After 19 years of grit, band lightens up(Jeff Interview)
Veddernarian
Posts: 1,924
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/we ... ml?sid=101
COVER STORY
After 19 years of grit, alt-rock band lightens up
Thursday, May 6, 2010 2:54 AM
By KEVIN JOY
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Karen Loria
Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam, led by singer Eddie Vedder (in orange)
In reviews for the Pearl Jam album Backspacer, released in the fall, the adjectives seemed to defy the 19-year trajectory of the Seattle rock band.
Energized. Accessible. Fun?
The ninth studio album represents a noticeable departure from the grunge and experimental rock of the group as well as the potent lyrics of growly-voiced frontman Eddie Vedder, who has addressed everything from a ridiculed student shooting himself at school ( Jeremy) and a deadly car crash ( Last Kiss, a cover of a 1963 Wayne Cochran tune) to the extended U.S.-led war in Iraq ( World Wide Suicide).
"I think there's certainly a pop element that we'd turned our backs on," bass player Jeff Ament said from Seattle, which the band continues to call home after being formed there in 1990.
"Oftentimes, we went the other direction."
With almost two decades behind them and with early producer Brendan O'Brien back in the studio, Ament said, the move to lighten up a bit proved refreshing.
Yet the change isn't radical: Despite its mood and melody, Backspacerstill touches on themes of love, loss and mortality.
Meanwhile, the left-leaning group found a reason for optimism in the election of Barack Obama as president - a sentiment widely assumed to be reflected in the newer Pearl Jam music.
"The representation we have in Washington, D.C., right now is more akin to what we believe in," said Ament, 47.
"I'm a little disappointed we're still in Afghanistan. I trust a smart president and a smarter administration - as much as you can trust a politician."
Pearl Jam has a history of bucking convention.
Despite its early role as alternative-rock royalty (with its debut disc, Ten, selling more than 13 million copies), the band took steps to downplay its notability by embracing harder-edged, commercially obscure musical directions; declining to release singles; and avoiding interviews and TV appearances.
The group found some controversy in music videos.
The 1992 video for Jeremy, with blood-spattered students frozen in horror at the end, drew accusations of sparking school violence.
After the release of the second album, Vs., Ament spoke out against music videos.
His point, however, was more about creative interpretations than about social consequences.
"People were saying, 'Hey, I saw your video.' Nobody was saying, 'Hey, I love this song,'" said Ament, who considered a $500,000 budget to shoot a video absurd and wasteful.
"It was sort of taking away people's ability to imagine their own visual - not defining a specific time or place or moment."
In 1994, along with guitarist Stone Gossard, Ament testified before a U.S. House subcommittee looking into Ticketmaster policies.
The musicians excoriated the company for adding hefty surcharges and maintaining what the band considered a pricing monopoly on venues.
That summer, Pearl Jam canceled its tour in protest - then struggled for several years to book concerts in arenas and amphitheaters unaffiliated with the ubiquitous ticketing service.
The group has since reunited with Ticketmaster (a part of Live Nation Entertainment, thanks to a January merger), a necessary reliance for performing in large venues.
The pairing isn't exactly rosy, though.
"I don't think we have much of a relationship with them," Ament said. "We do business only because it's the same as it was - if not worse than - 15 years ago. I could get totally excited if the bands decided to take this into their own hands and change it, but it's not the battle for one artist.
"We're sort of at that impasse."
Pearl Jam also countered the work of concert bootleggers, releasing a staggering 72 live albums in 2000-01 after a tour.
On an independent label, Backspacer is sold only at Target stores and independent music shops, and through Amazon.com and iTunes - a move that still allowed the disc to notch a No. 1 debut.
Is the Target company less evil than Wal-Mart or Best Buy?
"They (the Target folks) were most excited about the ideas we had," Ament said. "You're just looking for the best possible way to get your music out there."
Ament, also a graphic artist, still finds pleasure in the experience of a full-length album, the artwork, the lyrics booklet - a format that Pearl Jam will pursue, he said, "until we're no longer a band."
The group is consulting developers at iTunes, meanwhile, about creating a program that would give buyers access to additional art and lyrics on MP3 players.
In concert, the band keeps things tough, tight and basic without neglecting to showcase the most-loved songs of fans.
Recent shows have included Alive, Better Man and Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.
"We have this giant body of work that we can do" in concert, said Ament, the songwriter of Jeremy - who used to loathe performing the greatest hits.
"When you look in the crowd and you see people responding to those songs, they kind of end up playing themselves.
"We might not be jumping around, but the music we're making doesn't lend itself to that. It just feels good to be in a really good band."
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:kjoy@dispatch.com">kjoy@dispatch.com</a><!-- e -->
COVER STORY
After 19 years of grit, alt-rock band lightens up
Thursday, May 6, 2010 2:54 AM
By KEVIN JOY
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Karen Loria
Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam, led by singer Eddie Vedder (in orange)
In reviews for the Pearl Jam album Backspacer, released in the fall, the adjectives seemed to defy the 19-year trajectory of the Seattle rock band.
Energized. Accessible. Fun?
The ninth studio album represents a noticeable departure from the grunge and experimental rock of the group as well as the potent lyrics of growly-voiced frontman Eddie Vedder, who has addressed everything from a ridiculed student shooting himself at school ( Jeremy) and a deadly car crash ( Last Kiss, a cover of a 1963 Wayne Cochran tune) to the extended U.S.-led war in Iraq ( World Wide Suicide).
"I think there's certainly a pop element that we'd turned our backs on," bass player Jeff Ament said from Seattle, which the band continues to call home after being formed there in 1990.
"Oftentimes, we went the other direction."
With almost two decades behind them and with early producer Brendan O'Brien back in the studio, Ament said, the move to lighten up a bit proved refreshing.
Yet the change isn't radical: Despite its mood and melody, Backspacerstill touches on themes of love, loss and mortality.
Meanwhile, the left-leaning group found a reason for optimism in the election of Barack Obama as president - a sentiment widely assumed to be reflected in the newer Pearl Jam music.
"The representation we have in Washington, D.C., right now is more akin to what we believe in," said Ament, 47.
"I'm a little disappointed we're still in Afghanistan. I trust a smart president and a smarter administration - as much as you can trust a politician."
Pearl Jam has a history of bucking convention.
Despite its early role as alternative-rock royalty (with its debut disc, Ten, selling more than 13 million copies), the band took steps to downplay its notability by embracing harder-edged, commercially obscure musical directions; declining to release singles; and avoiding interviews and TV appearances.
The group found some controversy in music videos.
The 1992 video for Jeremy, with blood-spattered students frozen in horror at the end, drew accusations of sparking school violence.
After the release of the second album, Vs., Ament spoke out against music videos.
His point, however, was more about creative interpretations than about social consequences.
"People were saying, 'Hey, I saw your video.' Nobody was saying, 'Hey, I love this song,'" said Ament, who considered a $500,000 budget to shoot a video absurd and wasteful.
"It was sort of taking away people's ability to imagine their own visual - not defining a specific time or place or moment."
In 1994, along with guitarist Stone Gossard, Ament testified before a U.S. House subcommittee looking into Ticketmaster policies.
The musicians excoriated the company for adding hefty surcharges and maintaining what the band considered a pricing monopoly on venues.
That summer, Pearl Jam canceled its tour in protest - then struggled for several years to book concerts in arenas and amphitheaters unaffiliated with the ubiquitous ticketing service.
The group has since reunited with Ticketmaster (a part of Live Nation Entertainment, thanks to a January merger), a necessary reliance for performing in large venues.
The pairing isn't exactly rosy, though.
"I don't think we have much of a relationship with them," Ament said. "We do business only because it's the same as it was - if not worse than - 15 years ago. I could get totally excited if the bands decided to take this into their own hands and change it, but it's not the battle for one artist.
"We're sort of at that impasse."
Pearl Jam also countered the work of concert bootleggers, releasing a staggering 72 live albums in 2000-01 after a tour.
On an independent label, Backspacer is sold only at Target stores and independent music shops, and through Amazon.com and iTunes - a move that still allowed the disc to notch a No. 1 debut.
Is the Target company less evil than Wal-Mart or Best Buy?
"They (the Target folks) were most excited about the ideas we had," Ament said. "You're just looking for the best possible way to get your music out there."
Ament, also a graphic artist, still finds pleasure in the experience of a full-length album, the artwork, the lyrics booklet - a format that Pearl Jam will pursue, he said, "until we're no longer a band."
The group is consulting developers at iTunes, meanwhile, about creating a program that would give buyers access to additional art and lyrics on MP3 players.
In concert, the band keeps things tough, tight and basic without neglecting to showcase the most-loved songs of fans.
Recent shows have included Alive, Better Man and Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.
"We have this giant body of work that we can do" in concert, said Ament, the songwriter of Jeremy - who used to loathe performing the greatest hits.
"When you look in the crowd and you see people responding to those songs, they kind of end up playing themselves.
"We might not be jumping around, but the music we're making doesn't lend itself to that. It just feels good to be in a really good band."
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:kjoy@dispatch.com">kjoy@dispatch.com</a><!-- e -->
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I'll call Ripley's!
3 Decibels Doubles the Volume
2006
This sentence made my heart leap, as an old-school physical-product junkie who has no interest in downloading music without getting something tangible.