Pearl Jam: All time rockers | Sunday Observer

Pearl Jam: All time rockers

18 July, 2021

Pearl Jam rose above the legions of grungy alt-rockers littering the early ‘90s to become the most popular and enduring American rock & roll band of their time.

Unlike many of their Seattle brethren, Pearl Jam, as a collective, were never signed or affiliated with an indie label -- founding members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament both were veterans of Green River, one of the first major bands on Sub Pop, though -- and in an age defined by irony, they were unflaggingly sincere.

Much of this earnestness stemmed from Eddie Vedder, a lead singer of uncommon charisma and passion who helped the group’s arena rock moves seem intimate. Vedder’s emotional acuity remained a touchstone for Pearl Jam throughout the years, giving the band’s unpredictable business moves, such as their mid-’90s battle with Ticketmaster, and embrace of controversial causes genuine heft.

The group’s inclination to follow a winding path meant that by the time Pearl Jam left the 1990s, they were no longer ruling rock music the way they did at the start of the decade -- a period when Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy sat at the top of the charts as they racked up millions of sales -- but were left with an enormous and devoted cult that allowed the band the freedom to experiment while remaining true to their rock & roll ideals.

Pearl Jam emerged from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, a hard rock band who missed their shot at the big time. After Mother Love Bone’s vocalist, Andrew Wood, overdosed on heroin in 1990, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament assembled a new band, bringing in Mike McCready on lead guitar and recording a demo with Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron on drums.

Thanks to future Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, the demo found its way to a 25-year-old San Diego surfer named Eddie Vedder, who overdubbed vocals and original lyrics and was subsequently invited to join the group (then christened Mookie Blaylock after the NBA player). Dave Krusen was hired as the full-time drummer shortly thereafter, completing the original lineup.

Debut album

Renaming themselves Pearl Jam, the band recorded their debut album, Ten, in the beginning of 1991, although it wasn’t released until August; in the meantime, the majority of the group appeared on the Andrew Wood tribute project ’Temple of the Dog’. Krusen left the band shortly after the release of Ten; he was replaced by Dave Abbruzzese.

Despite their status as rock & roll superstars, Pearl Jam refused to succumb to the accepted conventions of the music industry. The group refused to release any videos or singles from their second album, ‘1993s Vs. Nevertheless’, it was another multi-platinum success, debuting at number one and selling nearly a million copies in its first week of release.

During their spring 1994 American tour, the band decided not to play the conventional stadiums, choosing to play smaller arenas, including several shows on college campuses. Pearl Jam canceled their 1994 summer tour, claiming they couldn’t keep ticket prices below 20 dollars because Ticketmaster was pressuring promoters to charge a higher price.

The band took Ticketmaster to the Justice Department for unfair business practices; while fighting Ticketmaster, they recorded a new album during the spring and summer of 1994. After the record was completed, the group fired Dave Abbruzzese, replacing him with former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Eleven drummer Jack Irons.

In late summer of 1996, Pearl Jam released their fourth album, No Code. Although the record was greeted with fairly positive reviews and debuted at number one, its weird amalgam of rock, worldbeat, and experimentalism dissatisfied a large portion of their fan base, and it quickly fell down the charts.

The album’s performance was also hurt by Pearl Jam’s inability to launch a full-scale tour, due both to their battle with Ticketmaster and a reluctance to spend months on the road. The band spent most of 1997 out of the spotlight, working on new material; Gossard also released a second album with his side project Brad, titled Interiors.

‘Yield’

By the end of the year, Pearl Jam had completed a new, harder-rocking record entitled ’Yield’. The album was greeted with enthusiastic reviews upon its February 1998 release, but its commercial fortunes weren’t quite as clear-cut. While their sizable cult embraced the album, sending it to number two its first week of release, ’Yield’ quickly slipped down the charts.

Pearl Jam supported the record with a full-scale arena tour in the summer of 1998, issuing the concert LP Live on Two Legs at the end of the year; Jack Irons did not participate due to poor health, prompting the band to bring ex-Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron back into the fold.

Two anthologies arrived in 2003 and 2004, ’Lost Dogs: Rarities and B Sides’ and ’Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003’. They were followed in 2006 by the eponymous (and all-new) Pearl Jam, a number two hit on the album charts. As the band’s 20th anniversary loomed on the horizon, Pearl Jam launched a series of album reissues, beginning with a deluxe version of Ten in 2009.

That same year also saw the release of their ninth studio album, Backspacer, which doubled as the group’s first independently released project, initially appearing exclusively in Target stores in the US. The band supported the album with an extensive 2010 tour. Live on Ten Legs, a collection of concert highlights from 2003-2010, appeared in January 2011.

Later that year, Vedder released a solo album of standards accompanied only by ukulele, and the band celebrated their two-decade anniversary by launching a two-day festival in Wisconsin, commissioning Cameron Crowe to produce a music documentary named PJ20, and releasing a soundtrack of rare songs from the film.

Tours

Shortly thereafter, Pearl Jam went back into the studio with Brendan O’Brien to start work on the follow-up to ’Backspacer’. The resulting album, ’Lightning Bolt’, was announced in July 2013 with the release of the raw single “Mind Your Manners.” A darker album, with longer songs than its short, sharp predecessor, and bearing the influence of both Pink Floyd and punk, ’Lightning Bolt’ appeared in October 2013.

Tours of Latin and North America followed over the next few years and in April 2017, Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by comedian David Letterman. In September of that year, a live double album and DVD set called Let’s Play Two was released, chronicling a pair of shows recorded at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field.

The year 2019 saw an archival release pulled from the vaults, as Pearl Jam’s 1992 MTV Unplugged concert received its first proper release, appearing on vinyl from the Legacy label. January 2020 brought “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” the first single from the band’s 11th album, Gigaton. Released in March, Gigaton found Pearl Jam tackling climate change and other politically charged issues, all with the assistance of co-producer Josh Evans.

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