they released live albums for all of their concerts in an effort to combat high-priced, shitty sounding bootlegs. I borrowed a few from a friend who was a die-hard Pearl Jam fanatic and quickly re-discovered the group. By the time I was done listening to all the albums my friend had, I was floored.

I was amazed to hear how different their setlists were from night to night. I loved how open they were to fan interaction and spontaneity. They always sounded like they were having a blast no matter how late into the tour it was. Most importantly though, they sounded fucking AMAZING. I couldn’t believe a band like Pearl Jam, a band that really had nothing left to prove, could consistently hit it out of the park almost every night.

It was then that I became hooked. I bought as many of the live CDs as I could. I joined Ten Club, the official Pearl Jam fan club. I even followed them on tour whenever they came to my neck of the woods. Since 2000 I’ve seen the group over 10 times, far more than any other band.

I have a framed copy of Yield on my wall in my living room for fuck’s sake. It’s an unhealthy obsession.

And Pearl Jam wasn’t just a great live band that put out great records (Binaural is a great, underrated album, check it out) but they also seemed to care about important shit. While so many other bands of the 90s seemed to sell out their indie ideals as soon as the money started to roll in, Pearl Jam seemed to hold on to them as best they could. They released their concerts on CD not to make money, but to save fans from buying crap bootlegs; they played important benefits shows and spoke out on important causes; they never wrote songs that objectified women or glorified violence. It’s a hard quality to quantify, but they seemed to “get it.”

In 2009, they got a lot of shit when they announced that their album Backspacer would be a Target exclusive release. It sounded like they were selling out their ideals for a quick buck, but when the band had a chance to explain themselves it didn’t look nearly as bad. (I even defended the band for doing it.)

It turned out that the album was only a “big box” exclusive for Target. This meant that while other national chains like Best Buy and Wal-Mart wouldn’t be able to carry it, local independent stores (and iTunes) would have the album for sale. And of course you could still get it at the band’s official website on both CD and vinyl. Pearl Jam gets paid, indie stores don’t get screwed, and the fans get the CD at a fair price. Everyone wins. And the album was pretty damn good too, their best in years.

Pearl Jam turned 20 this year (and I feel old). The band had a lot of festivities to celebrate. There was the huge PJ20 concert in Wisconsin, a small Canadian tour, and a movie called PJ20 directed by Cameron Crowe. It had a super-limited theatrical run, so I was excited to buy it when it came out on Blu-ray, which I was sure would have a ton of bonus features. Eventually, a special “Limited Edition” 3 disc Blu-ray set was announced at the website for $80. I didn’t mind that price, but at the time I was still financially recovering from Outside Lands and couldn’t afford it. So I decided to hold off for a bit.

Mistake on my part, because, unlike many of the other products Pearl Jam markets as a “Limited Edition,” this actually was. Now they are both sold out. Why the hell the band would decide to make THAT limited and not the 80 billion other things that they say are limited but actually aren’t just doesn’t make any sense. It’s even more confusing when you consider they announced the very expensive set right after the PJ20 concert and the Canadian tour, so die-hard fans who follow the band on tour were probably strapped for cash.

This is manufactured rarity and I hate it with every fiber of my being. It’s quickly becoming a problem in the music industry that’s driving me batshit bonkers. I get that some things are only going to be available in limited quantities, but it’s not the sort of thing that should be purposely planned if the band or label can avoid it, because it accomplishes nothing. All it does is anger fans who are unable to buy something the second it is announced, and create a sick secondary market where assholes who bought multiple copies can pawn theirs on eBay for hundreds of dollars over the original price. It also takes money away from the band, don’t they want supply to meet demand? That means more money! I’m sure someone out there thinks that it helps fight piracy by encouraging fans to buy physical products, but guess what? Since I can’t buy that three-disc set I’m most likely going to download it off a torrent site or borrow it from someone who does have it and rip my own copy.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and the aspect about the PJ20 Blu-ray release that bothers me least.

So, I lost the chance to buy the Deluxe Edition, okay, so can I buy the standard edition Blu-ray at their website?

Nope.

How about at an indpendent record store, or online at Amazon or another store?

Nope.

Where can I buy it?

Best fucking Buy.

That’s right. The Blu-ray of PJ20 is a timed Best Buy exclusive. If you want it before Christmas then you have to go to Best Buy to get it. No alternatives.

Let’s go back in time a bit, back when Pearl Jam announced that deal with Target. In an interview on the matter, Eddie said this:

“”We’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and we’ve done it in a way that we think will be good for everybody. I can’t think of anything we’ve ever done without putting it through our own personal moral barometer. Target has passed for us. The fans just have to trust us.”

The band’s manager, Kelly Curtis, also had a lot to say on the topic:

“We’ll have a lot of partners…Target ended up allowing us to have other partners. We’ll be able to take care of all levels of the Pearl Jam fan…Target was cool enough to realize that little independent record stores are not their competition.”

“I make decisions around the band’s business that are consistent with their overall philosophy,” said Curtis, “which is to sell music in a way that’s accessible and affordable to their fans, on every distribution platform that their fans access music, and in a way that takes care of the little guys. I wanted our plan to be multi-dimensional to address old and modern ways of fans accessing music. It will allow all of our fans to have the same access.”

Who is this deal good for? It’s good for the band, of course, because they get money. But independent record stores get fucked, They miss out on a huge music release during the holiday season. And fans who actually care about corporate responsibility (something the band used to spout about a lot) and don’t want to support Best Buy because of all the sick, disgusting and horrible things they have done to consumers over the years, then they’re just fuck out of luck too aren’t they? They pass the band’s moral barometer? A company that has actually been fined by the government for illegal business practices is okay with Pearl Jam? What the fuck happened to their morals then?

But wait, there’s more!

Earlier this year the band released an amazing Super Deluxe box set of Vs. and Vitalogy. It had both albums on CD and vinyl as well as bonus tracks, a live concert and so much more. It’s a great set for both hardcore and casual fans alike. I, like many Pearl Jam fans, bought it the second I could afford to.

Well, apparently the band had some extras lying around that they wanted to get rid of, because they re-released the box set with this added bit in the description:

â–ª THE FIRST 500 TO ORDER, beginning 10/19/11, WILL RECEIVE THE “LIVE FROM THE MOORE” VAULT SHOW #1 CD THAT MEMBERS RECEIVED AT ALPINE VALLEY
â–ª YOU COULD RECEIVE ONE OF 8 SIGNED SUPER DELUXE COPIES (RANDOMLY DISTRIBUTED)

So hey, if you’re a die-hard fan then you’re a sucker! You should have waited a few months so you can get even more music (in the form of a super-rare CD!) and a chance of an autograph! Loser! But hey, if you want to buy it again no one is stopping you!

What. The. Fuck.

In one hand you have the Blu-ray and DVD box sets. If you didn’t order them right away then you’re an idiot. You’re never gong to get that again (unless the band re-issues it AFTER the Best Buy exclusive deal for the single-disc version ends). You know, after everyone bought it so they can double-dip.

In the other hand, you have this box set. If you ordered that too soon then you’re an idiot and you won’t get the really cool and hard-to-find content.

Ugh.

When people say I care too much about music, I think this must be what they mean. I care about not only the music, but the people who make it. I want them not to be the scum of the earth, or at least be consistent about it.

If Aerosmith did this, no one would care; because they’ve never ranted about the evils of corporate greed and the importance of independent record stores. When you have no ideals, then you really can’t sell out.

But when you do have ideals, or at least make it appear that you do, then I guess the only place you can go is down.

No music tonight. I was going to put up some rare Pearl Jam (because I have TONS) but I really don’t feel like listening to a bunch of hypocrites right now.

Posted in No music, Pearl Jam, rant | 14 Comments »

Big Audio Blog Post III

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Hey remember when this blog was updated more than once every week or so? Man, those were the days. That Lost Turntable guy sure is an asshole.

Big Audio Dynamite
B.A.D. Overture
This is a mega-medly of various B.A.D. beats, samples and riffs. It’s silly for sure, but a great example of both the highs and lows of 80s remixes all in one five minute track!

This track goes by a few different names. It’s also called the “Lovesensi Overture” according to All Music, but the name “B.A.D. Overture” is what’s on the back of the sleeve. Of course, that sleeve isn’t infaliable, it lists the b-side as “2,000 Shoes (Top Buzz)” while it’s actually just the Overture again.

The name “Lovesensi” is actually the name of the release this comes on, which is weird. It’s a spoof on Prince’s “Love Sexy.” A fact made all the more evident by the utterly disturbing album cover.

Pearl Jam
Turning Mist
Hawaii 78 (Live)
The Pearl Jam fan club “Christmas” singles keep coming out later and later. They used to actually come out on Christmas from what I’m told, but they slowly turned into unofficial Easter gifts. This year they came close to the first day of summer. They keep it up they’ll delay themselves back on schedule. I think they figured this one would be coming out in the summer though, since it’s all about surfing and Hawaii, although the Hawaii tune really isn’t a happy jam. You can read more about that amazing tune here.

Kirsty MacColl
Walking Down Madison (Club Mix)
Walking Down Madison (Urban Mix)
Walking Down Madison (6 a.m. Ambient Mix)
This is a good song with a great message and lyrics but the first two remixes take a song that was already late 80s/early 90s overproduced and jacks it up even more. The last remix is the best version of the song. It strips away all the bullshit and leaves you with nothing but a beat and the stark lyrics. Beautiful.

Posted in B-sides, Big Audio Dynamite, Kirsty MacColl, Pearl Jam, remixes | 4 Comments »

Only Happy When I’m Whining

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Rant contained within.

Pearl Jam
U
Angel
Happy When I’m Crying
Santa Cruz
Golden State
Pearl Jam’s been in the news a lot recently. First Jeff Amet got the snot kicked out of him outside a recording studio in Atlanta, then they helped usher in The Conan Era of The Tonight Show by being their first musical guest (and playing this awesome song).

However, what everyone is talking about now is how Pearl Jam has “sold out” because of some deal they made with Target. A quick snippet of comments from across the web:

“Looks like those thugs in Atlanta stole their cred too.”

“I just can’t stop laughing. The unwavering antiestablishment band has finally sold its soul to the corporate machine.”

“I’m still laughing – SELL OUT’s”

If there’s one thing about me that people who read this blog know it’s that I fucking love Pearl Jam. If there’s another thing people who read this blog know about me is that I fucking hate stupid people. So you can imagine the backlash to this non-story is annoying me.

Here’s the article that caused all the ruckus. Now, if you actually read the fucking article you’ll see that it says nothing about Target being the ONLY place where you can buy the album. From the sound of things it will most likely be the only “big box” retail store where you can pick up the album, meaning places like Best Buy and Wal-Mart won’t be carrying it. From the sound of things you can still go to your local independent store and buy it, and you can definitely still get it at Pearl Jam’s website, which is where you should buy all Pearl Jam stuff since you get it sooner and usually with bonus stuff.

I’m having a hard time understanding why signing with a multi-billion dollar corporation like Sony is okay in the eyes of some people, while working with a retail store like Target is not. In a perfect world an artist wouldn’t have to jeopardize their artistic integrity in order to sell records, but that’s not the case. Even a group like Radiohead or NIN has to work with “the man” to get their records out there.

Most importantly, I don’t think any of this really goes against the Pearl Jam code of ethics (that others have seem to supplanted onto them). They aren’t supporting some right wing organization, they’re not working with any major label and they aren’t changing their sound to accomidate a corporation’s desire. People need to shut up and learn to read before bashing someone or something for no good fucking reason.

And by the way, if you want to call Pearl Jam a Sell Out, you can just site when they let Friends use “Yellow Ledbetter” for the series finale.

Enough of my complaining (yeah, right) lets get to the music. “U” was the b-side “Wushlist” Angel was on the 1993 fan club single, “Happy When I’m Crying” is from the 1997 fan club single and the last two are from the newest fan club single that just came out a few weeks ago. I didn’t rip any of the fan club singles personally so if the quality is sub-par for once it’s not my fault. “U” is from a CD single so I don’t want to hear any complaining about that one, especially since the song is great

Posted in B-sides, Pearl Jam, rant | 6 Comments »

Grunged 4: Angry man behind the desk in a medium-sized town

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

I was planning some grand epic post about how Pearl Jam have managed to survive and prosper while the other grunge bands have died (literally) or fallen apart by now. It was supposed to mention things like the band’s intentional alienation of their mass audience, their audacious urge to experiment musically and most importantly their epic live shows. I was also going to mention how they’re one of the only bands in America that has never sold out or compromised their integrity for record sales (and in fact did the opposite). It was going to mention all kinds of amazing stuff about all that shit.

But everything I want to say has probably been said before. People still listen to Pearl Jam because they are a great motherfucking band, and Pearl Jam is still around because they are truly a band, working as a cohesive unit to create good music, entertain their fans, and fight for causes they believe in. Pearl Jam work so damn well as a band that they should put out self-help books for troubled marriages. The adversity and hardships that Pearl Jam has fought through would kill most anyone else, but instead they come out stronger, better and more determined to succeed each and every fucking time. Pearl Jam proves time and time again that you can succeed on your own terms, and that if you have the talent, desire and determination the people will come around to you and not the other way around.

Pearl Jam is the best band in the world, and don’t you fucking forget it.

Heavy handed much? Yeah, but I don’t care. Moving on to the music….between Lost Dogs and the new special edition of Ten nearly every single Ten-era rarity from Pearl Jam is now easily available. But there are still a few tracks that have slipped through the cracks, lets take a look at some of the best (that I have).

Pearl Jam
Alive (Live)
Even Flow (Re-Recorded)
Wash
Dirty Frank
These four tracks have all been on various singles and EPs, but I got them from the Japanese version of the “Alive” single. The live version of “Alive” and the re-recorded version of “Even Flow” have never appeared on any proper Pearl Jam album. “Wash” And “Dirty Frank” were on Lost Dogs, but the versions that appeared there weren’t the originals for some strange reason – these are. “Dirty Frank” is an awesome song, and as the linear notes to Lost Dogs points out, the best song about a serial killer bus driver you’re ever likely to hear.

Why Go (Live)
Deep (Live)
Alive (Live)
These live cuts were B-sides to the “Oceans” single and are from a performance at the 1992 Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands.

Footsteps
A long time fan-favorite and one of the first three Pearl Jam songs written, this track finally got the album appearance it deserved on Lost Dogs, but once again that version differed from the original, and included some slightly annoying harmonica. This is the version that appeared on the “Jeremy” single.

Dissident – Live In Atlanta
Okay, so this isn’t Ten-era stuff but I don’t think anyone will care. Dissident was a pretty big hit when it came out, and there were a ton of different singles, each with different live cuts serving as the B-sides. The live cuts were all taken from the same concert and when combined formed a nearly complete concert. Later on all of the singles were compiled into a massive three-EP set called Dissident/Live In Atlanta. This EP is an entire concert (minus three tracks from Vitalogy) and must have been an amazing deal when it first came out, it was an even bigger deal for me when I bought it used for seven bucks. You can find the tracklist here. I’m not including the studio version of “Dissident” because well, what’s the point?

Posted in B-sides, live, Pearl Jam | 5 Comments »

A Manifesto (with a soundtrack)

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

I don’t know anyone that enjoys music more than me, and if I ever met someone who did I’d probably be scared of them. Most people who know me tease me about my obsessive nature with music, which my video-game addled friends have frequently compared to a Pokemon mentality, I gotta get’em all. I’ve demonstrated OCD behavior in the past, most of which is under control now because I focused it all towards collecting and listening to music. I now have well over a thousand records, hundreds of CDs and even a few 8-tracks and cassettes. As you may have guessed, my Mp3 collection is massive, with over 35,000 songs, adding up to 108 days of music.

I still buy most of the music I listen to. Sure I’ll download some off of BitTorrent on occasion, but for the most part I play by the rules and pay for what I want to hear. Not only that, I tend to go out of my way to buy the actual physical CD and not a digital download. I’m not a fan of digital downloads, I think the quality is substandard many of the times and they offer no real protection should my computer decide to die a fiery death. Also, I’m a real fetishist for having a physical copy of something. I like to read the linear notes, hold the case, examine the CD art. Sure, there are digital booklets for that it’s not the same. I don’t care if that’s an old-fashioned or outdated way of looking at things, that’s how I feel. I think I’m one of the good guys, going out of my way to champion music and the purchasing of it. I used to not see a reasons to download music illegally that you could find easily legally unless you A) were broke or B) just had no qualms about stealing. But that’s not been an easy position to hold up for the past few months.

It’s getting very hard for me to get the music I want in an affordable and easy manner. First it was The Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist album, which was released in multiple versions with different tracklistings depending on where you bought it (none of these places being an independent record store) forcing fans who wanted to be legal to buy the same album four times. Then it was Depeche Mode with the bullshit iTunes Pass version of their upcoming Sounds Of The Universe, an $18.99 subscription to the album which promises to feature “exclusive” remixes and b-sides, none of which will be on the $99.99 special edition that I already pre-ordered. This week I finally snapped when I saw Mastodon including special instrumental tracks on the iTunes version of their new album Break The Skye and Pearl Jam tacking on some bonus live cuts for the iTunes edition of the new Special Edition of Ten.

Both of these albums are also available in very expensive deluxe editions, and neither of them contain the iTunes “exclusive” tracks. The limited edition of Crack The Skye came with an awesome lithograph and extra artwork, and that clocked in at $40. That one was only available at Mastodon’s website (it’s sold out now) as was another special edition that included a t-shirt and a bonus single, which features two of the instrumentals that were supposedly “exclusive” to iTunes. Hardcore fans who bought the more expensive editions at Mastodon’s website got fucked over by being left out of the other tracks on the iTunes version. And of course, you can’t buy those tracks separately, you have to buy the album to get them all.

It’s even worse with the Pearl Jam album. The Super Deluxe version of Ten costs $150. It’s worth the money to hardcore fans (such as I) as it’s loaded with bonus vinyl, a DVD, live stuff, artwork, booklets and even a reproduction of Eddie’s demo for the band. However, it doesn’t include the Live At The Academy tracks that are on the iTunes edition. If I pay $140 bucks for a damn album, I think I should be getting all the shit that’s included on the $16.99 online edition.

And, just like half of the Mastodon “exclusives” the Live At The Academy tracks aren’t even exclusive, they were originally included on a bonus CD that came with the fan club edition of 2006 self-titled album. Pearl Jam is my favorite band in the world (Those 35,000 mp3s on my hard drive? 2,481 are Pearl Jam tracks.) and I’ve always thought they’ve done a good job of putting themselves above the typical industry bullshit. Now I’m not so sure.

The most annoying this about all this is that as a die-hard collector there’s little I can do. I’m not going to stop buying Depeche Mode or Pearl Jam albums because of shit like this, hell, it’s hard to tell if it’s even their fault with record labels becoming more and more desperate to squeeze every buck possible out of the consumer. I think the one part of the equation that deserves the most blame however is iTunes.

The iTunes store has always sucked ass, and now it sucks in stereo. In addition to these bullshit examples there are countless more of albums getting “iTunes exclusive” tracks and even more where they make it impossible to buy individual tracks (especially on soundtracks). I’m done buying from iTunes until they stop with this bullshit. It hurts the fans who just want the most music possible from their favorite bands, and it hurts the record industry by limited what independent record stores can sell. It’s also false fucking advertising. Almost every “iTunes exclusive” isn’t a fucking exclusive, it’s usually a b-side, import track, vinyl cut or other rarity that just isn’t available at any other digital store. Any “exclusive” track you find on iTunes you can usually buy somewhere else, and if you can’t…well…that’s why they invented BitTorrent. I’m done with the iTunes store, and you should be too.

Now for some “exclusive iTunes” tracks!

The Strokes (featuring Regina Spektor)
Modern Girls and Old Fashioned Men
This track was my first exposure to the fraud that is an “iTunes exclusive” I saw it at their store and bought it right away. Then I found it a week later on a 7” single that had amazing artwork. I felt screwed over. A shame since it’s such a fucking amazing track. I love Regina Spektor and this track makes me yearn for a Julian Casablancas/Regina duet album. It would have to be better than First Impressions Of Earth.

Depeche Mode
The Sun And The Moon And The Stars (Electronic Periodic’s Microdrum Mix)
Oh Well (Black Light Odyssey Dub)
The two tracks so far released from the iTunes Pass edition of Sounds Of The Universe. These tracks will not be on the deluxe edition of the album which, as I stated earlier, costs $100. Oh yeah, that’s fair. The remix for “The Sun And The Moon…” is unbe-fucking-lievably good and totally worth buying, but you can’t if you want a physical copy of the record, so don’t. Steal it instead.

Smashing Pumpkins
Stellar
The iTunes exclusive track to Zeitgeist. I tried posting this one the week the album came out, but couldn’t find the fucker. Time heals all wounds.

Kings Of Leon
Knocked Up (Lykke Li vs. Rodeo Remix)
Another track that’s labeled as an iTunes exclusive but is in fact not. This is an awesome remix/mash-up of a great song though. Too bad I bought it under false pretense on iTunes, I would have paid much more for a physical copy, but they told me it was an exclusive so I didn’t bother to check. You shouldn’t either.

Pearl Jam – Live At The Academy 1992
Not only did iTunes slab on four tracks of this concert that was readily available at Pearl Jam’s website and call them “exclusive” but their picks for which ones to use sucked. “Speed Wash,” “Sonic Reducer” and “Porch” were totally the way to go. This is the full CD which came with my copy of Pearl jam album. I posted this back then, now I’m posting it again.

Posted in B-sides, Depeche Mode, Kings Of Leon, live, Pearl Jam, rant, Regina Spektor, remixes, The Strokes | No Comments »