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so.
MC Hammer concert tonight.
It'll be sweet if he talks shit about nascar and how it's a stupid sport.
Radiohead tix? $400/pair. Thanks, but no thanks.
Pearl Jam tix? In my pocket. Tuesday. Sweet. Don't play "Come Back." Labels: music
this is a sweet picture of Ed tho...
here
I was going to post something, but then I remembered that I had forgotten what I was going to say. Or I had nothing to say in the first place. The movie The War Within is pretty good. 11 days until Pearl Jam in DC. That's nice. Next week: Local #5. I will probably no longer read Wolverine: Origins b/c I find the art extremely annoying. I will also probably no longer read Testament b/c it's somewhat confusing and I don't think the idea of projecting the parts played by people in the Bible onto futuristic people is all THAT interesting. These extra monies will go into the pot for the Amsterdam trip.
If anyone happens to have a lead on Radiohead tickets for Aug. 28 in Amsterdam, I would be much obliged if you would tell me. Labels: Amsterdam, concerts, music
so a few weeks ago, I had to move my computer at work.
And my CD-Drive quit working.
And my harddrive crashed.
The one with the 9000 mp3's on it.
I kept thinking I could salvage it, but it's gone.
fuck.
stupid downloadable music.
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam.
I posted this over on CrazyTalk... figured I'd mash it here too.
So... May 2nd is long gone...
There's a new Tool album out. It's pretty good. With some amazing  artwork ideas. But, you know, it didn't really blow me away as being incredibly new and different and, well, amazing. It's good, but it's not my favorite album to come out this year. Or even on May 2.
Turns out that being a member of the Pearl Jam fan club is nice. My record showed up the Saturday prior to the release date. But I didn't get it until I got to work on Monday... still a day ahead of time. And the pre-order version has this sweet hardcover book format thing to it that the general release does not have. And I got a free copy of a show they did NYE '92. Neat.
oh. And first crack at concert tix... but that didn't work out so well... but I still scored some good seats for DC in a couple of weeks. Ah yes... but I did get my fan club tix for the GA show in, you know, Amsterdam. Also neat.
And now, it turns out, my boss is going to buy plane tickets for my girlfriend and me. Also neat.
Aren't I supposed to be talking about a record? Well, actually, there is no record as of yet. Even tho Letterman somehow had a copy of the sleeve. That wasn't the new record inside. So, CD, then. We'll talk about that. Perhaps.
I was, somewhat, hoping that someone more flowery than me might post about this, but it came to my attention that the Sufjan Stevens crowd just might find Pearl Jam... dare I say... "irrelevent." From some other blog whose link I have, unfortunately, lost: (and so I paraphrase) "Pearl Jam became irrelevent when Eddie Vedder became too old to climb stuff."
Well... that is pretty funny, actually. I wish I would have thought of it. But I wouldn't have meant it.
Another thing that has come to my attention is that damned near everything that has even a passing interest in music is reviewing this CD. Way to go, Clive. At first, all this promotion caught me off guard... I mean, really... Entertainment Weekly? C'mon, guys... but from that same article Ed was able to shed a little light on the subject for me: (EW article) This is all so subjective and in a way self-important, but when you have completely commercially produced acts and artists kind of taking up the space that you used to, then it's like, Do we want to allow ourselves to be pushed out in the mainstream again, to do our part to have it be a real experience? I'm not talking about the young bands that are good, I'm talking about the crap that is a insult to what I think of as good rock & roll. I feel like we have a lot to offer. And so in order to do that, it feels like we're being shot out of a cannon. And that brings those feelings of, Okay, are we going to that same place where we had to climb the barbed wire fence to get the fuck out of there? Being outside of all that is a much more comfortable place to create and to live. So we're searching for that balance.
I think I can dig that.
And, hey, the album is actually pretty damned good. But does the Net really need yet another review? I don't think so. Perhaps I can leave you with some feelings instead. (as an aside, the girl next to me just started playing the most goddamn awful song I've heard in quite a while... and I've been hearing it multiple times a day... every day. fuck you, James Blunt.)
Right. Feelings. The first four tracks give me that energetic angsty feeling with which I generally feel like driving. Have you heard World Wide Suicide? Is it possible to have not heard it? Life Wasted, Comatose, and Severed Hand are all right there with it. And, depending on my mood, I can like any one better than the other. Although Life Wasted might resonate most with me - lyrically, anyway. The fifth song, "Marker in the Sand," just might very well be the best song on the album. Despite the presence of Boom Gasper's B3. I am NOT a fan of organs in rock bands. The Gossard penned "Parachutes" brings the flow of the album down. Far down. And quickly. It's quirky and artsy but sounds way too much like his side band Brad for me. Skip button? Most of the time. Unless I'm, you know, "altered." Tracks 7-10, however, build for me. I didn't like Unemployable when it was first released as the "B-Side" to WWS. But it's growing on me. 8, musically, pulls me back to the place I was during the beginning of the album. The place I really enjoy being. I haven't spent a lot of time with the lyric sheet yet, but I'm afraid they might be kind of lame. But it still feels good. And then "Gone." When released on the Christmas single, I was more than a little unsure. But this is one of those songs that starts out slow and unassuming and, by the end, just soars. Gone makes me happy. Like "Given to Fly." Not quite there, but close. And Eddie likes The Who.
Now... tracks 10-13... If this CD WAS a record, I don't think I'm far off in saying that I'd wear Side A out REAL fast while the top of my turntable might see Side B long enough that I could listen to it by putting the record back in the sleeve. (Did anyone catch that? I suck at similes. Or metaphors. Or onomatopoeia. Or whatever.) It's not all the songs... don't get me wrong. On first listen, Wasted Reprise was a fitting break to what had come before. And "Army Reserve" really does feel heartfelt and meaningful... and, at this point in the record, I'm ready for this. (BANG! Buuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Hah. I'm not so bad at that after all.) But then we get "Come Back." The song some people are likening to a cross between "Black" and "Yellow Ledbetter." Those people are wrong. It's 5 1/2 minutes of blah. I've heard some pretty good interpretations of the song... almost to the point where I can respect the song without liking it. (Those good interpretations don't include "You've obviously never been dumped.") I don't like it. I just. don't. like. it. I made my own version wherein I chopped out the entire first verse thereby bringing the length to about 3:30. That I can almost handle. As it is, this song kills the re-listenability of this album to me. Where Yield (still their masterpiece) pops in the always amazing "In Hiding", Vs. has "Leash", No Code has "Mankind", and even Riot Act has "Bushleaguer"... this album has a total mood killer. Yeah, I left out Ten, Vitalogy, and Binaural from that list. I had my reasons. I don't listen to Binaural anyway. Shit. I think I had a point. My point was this... "Inside Job" is a frickin' amazing song, and I think it's a great album closer. But "Come Back"... dammit. If it weren't for this song, Pearl Jam would pretty well hop right up there to 2nd favorite studio behind Yield. As it is, I think it's fighting it out with No Code and Vitalogy for number 3.
Since you asked, Vs. is number 2. If only for the opening of Go->Animal.
What else can I say... give the record a spin. Or, if you can't, at least try to find "Marker in the Sand" or "Gone." Most importantly, however, if you've never been to a show, this is the year to do it. The rumors abound that this will be the last big tour, and I don't find that completely unbelievable. Get thee to a show. Or a nunnery. Whatever.
Oh. And back on the Indy scene? www.dustinedge.com New album coming very soon. And no arena tours. And no EW articles. This is the shit. More later.
Oh. And Tool outsold Pearl Jam in week 1 by almost 300,000 copies. And I have no idea what the title of this post has to do with anything. |
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Labels: music, Pearl Jam
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