Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guitar), as well as Matt Cameron (drums), who joined in 1998. Keyboardist Boom Gaspar has also been a touring/session member with the band since 2002. Jack Irons, Dave Krusen, Matt Chamberlain and Dave Abbruzzese are all former drummers for the band. Pearl Jam has outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries from the early 1990s, and is considered one of the most influential bands from that decade,[1] dubbed "the most popular American rock and roll band of the '90s".[2]
For the 2006 album, see Pearl Jam (album).
Pearl Jam
Formed after the demise of Gossard and Ament's previous bands, Green River and Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with their debut album, Ten, in 1991. Ten stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for nearly five years, and has gone on to become one of the highest-selling rock records ever, going 13× Platinum in the United States. Released in 1993, Pearl Jam's second album, Vs., sold over 950,000 copies in its first week of release, setting the record for most copies of an album sold in its first week of release at the time. Their third album, Vitalogy (1994), became the second-fastest-selling CD in history at the time, with more than 877,000 units sold in its first week.
One of the key bands in the grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam's members often shunned popular music industry practices such as making music videos or participating in interviews. The band had also sued Ticketmaster, claiming it had monopolized the concert-ticket market. In 2006, Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame".[3]
Pearl Jam had sold more than 85 million albums worldwide by 2018, including nearly 32 million albums in the United States by 2012,[4] making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 in its first year of eligibility.[5] They were ranked eighth in a readers' poll by Rolling Stone magazine in its "Top Ten Live Acts of All Time" issue.[6] Throughout its career, the band has also promoted wider social and political issues, from abortion rights sentiments to opposition to George W. Bush's presidency. Vedder acts as the band's spokesman on these issues.
History[edit]
Background (1984–1990)[edit]
Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were members of Seattle-based grunge band Green River during the mid-1980s. Green River toured and recorded to moderate success, but disbanded in 1987 due to a stylistic division between the pair and bandmates Mark Arm and Steve Turner.[7]
In late 1987, Gossard and Ament began playing with Malfunkshun vocalist Andrew Wood, eventually organizing the band Mother Love Bone. In 1988 and 1989, the band recorded and toured to increasing interest. PolyGram signed the band in early 1989. Mother Love Bone's debut album, Apple, was released in July 1990, four months after Wood died of a heroin overdose.[8]
Formation (1990)[edit]
Ament and Gossard were devastated by the death of Wood and the resulting demise of Mother Love Bone. Gossard spent his time afterwards writing material that was harder-edged than what he had been doing previously.[9] After a few months, Gossard started practicing with fellow Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, whose band, Shadow, had broken up; McCready in turn encouraged Gossard to reconnect with Ament.[3] After practicing for a while, the trio sent out a five-song demo tape in order to find a singer and a drummer. They gave former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons the demo to see if he would be interested in joining the band and to distribute the demo to anyone he felt might fit the lead vocal position.[9]
Irons passed on the invitation but gave the demo to his friend Eddie Vedder.[10] Vedder was the lead vocalist for the San Diego band Bad Radio and worked part-time at a gas station. He listened to the tape shortly before going surfing, where lyrics came to him.[9] He then recorded the vocals to three of the songs ("Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps") in what he later described as a "mini-opera" titled Mamasan.[11] Vedder sent the tape with his vocals back to the three Seattle musicians, who were impressed enough to fly Vedder up to Seattle for an audition. Within a week, Vedder had joined the band.[9]
With the addition of Dave Krusen on drums, the band took the name Mookie Blaylock, in reference to the then-active basketball player.[12] The band played its first official show at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle on October 22, 1990.[13] They opened for Alice in Chains at the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 22, 1990,[14] and served as the opening act for the band's Facelift tour in 1991.[15][16] Mookie Blaylock soon signed to Epic Records and renamed themselves Pearl Jam.[2] In an early promotional interview, Vedder said that the name "Pearl Jam" was a reference to his great-grandmother Pearl, who was married to a Native American and had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam.[17] In a 2006 cover story for Rolling Stone, Vedder admitted that this story was "total bullshit", but added that he did have a great-grandmother named Pearl. Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on Pearl Jam after attending a Neil Young concert in which he extended his songs as improvisations (i.e. "jams") of 15–20 minutes in length.[3]
Legacy[edit]
While Nirvana had brought grunge to the mainstream in the early 1990s with Nevermind, Pearl Jam's debut Ten outsold it in the United States,[196] and the band became "the most popular American rock & roll band of the '90s" according to AllMusic.[2] Pearl Jam has been described as "modern rock radio's most influential stylists – the workmanlike midtempo chug of songs like 'Alive' and 'Even Flow' just melodic enough to get moshers singing along".[197] The band inspired and influenced a number of bands, including Silverchair, the White Stripes and the Strokes.[198][199] The band has also been credited for inspiring the indie rock scene of 90s-era urban Pakistan, that has since evolved into a rich rock music culture in the country.[200]
Pearl Jam was ranked at number 8 by Rolling Stone magazine in its "Top Ten Live Acts of All Time".[6] Pearl Jam has been praised for its rejection of rock star excess and its insistence on backing causes it believes in. Music critic Jim DeRogatis stated in the aftermath of the band's battle with Ticketmaster that it "proved that a rock band which isn't comprised of greed heads can play stadiums and not milk the audience for every last dime... it indicated that idealism in rock 'n' roll is not the sole province of those '60s bands enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame".[201] In 2001, Eric Weisbard of Spin wrote: "The group that was once accused of being synthetic grunge now seem as organic and principled a rock band as exists."[19][55] In a 2005 readers' poll in USA Today, Pearl Jam was voted the greatest American rock band of all time.[202] In April 2006, Pearl Jam was awarded the prize for "Best Live Act" in Esquire's Esky Music Awards. The blurb called Pearl Jam "the rare superstars who still play as though each show could be their last".[203] Pearl Jam's fanbase following has been compared to that of the Grateful Dead's, with Rolling Stone magazine stating that Pearl Jam "toured incessantly and became one of rock's great arena acts, attracting a fanatical, Grateful Dead-like cult following with marathon, true-believer shows in the vanishing spirit of Bruce Springsteen, the Who and U2".[3]
Pearl Jam tours with a crew, including longtime live monitor engineer and "mic girl" Karrie Keyes, who has worked for the band for over 30 years.[204] Kille Knobel is Pearl Jam's longtime touring lighting designer[205] after starting with the band in 2000 as an operator and programmer for a tour. Kevin Shuss has been the band's longtime videographer and archivist and self-described "pack rat."[206] The band has archives, unreleased material, B sides, masters and other materials within a vault, which is managed by Kevin Shuss, recording engineer John Burton, and the band. [207]
When asked about Pearl Jam's legacy in a 2000 interview, Vedder said: "I think at some point along the way we began feeling we wanted to give people something to believe in because we all had bands that gave that to us when we needed something to believe in. That was the big challenge for us after the first record and the response to it. The goal immediately became how do we continue to be musicians and grow and survive in view of all this... The answers weren't always easy, but I think we found a way."[208] Their 1992 MTV Unplugged performance was ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of its 15 Best Episodes.[209]
Campaigning and activism[edit]
Throughout its career, Pearl Jam has promoted wider social and political issues, from abortion rights sentiments to opposition to George W. Bush's presidency. Vedder acts as the band's spokesman on these issues. The band has promoted an array of causes, including awareness of Crohn's disease, which Mike McCready suffers from, Ticketmaster venue monopolization and the environment and wildlife protection, among others.[210][211] Guitarist Stone Gossard has been active in environmental pursuits, and has been an advocate of Pearl Jam's carbon neutral policy, offsetting the band's environmental impact.[212] Vedder has advocated for the release of the West Memphis 3 for years and Damien Echols, a member of the three, shares a writing credit for the song "Army Reserve" (from Pearl Jam).[213]
The band, and especially frontman Eddie Vedder, have been vocal supporters of the abortion rights movement. In 1992, Spin printed an article by Vedder, titled "Reclamation", which detailed his views on abortion.[214] In an MTV Unplugged concert the same year, Vedder stood on a stool and wrote "PRO-CHOICE!" on his arm in protest when the band performed the song "Porch".[19][55] The band are members of a number of abortion rights organizations, including Choice USA and Voters for Choice.[211]
As members of Rock the Vote and Vote for Change, the band has encouraged voter registration and participation in United States elections. Vedder was outspoken in support of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2000,[215] and Pearl Jam played a series of concerts on the Vote for Change tour in October 2004, supporting the candidacy of John Kerry for U.S. president. In a Rolling Stone feature showcasing the Vote for Change tour's performers, Vedder told the magazine: "I supported Ralph Nader in 2000, but it's a time of crisis. We have to get a new administration."[216]
In 2006, the members of Pearl Jam founded the non-profit organization Vitalogy Foundation. Named after their third studio album, the foundation supports non-profit organizations working in the fields of community health, the environment, arts, education and social change.[217]
Vedder sometimes comments on politics between songs, often to criticize U.S. foreign policy, and a number of his songs, including "Bu$hleaguer" and "World Wide Suicide", are openly critical of the Bush administration. At Lollapalooza 2007, Vedder spoke out against BP Amoco dumping effluent in Lake Michigan,[218] and at the end of "Daughter", he sang the lyrics "George Bush leave this world alone / George Bush find yourself another home". In the beginning of the second encore Vedder invited Iraq war veteran Tomas Young, the subject of the documentary Body of War, onto the stage to urge an end to the war. Young in turn introduced Ben Harper, who contributed vocals to "No More" and "Rockin' in the Free World".[219] The band later discovered that some of the Bush-related lyrics were excised from the AT&T webcast of the event, and questioned whether that constitutes censorship.[220] AT&T later apologized and blamed the censorship on contractor Davie Brown Entertainment.[221]
Pearl Jam has performed numerous benefit concerts in aid of charities and causes. For example, the band headlined a Seattle concert in 2001 to support the United Nations' efforts to combat world hunger.[222] The band added a date at the Chicago House of Blues to its 2005 tour to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina; the concert proceeds were donated to Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross and the Jazz Foundation of America.[223]
In 2011, Pearl Jam was named 2011 Planet Defenders by Rock the Earth for their environmental activism and their large-scale efforts to decrease their own carbon emissions.[224]
Pearl Jam supported the re-election efforts of Senator Jon Tester with concerts in Missoula, Montana during their 2012, 2018, and 2024 tours.[225]
