Pearl Jam

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Pearl Jam
PearlJam.jpg
General information
Genre (s) Grunge , alternative rock , hard rock
founding 1990
Website www.pearljam.com
Current occupation
Eddie Vedder
Jeff Ament
Stone Gossard
guitar
Mike McCready
Matt Cameron (since 1998)
former members
Drums
Dave Krusen (1990-1991)
Drums
Matt Chamberlain (1991)
Drums
Dave Abbruzzese (1991-1994)
Drums
Jack Irons (1994-1998)
Additional musicians
Boom Gaspar (since 2002)

Pearl Jam is an American grunge band that the early 1990s, among others, along with Nirvana the Grunge made popular. It is the only one of the great Seattle bands of grunge that has existed and produced albums continuously since then. In late 2016, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

Band history

The beginnings

Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament made their first musical attempts in the band Green River . However, Green River should dissolve soon. Mudhoney was to arise from one half of the members, and Mother Love Bone from the other (Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament) . Before the release of the two studio albums Apple and Shine , mother-love-bone singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose . Under the impression of his death, Wood's roommate at the time, Chris Cornell ( Soundgarden and Audioslave ), released the album Temple of the Dog together with the later Pearl Jam musicians.

After a period of grief, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament decided to keep making music and jammed with guitarist Mike McCready, whom Gossard had known for a while and then met again at a party. This resulted in a demo tape on which Matt Cameron (then Soundgarden , since 1998 with Pearl Jam) helped out as a drummer. This demo tape ended up through Jack Irons (formerly Red Hot Chili Peppers ) at his friend Eddie Vedder , who was then living in San Diego.

Vedder was no stranger to the San Diego music scene. He had already played in several bands, including Bad Radio .

Allegedly he listened to the tape on his night shift in a gas station, went to the beach to surf the next morning and then wrote the lyrics for the instrumentals on the tape, sang about it and sent it back to Seattle . Later these would be known as Alive , Once (on Ten ) and Footsteps ( B-side of the single Jeremy ). Eddie Vedder later referred to the songs as "3-song mini opera". Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready were so enthusiastic about the voice and energy that they immediately invited Eddie Vedder to Seattle. During the flight to Seattle, Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics for another song, Black.

The band rehearsed a lot in the period that followed, and a considerable number of songs were created. During this time, the Temple-of-the-Dog album was completed, on which Eddie Vedder took over the co-vocals on the single Hunger Strike and the backing vocals on Pushing Forward back .

Initially, the band was called Mookie Blaylock , after the NBA player from the New Jersey Nets and Atlanta Hawks with the number 10 ( Ten , the title of the debut album). According to Vedder in early interviews, the final band name came about as a reminiscence of his Indian great-grandmother Pearl, who knew how to prepare jam with hallucinogenic effects. However, this story can be seriously doubted. The great-grandmother Pearl did exist, but no Indian ancestors have been found in Vedder's family. The most plausible is probably to see this mysterious story simply as a little anecdote that Vedder had thought of as a justification for the band name in order to deliver a story to the curious reporters.

Since Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard still had contacts with Sony through their time with Mother Love Bone, the first album Ten was soon to come out. To be complete, however, the band still needed a drummer, as Jack Irons canceled at the time due to his engagement with the band Eleven . This was found with Dave Krusen , who was replaced by Matt Chamberlain after the end of the recordings for Ten .

At first Ten sold sluggishly, but with the commercial success of Nirvana's Nevermind and the increasing hunger for Seattle bands, sales rose rapidly. To date, Ten has been sold more than ten million times in the United States alone.

Extensive touring and the worldwide grunge boom went hand in hand with the band's increasing popularity. The two singles Alive and Even Flow were very successful, but the band's biggest hit was the third single Jeremy . Nearly a million copies were sold, and in 1993 the video for the song won four MTV Video Music Awards , including the Best Video of the Year award. This made Pearl Jam the most successful band at this award.

Since the band - especially Eddie Vedder - could not cope with the completely unexpected extent of their success and life in the limelight, they then made the decision not to publish any more music videos . Jeremy was to remain the band's final video for six years.

Grunge-era superstars

Soon the band went into the studio, again with a new drummer (Texan Dave Abbruzzese ) and producer Brendan O'Brien , to record the successor to Ten. The album Vs. sold over 950,000 copies in the week of its release, setting a record that lasted for several years. That fact almost broke the band's neck. Eddie Vedder in particular struggled with its huge commercial success. As a result, the band tried to move out of the spotlight, but only partially succeeded.

Just a year later, in 1994, the next album was released: Vitalogy . This showed that the band was developing in a significantly different direction than the first two albums suggested. While these were still a collection of mostly mainstream songs, Vitalogy was much darker, rougher and also more varied. This clearly showed that the band was capable of developing musically and earned them a lot of respect. Vitalogy was also quite successful commercially : it sold over 5 million times.

After the suicide of Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Pearl Jam was finally the most widely noticed and most successful grunge band in the world and dealt with this circumstance in their own way: They withdrew completely from the public, did not give any more interviews and became embroiled in a legal dispute with the American concert ticket monopoly Ticketmaster . Pearl Jam accused the group of abusing its dominant position and of selling the cards with extremely high surcharges at almost unaffordable prices. Pearl Jam lost the process, but was at least able to record the success that in future Ticketmaster had to state the service fees separately from the actual ticket price, which meant that the pricing was transparent for the concert-goers.

In the years that followed, Pearl Jam tried to organize several tours with independent concert promoters, but this was almost impossible because Ticketmaster had exclusive contracts with most of the suitable venues.

The last survivors

Already during the recording of Vitalogy , drummer Dave Abbruzzese left the band because his ideas got further and further removed from those of the other members. He was replaced by ex- Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons , who had mediated between Eddie and Stone in 1990 and thus played a major role in the formation of the band. Jack Irons recorded a piece ( Stupid Mop ) on the Vitalogy record and went on the following tour. Ever since it was founded, the band has played songs by the old rock master Neil Young at their concerts and Eddie Vedder in particular had a good friendship with him. So in 1995 it was almost the logical consequence of a collaboration in the studio. Young had written some songs and Pearl Jam was the backing band. The result was the album Mirror Ball , which was released under the name Neil Youngs, as both had different record companies. Eddie Vedder wrote the songs I Got Shit (listed on the cover as I Got Id ) and Long Road in the same recording sessions . The single, on which Neil Young can be heard on guitar and organ, was released in 1995 as an output by Pearl Jam under the name Merkinball .

The single Who You Are heralded the release of No Code in the summer of 1996 . The efforts to define boundaries were forgotten, the band presented itself experimentally, unusual instruments found their way into the world. Pearl Jam presented a colorful musical kaleidoscope, and in an interview Vedder even attributed healing powers to the album. Significantly, the record was not well received by the audience: Although one of her best works, her musical inventory turned into a flop, not least due to her own marketing philosophy: no videos, little promotion hype. However, the album has a very special status among fans to this day and is often referred to as the best Pearl Jam album.

The band spent the summer of 1997 in the studio again and brooded over their successor: Just a few months after its release on February 3, 1998, Yield had already brought in three times as much income as its much quieter predecessor: Musically things got rougher, the guitars were allowed be used properly again. For the first time since 1992, the band had a video made with Do the evolution , the cartoon clip of which contained an urgent appeal to humanity: Take care, death is not the answer ...

Matt Cameron (Ex- Soundgarden ) was hired to replace the drummer Irons, who left the summer tour in 1998 , and his work has already been documented on the live album Live on Two Legs . He made his first studio contribution on the cover version of Last Kiss by Wayne Cochran , originally intended as a Christmas fan club single , which was later officially released as a benefit single for the Kosovo crisis and remains the band's greatest single success to this day.

With Binaural , Pearl Jam presented a relaxed, decidedly poppy record in May 2000 that was reminiscent of Ten in strength . The singles Nothing as It Seems , Light Years and Thin Air impressively announced the songwriting of the band members, the sound turned into a special listening experience thanks to a special recording process in which two microphones are integrated into an artificial head .

On the following European tour, every concert was recorded and published as a bootleg , so that fans were spared the purchase of expensive amateur bootlegs. Side effect: Pearl Jam managed to be in the charts with five albums at the same time. At first the tour was like a triumphal procession, the biggest halls were filled and the big festivals headlined . But in the end, on June 30, 2000, there was one of the greatest catastrophes in rock history: At the Roskilde Festival in Denmark , there was a mass fall, caused by the great euphoria and the soaked ground. Nine fans were crushed to death, the rest of the tour was canceled. To process the terrible experience, the band wrote the song Love Boat Captain , which is on the 2002 album Riot Act . Pearl Jam did not appear at any festivals for six years, and only returned to the open-air stage in 2006, at the Reading Festival .

In the fall of 2000, Pearl Jam played again in the USA, and this tour was also a huge success. A year later, as a document of this tour, the DVD Touring Band 2000 appeared, a compilation of the best songs from the tour.

The album Riot Act , released on November 12, 2002, worked out the bluesy approach of their music more; the bulky material was stingy with key stimuli, and the quality was only revealed after listening to it several times. The reviews were mostly positive.

The subsequent tour through Australia , Japan and the USA cemented Pearl Jam's reputation as one of the best live bands of the time. Again, all concerts were offered at a reasonable price by the fan club. Following the tour, the first of two concerts from Madison Square Garden in New York was released on DVD under the name Live at the Garden .

At the end of 2003, the extensive collection of rarities, Lost Dogs, was released and a year later, in November 2004, the first greatest hits album under the title Rearviewmirror (1991–2003) . Pearl Jam thus fulfilled their contract with the Sony label. In early 2004, they received a Golden Globe nomination for their contribution to the Big Fish soundtrack, Man of the Hour . Shortly before the US presidential election in 2004, Pearl Jam was one of the initiators of the Vote-for-Change tour ( Bruce Springsteen , REM , Dixie Chicks and many others), the aim of which was to motivate as many people as possible to vote and against George W. Bush to vote.

Four years after the studio album Riot Act , a somewhat “rockier” longplayer was released in 2006. The album, entitled Pearl Jam , was released on J Records via the recently merged major label Sony / BMG . After six years, a major world tour took the band back to Europe in August and September 2006 and June 2007.

Pearl Jam released the music video Life Wasted in 2006 as the first band from a major record company under the Creative Commons license.

In September 2007 Vedder released the background music for the film Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn .

Reissues and distribution without a record company

On the occasion of the approaching 20th anniversary of the band in 2011, the band began on March 24th 2009 with the re-release of the entire back catalog. It all started with the debut album Ten . The album with a variety of extras, bonus material and a remix by Brendan O'Brien was now available in various versions .

As a first foretaste of the album Backspacer Pearl Jam played the song Got Some on July 1, 2009 on the pilot of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien . This was followed by the first single, The Fixer , before the album was released in September 2009. It sold very well internationally and was the first Pearl Jam album to top the US charts in several years. However, the contract with J Records was not extended afterwards. Future releases should be distributed in the United States through the fan club, iTunes , various supermarkets and independent stores, and in the rest of the world through the Universal Music Group .

In 2011, Pearl Jam Twenty was released , its own Pearl Jam film, for which director Cameron Crowe sifted through over 700 hours of footage. This should show the work of the band in the past two decades and, above all, record some of the tour material that had been created in recent years.

In 2012 the band went on a European tour. In addition to concerts in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, two concerts were held in Berlin in July 2012. In 2013 the band performed primarily in South America. On October 15, 2013, a new album was released with Lightning Bolt . In addition, the single Mind Your Manners was posted on the homepage in July . Two other songs from the album, namely Lightning Bolt and Future Days , were first performed on July 19, 2013 at Wrigley Field in Chicago .

In December 2016, Pearl Jam was honored with the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . The official event for this took place on April 7, 2017. On this occasion the band played the song Alive not with Matt Cameron, but with Dave Krusen on drums. In March 2018, the musicians released the single Can't Deny Me , the first new song since 2013, and announced a new studio album called Gigaton for 2019 . The release date was later postponed to March 2020. The first single Dance of the Clairvoyants was released in January 2020 and came up with a danceable sound that was unfamiliar for Pearl Jam.

Campaigns and Engagement

Pearl Jam advocates various social and political issues. This includes in particular the education about Crohn's disease , from which guitarist Mike McCready suffers, criticism of the US monopoly Ticketmaster as well as environmental and animal protection. Vedder appears as the band's spokesman. These topics are published on the band's website, where further links are given.

The band is a member of a number of pro-choice organizations, including Choice USA and Voters for Choice . In 1992, Spin magazine published an article detailing Vedder's views on abortion . At an MTV Unplugged concert that same year, Vedder stood on a stool during the song Porch and wrote "Pro-Choice!" As a gesture of protest. on his arm.

Vedder also advocated the sacking of West Memphis 3 . One of the three alleged child murderers contributed to the song Army Reserve from the album Pearl Jam .

As members of Rock the Vote and Vote for Change , the band has supported registration and participation in congressional elections in the United States . Shortly before the 2004 US presidential election , Pearl Jam was one of the initiators of the Vote-For-Change tour, which also included Bruce Springsteen , REM , Dixie Chicks and others. Their aim was to motivate as many people as possible to vote and vote against George W. Bush . Vedder supported the presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2000. Pearl Jam also played a few concerts on the Vote-for-Change tour in October 2004 to support the candidate John Kerry for the presidency. In an article about the artists on the Vote-for-Change tour in the music magazine Rolling Stone , Vedder stated that he supported Nader as an independent candidate in 2000, but because of difficult times it was time for a new government.

Vedder usually comments on political issues between songs, including criticizing US foreign trade. He publicly criticized the Bush administration in several of his songs, including Bu $ hleaguer and World Wide Suicide . On the Lollapalooza Festival 2007, Vedder spoke in against the discharge of wastewater Michigan by BP Amoco of; The band was accompanied musically by war veterans Tomas Young and Ben Harper on the songs No More and Rockin in the Free World . At the end of the song Daughter to the music of Another brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd , Vedder sings: “George Bush leave this world alone / George Bush find another home.” Sponsor AT&T cut the song in the webcast . AT&T later apologized and blamed contract partner Davie Brown Entertainment for the editing error. The entire webcast should now be available on fan pages.

Pearl Jam has performed at numerous benefit concerts. For example, the band culminated in 2001 at a concert in the fight against world hunger in Seattle, which was initiated by the United Nations . The band gave an additional concert on their 2005 tour in support of the victims of Hurricane Katrina ; the proceeds went to the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the Jazz Foundation of America .

Trivia

Three of the band members (Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard) star in Cameron Crowe's 1992 film " Singles " , for which two titles were also contributed to the soundtrack, as members of the film band "Citizen Dick".

Drummer Matt Cameron (since 1998) was a member of two famous grunge bands at the same time: When his old band Soundgarden reunited in 2010 after 13 years, Cameron was also part of the party, but did not drop out at Pearl Jam, but stood until the end of Soundgarden, due to the death of Chris Cornell , available to both groups.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1991 Ten DE15th
gold
gold

(46 weeks)DE
AT31 (4 weeks)
AT
CH67
gold
gold

(1 week)CH
UK18th
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(70 weeks)UK
US2
Diamond + triple platinum
Diamond + triple platinum
× 3
Diamond + triple platinum

(261 weeks)US
First published: August 27, 1991
Sales: + 15,530,000
1993 Vs. DE8 (24 weeks)
DE
AT7 (18 weeks)
AT
CH9 (18 weeks)
CH
UK2
gold
gold

(24 weeks)UK
US1
Seven times platinum
× 7
Seven times platinum

(67 weeks)US
First published: October 19, 1993
Sales: + 7,790,000
1994 Vitalogy DE8 (20 weeks)
DE
AT7 (13 weeks)
AT
CH17 (12 weeks)
CH
UK4th
gold
gold

(11 weeks)UK
US1
Quintuple platinum
× 5
Quintuple platinum

(55 weeks)US
First published: December 6, 1994
Sales: + 5,735,000
1996 No code DE6 (12 weeks)
DE
AT3 (12 weeks)
AT
CH13 (9 weeks)
CH
UK3
gold
gold

(5 weeks)UK
US1
platinum
platinum

(24 weeks)US
First published: August 27, 1996
Sales: + 1,315,000
1998 Yield DE4 (14 weeks)
DE
AT4 (13 weeks)
AT
CH6 (12 weeks)
CH
UK7th
gold
gold

(7 weeks)UK
US2
platinum
platinum

(36 weeks)US
First published: February 3, 1998
Sales: + 1,785,000
2000 Binaural DE4 (12 weeks)
DE
AT8 (12 weeks)
AT
CH8 (11 weeks)
CH
UK5
silver
silver

(4 weeks)UK
US2
gold
gold

(17 weeks)US
First published: May 16, 2000
Sales: + 687,500
2002 Riot Act DE13 (6 weeks)
DE
AT24 (4 weeks)
AT
CH13 (9 weeks)
CH
UK34
silver
silver

(2 weeks)UK
US5
gold
gold

(14 weeks)US
First published: November 12, 2002
Sales: + 737,500
2006 Pearl Jam DE4 (8 weeks)
DE
AT3 (8 weeks)
AT
CH2 (9 weeks)
CH
UK5
silver
silver

(4 weeks)UK
US2
gold
gold

(17 weeks)US
First published: May 2, 2006
Sales: + 785,000
2009 Back spacer DE3 (8 weeks)
DE
AT3 (7 weeks)
AT
CH5 (8 weeks)
CH
UK9
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK
US1
gold
gold

(32 weeks)US
First published: September 20, 2009
Sales: + 787,500
2013 Lightning Bolt DE4 (11 weeks)
DE
AT3 (10 weeks)
AT
CH2 (13 weeks)
CH
UK2
silver
silver

(4 weeks)UK
US1 (16 weeks)
US
First published: October 15, 2013
Sales: + 305,000
2020 Gigaton DE3 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020DE
AT1 (8 weeks)
AT
CH2 (12 weeks)
CH
UK6 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020UK
US5 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020US
First published: March 27, 2020

Awards

  • American Music Awards
    • 1993: in the category "Favorite Pop / Rock New Artist"
    • 1993: in the category "Favorite New Heavy Metal / Hard Rock Artist"
    • 1996: in the category "Favorite Alternative Artist"
    • 1996: in the category "Favorite Heavy Metal / Hard Rock Artist"
    • 1999: in the category "Favorite Alternative Artist"
  • Esky Music Awards
    • 2006: in the category "Best Live Act"
  • Grammys
    • 1996: in the category "Best Hard Rock Performance" (Spin the Black Circle)
    • 2015: in the “Best Recording Package” category for the album Lightning Bolt
  • MTV Video Music Awards
    • 1993: in the category "Video of the Year" (Jeremy)
    • 1993: in the category "Best Group Video" (Jeremy)
    • 1993: in the category "Best Metal / Hard Rock Video" (Jeremy)
    • 1993: in the category "Best Direction" (Jeremy)

literature

Web links

Commons : Pearl Jam  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Penzel : Basketball patience misunderstanding . In Fachblatt Musik Magazin , 5/1992, p. 50 ff.
  2. June 30, 2000: Nine concertgoers die at the Roskilde Festival Historical review in the online news of the German music magazine Rolling Stone on www.rollingstone.de ( Rolling Stone ), June 30, 2020
  3. pearljam.com/news reissue ten
  4. pearljam.com/news got some live @ conan o'brien
  5. ^ Rollingstone.com/rockdaily the fixer first single
  6. "Eddie wanted to retire" . laut.de. September 1, 2009.
  7. Pearl Jam: Concerts on maxivento.de ( memento of the original from January 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.maxivento.de
  8. http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=192384
  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NyJamsAzGY
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7na-ds7-IM
  11. Elias Light: Pearl Jam Deliver Searing Rock Hall of Fame Induction Performance. In: Rolling Stone , April 8, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  12. Fred Moody: Battle of the Band - Pearl Jam's Lonely Crusade Against Ticketmaster to Bring Down Prices. In: Seattle Weekly. November 2, 1994. From FiveHorizonts.com. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  13. Cory Dubrowa: Pearl Jam / Sleater-Kinney, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR 7/20/2006 . Paste Magazine . Retrieved July 10, 2007.
  14. a b Pearl Jam Synergy . Sonymusic.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 26, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sonymusic.com
  15. Pearl Jam: Activism and Information . PearlJam.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 27, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pearljam.com
  16. Eddie Vedder: Reclamation. In: Spin . November 1992.
  17. ECHOLS CONTRIBUTES TO NEW PEARL JAM ALBUM . wm3.org. Archived from the original on July 12, 2006. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wm3.org
  18. Silja JA Talvi: Vedder on Nader: The better man. ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. September 26, 2000. On Salon.com . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / archive.salon.com
  19. Voices for Change. In: Rolling Stone . October 14, 2004.
  20. Ros Krasny: Pearl Jam closes Lollapalooza . Yahoo.com . August 6, 2007. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  21. Christian Klaß: AT&T cuts the Pearl Jam webcast critical of Bush. - "Accidentally cropped" webcast. August 9, 2007. From Golem.de, accessed February 10, 2019.
  22. ^ Grant Gross: AT&T Says It Didn't Censor Pearl Jam . In: PCWorld . IDG News Service . August 9, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  23. Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, REM Converge For Charity Shows . In: MTVnews . MTV.com. July 8, 2001. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  24. Jonathan Cohen: Pearl Jam, The Roots Plan Katrina Benefits . Billboard . September 14, 2005. Accessed July 31, 2007.