Sometimes being a fan only involves cranking up tunes in your car or having a poster on your wall. But some groups attract a whole different sect of enthusiast, which is why we've invented Fandemonium, a new feature devoted to the deep crevices of musical devotion. In the opening salvo, a Pearl Jam superfan makes a pilgrimage to see her favorite group and meet some like-minded folks along the way.
By Carrie Pierson
When I received special some special "Pearl Jam fans only" coupons upon arriving at my hotel in Philadelphia last Friday (October 30), I knew I had crossed the line from ardent admirer to superfan. After all, I was checking into the hotel under the special Pearl Jam Ten Club discounted rate available only to fan club members. You know the scene in "Best in Show" where all of the dog owners check into the hotel with their dogs? This was not far off. There seemed to be a minimum requirement of three articles of Pearl Jam clothing per person in the lobby and at the valet desk. With my single sticker on the back of my car and not a single Pearl Jam wearable on my person, I was in serious danger of being outed as a newbie.
Of course, this would not be an entirely incorrect assumption. I was a late bloomer, not joining the fan club until 2008 after seeing my first show two years earlier. Like everyone else I knew, I was a big enough fan in the early '90s and could sing along to all of the radio hits. But, also like most people, I had sort of forgotten that they were still around and still making music when, in May of 2006, a friend invited me to wild, wonderful show in Camden, New Jersey. I taunted and complained for pretty much the entire trip, but I realized that the band was great live and, well, you can guess the rest. Two years later, I was signing up for a Ten Club membership and following the fan message boards rabidly. And now, in Philadelphia, I was about to experience my first show with fan club tickets. Read more...
Pearl Jam just released their best album in years in Backspacer. It's the group's ninth studio album (though if you include all the compilations and official bootlegs, it's their nine thousandth release). The five dudes who make up Pearl Jam — singer Eddie Vedder, guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer (at least for the last decade or so) Matt Cameron — have long since figured out how to be Pearl Jam. But back in 1993, it wasn't necessarily as clear as one would think. On this day 16 years ago, the group put out Vs., the eagerly anticipated follow-up to their multiplatinum debut Ten. Just like Nirvana did with In Utero, Pearl Jam set out to pull back a bit from the sound that made them famous and get back to a more raw sound. The result was an album still stocked with melody and anthemic choruses that were buried under a heap of fuzz and left-field experiments (like the funky "Rats" and the spacey, moody "Indifference"). Unlike many of the records from the grunge era (and especially sophomore albums from that period), Vs. actually holds up as both an incredible rock record and a true statement of purpose from an evolving band.
As a way of pulling back from their extreme exposure (and as a bit of a reaction to winning the Video of the Year award for "Jeremy" at the 1992 VMAs), the band refused to make any videos to support the album, and they didn't really build anything around the singles (though "Go" was the first official single, most radio stations were playing "Animal," which wasn't officially a single until 1994). However, the deep electronic files at MTV have yielded a supremely odd promotional clip for "Daughter" (and for Vs. in general) that touts the band's marketing prowess. If that isn't the definition of irony, then nothing is.
It looks like that Target deal paid off, as Pearl Jam have found their way to the top of the Billboard 200. The band moved 190,000 copies of their latest album Backspacer, which was available exclusively at Target stores (as well as on iTunes and via the band's Web site), in its first sales week. It marks the first time since the band has been at the top of the album chart since 1996, when the band released No Code to strong initial sales but mixed reviews. No Code remains both the band's most experimental and maligned album, as the singles were loose affairs (including the moody "Who You Are") and the album tracks brought together a lot of disparate elements.
But even though the two albums have similar cover art, Backspacer is pretty far away from No Code in a sonic sense. The band's new album represents a calmer, breezier Pearl Jam, comfortable in their own skin and just looking to knock some tunes out in the garage. They spent most of this century being difficult to love: 2000's Binaural and 2002's Riot Act were full of spiritual and political unrest, while 2006's self-titled album was an attempt at a reinvention that sounded rushed and busy.
But Backspacer is just right. In a live setting, Pearl Jam play with a joyous energy that transcends their collective age and the occasional heaviness of the material. But on record, they sometimes sound burdened. Backspacer changes all that, putting the focus squarely on the hooks, thrills and camaraderie that comes from being a musical family for so long. They even got the single right: No veteran band has ever delivered a better statement of purpose than Pearl Jam have with "The Fixer."
It's time for another weekend, which means there must be a fresh week's worth of news and insight here in the archives of the Newsroom blog. The smoke finally cleared on the Kanye West "interruption" incident at the Video Music Awards, but plenty of other things filled the void: The premiere of "Dancing with the Stars," the emergence of the friendship between Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift, the premiere of a new Miley Cyrus video and a possible new job for Paula Abdul. This week, we also went behind the scenes with the likes of LeBron James, Paramore, Justin Bieber and Kris Allen. Check out the week's highlights below before you pack the kids in the car and drive to the lake.
» Miley Cyrus premiered the new video for her hit single "Party in the U.S.A." this week. We polled the public and asked the question: Too sexy? Not sexy enough?
» Paramore invited MTV News down to Nashville for a visit, and we even got the guided tour of frontwoman Hayley Williams' car.
» "American Idol" winner Kris Allen dodged a bunch of questions but still came across as charming.
» The "Kanye West interrupts" meme was successfully killed by the Emmy Awards.
Read more...
Normally, new albums hit stores every Tuesday. You'll occasionally see a Friday drop for a high-profile record trying to beat the leaks, but generally speaking that rule is set in stone. However, Pearl Jam's brand new album Backspacer got a rare Sunday release yesterday. But considering how long they've been together (plus the fact that they've got an exclusive distribution deal with Target stores), you can pretty much call the shots.
Backspacer (which is also available as a full-album download for play on "Rock Band") is the band's ninth album, which is always a tricky point in a veteran band's career. Many groups would have chosen to go on wild experiments (U2's disco-rock Pop and the Beatles' "White Album," both profound departures, were ninth albums), but Pearl Jam have gone back to an old school they never actually went to. They've crafted 11 songs that are tight, raw and — according to guitarist Mike McCready — "dry" sounding, and the simplification pays off.
One of the most interesting things about Backspacer is that, like many of the latter-day Pearl Jam albums, it features songs written by every member of the band (drummer Matt Cameron wrote the single "The Fixer" with McCready and Gossard, while Vedder flew solo on the loose, surf-friendly "Gonna See My Friend"). For a group with such a charismatic lead singer, it's an impressive display of democracy. But it wasn't always that way. "In the beginning, Stone and Jeff and Ed wrote everything," McCready said. "I think I got my first writing thing on the second record with 'Glorified G.' We all write a ton of songs, and the diversity of it is hopefully what makes it good and makes people want to hear it."
According to Uma Thurman's character in "Pulp Fiction," there are only two types of people in the world: Beatles people and Elvis people. While that's a reasonable question, it's also like comparing apples to nuclear submarines, as the Beatles and Elvis were working in different enough idioms where it doesn't make sense. But the debate that has been raging for decades between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones makes a lot more sense. Both were English rock bands borrowing American music and channeling it through their own personal points of view. The Beatles erred more on the side of pop and R&B, whereas the Stones decided to make the gutter blues even dirtier. Being a Beatles fan means you prefer classicism, while erring on the side of the Stones probably means you're a punk rock kid at heart.
When MTV News caught up with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready to talk about "Rock Band" (his band's new album Backspacer will be available for download for the game the same day as the record gets released), the conversation came around to the Beatles (and specifically "The Beatles: Rock Band"). While McCready admits the Beatles were "phenomenal," he admits that he's more of a Stones guy.
It makes sense, as McCready is a feisty punk rock kid at heart. The rest of the members of Pearl Jam are probably Beatles guys (save for drummer Matt Cameron, who definitely seems like a Stones guy). The most ironic thing? Even John Lennon sort of became a Stones guy during his later solo period.
Are you a Stones person or a Beatles person? Leave your thoughts in the comments or head on over to Your.MTV.com and make your voice heard!
By Matt Elias
This past weekend at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, we got a glimpse into a world that most music fans don't get to see. Backstage, an entire artist hospitality area was set up to make the musicians feel like, well, rock stars. Nestled between festival regular the Ice Cream Man and a fully stocked bar were a handful of vendors hooking up artists with high-profile swag all weekend.
One of the products that came in handy in the abnormally hot sun (for San Francisco, at least) were Kaenon Polarized sunglasses. We spotted artists all weekend rocking these shades, including members of Mastodon and Cage the Elephant. Originally developed for sailing and ocean sports, the polarizing lenses translate well to the bright summer days of the festival season. Thankfully the folks at Kaenon boasted enough styles to satisfy all of the varying tastes within a band, dodging any potential breakups over the weekend. Plus, all of the glasses came in a nifty little carrying case with a custom Outside Lands logo.
Next door, Altec Lansing was unveiling the boombox for the 21st century. Read more...
Last night at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, Pearl Jam put on a memorable performance full of classic cuts like "Alive" and a boatload of new tunes from their forthcoming LP Backspacer. In the years since they first broke out with 1991's Ten, the band has built themselves into a well-oiled live machine with constantly rotating setlists that draw from their catalog of over 200 songs. McCready told the story about his band's first show in Seattle, which happened only ten days after they were formed and were still operating under the name Mookie Blaylock, something that always raised an eyebrow for the guitarist.
"I really wanted to change it," he told us. "When it got to the point where we signed a record deal, the other guys didn't really care about having to change it, but I was adamant about it. It was a guy's name! Of course, then we ended up linking two words together that sounded cool and made up a bunch of stories about it later."
(Check out photos from this year's Outside Lands Festival, including Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz and more!)
McCready also issued something of an apology to MTV News producer Matt Elias, whose first concert was a 1995 Pearl Jam show on the same grounds where the band played last night. That night, the band had only gotten through a handful of songs when singer Eddie Vedder had to bow out because of a bout of food poisoning. The show continued with Neil Young taking the reins, but Elias still felt a little put out. "I'm sorry about that man," McCready told Elias. "We won't have anything like that tonight." And while tiny microbes don't care about anybody's promises, McCready made good on his guarantee. Was it worth the 14-year wait for Elias?
"Definitely."
The ink is dry on the schedules, the stages are built and the front doors have been thrown open on Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for the 2009 Outside Lands Festival. Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Black Eyed Peas, Jason Mraz, Tenacious D and dozens of others will cover the festival's seven stages for the next 72 hours. San Francisco in August is typically a cool, balmy time, but the story backstage as the weekend begins is the heat.
"This is the weather we tried to get away from," Silversun Pickups frontman Brian Aubert said (his band is from currently-sweltering Los Angeles). They sat down early with MTV News to talk about their never-ending tour, the Beatles and their plan to turn the backstage area of Outside Lands into a watery oasis.
"We're having a pool party later," joked bassist Nikki Monninger. Asked if they really rolled that VIP here in San Francisco, Aubert added, "We don't have a pool, but we're going to fill out trailer with water. We don't know how to climb in, though. It'll be more of a tidal wave than anything else."
(Check out more photos from the 2009 Outside Lands Festival, featuring Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mras and more!)
Pool parties aside, the band also spent some quality time getting psyched for their afternoon set, watching Autolux and talking about sharing a stage with Built to Spill. "Doug Martsch is the greatest," Aubert said. "It's sick that we're playing the same stage as he is." The band has been playing plenty of stages, as their current tour has kept them on the road for months — and will keep them there for plenty more. "We have time off in May of 2010," Aubert said. "I'm not trying to be funny. That's really our schedule." The band didn't show any signs of wear during their heavy, fuzz-heavy set later in the afternoon, and eventually, everybody stopped sweating.
The summer is nearly done, which means that the festival season is also nearing its end. That's why we're going out with a bang, as MTV News will bring you updates from the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this weekend. Starting tomorrow, Pearl Jam, the Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, Tenacious D, Jason Mraz, M.I.A. and, uh, Tom Jones will be covering the park with hot tracks, and we'll be there to take it all in, talk to the stars and deliver late-breaking news.
Obviously, the headliners will pack a punch, but here are the five acts on the undercard who may not have giant audiences or multi-platinum sales but who always manage to deliver at festivals.
Autolux
Their driving, spacey brand of rock marries prog to Britpop. It's the perfect appetizer for the Mars Volta and just the right dose of adrenaline to kickstart Friday afternoon.
The Duke Spirit
A lot of small bands get lost on festival stages, but for some reason, the Duke Spirit's brand of gutter-garage feels much more alive in the middle of nature. Read more...
