Remember the day you picked up...

JimBerkell

a certain album? I'm sure you all have awesome stories about the day you got different PJ albums.

Mine is about Binaural.
It was released on a school day in May? I believe and I had to wait til school let out to pick it up from Best Buy. My best friend and I were sophomores. As soon as I saw the artwork I knew I was just gonna be in love with it. How cool is that hour-glass nebula? And I was so damn excited because it was gonna be the first album with Matt Cameron!!! The drummer for Soundgarden!! Well, as soon as we got in the car my friend put the cd in... and proceeded to play each track for about 20 seconds saying "Not Ten, not Ten..." etc. Then he pretended to throw my cd out the window. We still played the cd until I got home but it was then that I knew that Pearl Jam had grown up and most casual fans would never "get it." This is still my favorite album by the band.

Brain Of E

yea i remember when i bought lost dogs, i was at walmart at midnight. the stocker dude looked all annoyed when he was digging through the new releases they were putting out that night.

JimBerkell

Brain Of E wrote:

yea i remember when i bought lost dogs, i was at walmart at midnight. the stocker dude looked all annoyed when he was digging through the new releases they were putting out that night.

Same thing happened to me when I was getting Touring Band 2000! The guy didn't even know that the dvd was getting released... I almost thought they wouldn't have it.

2-feign-reluctance

i remember all of those days quite well and where i bought them.

Ten (age 13): Musicland Store on tape. Also bought Kriss Kross in the same purchase.

Vs. (age 15): BestBuy. My mom drove me and my best friend after school. Bought it on tape also. Jammed it loud all the way home.

Vitalogy (age 16): Streetside Records: First album driving all by myself. Picked up the LP a few weeks before it was put out on CD.

No Code (age 18): First year of college in Springfield, MO. Went to the Springfield Mall and bought it at a Musicland there. Also got a free poster. First album where I wasn't excited upon my first listen.

Yield: (age 20): Midnight sale at Slackers in Columbia, MO. 2nd year of college. Stood in line with 100 people. Heard the entire album in the store before I hit the checkout.

L2L: (age 20): BestBuy. Officially retired my Atlanta 1994 tapes. First decent sounding bootleg show I ever heard. Started my live show obession.

Binaural: (age 22): Living in Perth, Australia. Went to a local mall record store. Had reserved it right when I had arrived in Perth. Second time I wasn't terribly enthused about a Pearl Jam record. Quickly changed my mind. A soundtrack to my time there for sure.

Riot Act (age 24): Another BestBuy purchase. First time I bought both the LP and CD together. Bought 2 CD copies because of guilt from downloading it early. First year graduate school. I was an idiot and downloaded the entire album a month before it came out. Got 3 tracks deep and felt really bad, deleted it off my computer and waited for the first single to be released. That fall I made the decision to fly back to Australia to propose to my girlfriend.

Avocado (age 28): 10c sent it a week early. Came home for lunch that day and listened to almost all of it with my wife in our living room, LOUD. We played that album a TON that summer, especially on drives back to STL to see family.

Julien

I remember the day I bought vitalogy. I was my my parents and my father gave me money saying "that's for you to buy a CD". He didn't like the music I listened to but he knew it was important for me.
I almost didn't know pearl Jam back then I had heard Vs a few times only. I completely fell in love with vitalogy's cover/packaging/booklet so I bought it.
I listened to it at least five times in a row when I arrived home. Since then, Vitalogy is my favorite album.

JimBerkell

2-feign-reluctance wrote:

L2L: (age 20): BestBuy. Officially retired my Atlanta 1994 tapes. First decent sounding bootleg show I ever heard. Started my live show obession.

LO2L started my bootleg obsession too! It was the first PJ cd I bought with my own money. (My brother convinced my mom to buy us all the rest before this...) I remember listening to Red Mosquito and I just thought man I never knew how much I love this song! It kinda sparked how awesome PJ live songs really are...

2-feign-reluctance

JimBerkell wrote:

LO2L started my bootleg obsession too! It was the first PJ cd I bought with my own money. (My brother convinced my mom to buy us all the rest before this...) I remember listening to Red Mosquito and I just thought man I never knew how much I love this song! It kinda sparked how awesome PJ live songs really are...

yeah! me too. that's odd that i was thinking the exact same thing about red mosquito! hearing off he goes on L2L made me appreciate that one alot more too.

JimBerkell

2-feign-reluctance wrote:

yeah! me too. that's odd that i was thinking the exact same thing about red mosquito! hearing off he goes on L2L made me appreciate that one alot more too.

I made a road trip mix a few years back, and I put the LO2L Red Mosquito on it and my friend was just like "Damn this song is awesome! What is it?" He agreed that the live version really turned him on to the studio. He's a die-hard PJ fan now too.

intodeep

I remember everyone clearly except for Ten.

It_Wasnt_My_Surface

It was the week that the Greatest Hits cd came out. My friend was having a get together and when another friend invited me he decided that wasn't cool and gave him shit for it. He proceeded to tell me that I could come, but i knew it was out of guilt. So i passed and was going to go to the movies instead by myself. I got to the street where I could either take the right to the movies or take the other right to the mall. I chose the mall. I am well known for buying cds of bands I don't know. I like the excitement of not knowing what they are going to be like. Well, I bought Rearviewmirror. That cd changed my life forever. Everything that I had been going through in my life (won't get into it for the sake of time) was answered right there. I'm not a religious person, but I found my religion that day. I will say one thing. When my mom left out of the blue one day and moved to North Carolina, I listened to Rearviewmirror for a week straight on repeat so that I would remember why I was so upset and would not forget why. Everytime I hear that song now I am remembered about what it is like to try to run from something that is so prevalent in your life. I would not trade that emotion for anything. I still listen to it daily, and when I scrounge up enough money to get a tattoo I plan on getting a Rearviewmirror with the stickman inside it to signify how i felt during that time and who it was who helped me keep my head up high.

JimBerkell

StrangestTribe27 wrote:

It was the week that the Greatest Hits cd came out. My friend was having a get together and when another friend invited me he decided that wasn't cool and gave him shit for it. He proceeded to tell me that I could come, but i knew it was out of guilt. So i passed and was going to go to the movies instead by myself. I got to the street where I could either take the right to the movies or take the other right to the mall. I chose the mall. I am well known for buying cds of bands I don't know. I like the excitement of not knowing what they are going to be like. Well, I bought Rearviewmirror. That cd changed my life forever. Everything that I had been going through in my life (won't get into it for the sake of time) was answered right there. I'm not a religious person, but I found my religion that day. I will say one thing. When my mom left out of the blue one day and moved to North Carolina, I listened to Rearviewmirror for a week straight on repeat so that I would remember why I was so upset and would not forget why. Everytime I hear that song now I am remembered about what it is like to try to run from something that is so prevalent in your life. I would not trade that emotion for anything. I still listen to it daily, and when I scrounge up enough money to get a tattoo I plan on getting a Rearviewmirror with the stickman inside it to signify how i felt during that time and who it was who helped me keep my head up high.

Such an awesome story! I think Binaural had a similar effect on me. The album just helped me get through so much that was going on... such a personal album... helped me all the way through high school and still does. it was my release... sleight of hand almost brought tears to my eyes a few times

restlesssoul

i bought vs from the mall, when we got home, the doorbell rang and i answered it holding the unopened cd, it was two jehovas dudes aged about 18 - 21, i was 13, they said, "That's an AWESOME album!" hhahahhaha tue story

It_Wasnt_My_Surface

JimBerkell wrote:

Such an awesome story! I think Binaural had a similar effect on me. The album just helped me get through so much that was going on... such a personal album... helped me all the way through high school and still does. it was my release... sleight of hand almost brought tears to my eyes a few times

haha to quote the legendary Hootie " I feel like such a baby cause every Pearl Jam song makes me cry"

Lizard

I can only remember when I "picked up" VITALOGY and NO CODE!!!!

But I remember when Benny Hall came in the mail!!

JimBerkell

StrangestTribe27 wrote:

haha to quote the legendary Hootie " I feel like such a baby cause every Pearl Jam song makes me cry"

Hahaha... True that! Just don't tell anyone. Can't lose my street cred!

It_Wasnt_My_Surface

JimBerkell wrote:

Hahaha... True that! Just don't tell anyone. Can't lose my street cred!

Haha That's why I only sing along in the car.....alone

Fatal

I can pretty much remember them all...but the best was skipping out on an art museum field trip in grade 10 and pick up Vs. on its release day (on cassette). I was absolutely shocked at how good it was....this was probably the day when the "obsession" truly began.

I also remember picking up Vitalogy on vinyl the day it was released (1-2 weeks before the CD if i remember correctly). Dusted off my dad's old record player and listened to it all night.

hopethatuchoke

I got Vs. at K-Mart the day it came out. I was there to buy a Phillies/Blue Jays World Series program and happened to find like $8 in my jacket pocket. I went home and listened to it on my Walkman as I fell asleep, just as I did every night for like 6 months after that. I was the man in school the next day for having it.

I got Binaural at midnight the day it came out at Tower Records. I'm still waiting for it to grow on me.


I miss those days. We have albums on the internet weeks early and the days of lining up at midnight are long gone.

washedinblack91

i only remember avocado. the other albums i got as a birthday gift because i was too young to get them before (like when 10 came out i was 2...). i remember being SO excited waiting for it in the mail and i got it early! that was the only PJ album i've ever listened to and didn't like at first, but i still listened to it. i was one of the guilty people who downloaded crapshoot rapture and gone before i got the cd, but it was worth it! (to hear crapshoot rapture at least)

but i do remember the first pearl jam cd i've ever gotten. i was 12 years old and i asked my dad for a godsmack album (who i thought was my favorite band) but since there was parental warnings on it, he didn't get it, so i asked for next best. he surprised me one day with the LV 2000 boot and i was so excited to listen to it. because of that parental warning i am now the pearl jam obsessed fan you see before you

washedinblack91

hopethatuchoke wrote:

I miss those days. We have albums on the internet weeks early and the days of lining up at midnight are long gone.

yeah, it's not fair, i never got a chance to stay up at midnight waiting for an album. the last time i waited at midnight for something to come out at a store was the last harry potter book. i really hope pearl jam dont release their album on the internet.

JimBerkell

hopethatuchoke wrote:

I got Vs. at K-Mart the day it came out. I was there to buy a Phillies/Blue Jays World Series program and happened to find like $8 in my jacket pocket. I went home and listened to it on my Walkman as I fell asleep, just as I did every night for like 6 months after that. I was the man in school the next day for having it.

I got Binaural at midnight the day it came out at Tower Records. I'm still waiting for it to grow on me.


I miss those days. We have albums on the internet weeks early and the days of lining up at midnight are long gone.

I had tapes of Ten, Vs and Vitalogy... then on christmas '95 i got a diskman to replace my walkman and my first cd... Mad Season!!! I thought cds were indestructible... I must've played my mad season cd hundreds of times over the years... a few years back my Mad Season cd broke in a move. Looks like I was wrong.... they aren't indestructible after all. :(