biscuitdough wrote:It's just stadium rock. Loses a point for overdone vocals I guess, but it's nothing to hate. Certainly not as good as Soundgarden, who made a solid attempt to make heavy, Sabbathy music with an awareness of what was going on in rock outside of metal. Alice in Chains, too, a weirder stew and with a lot of unfortunate Ratt-like qualities, but interesting and sometimes really enjoyable to listen to.Nail on head.

It's just stadium rock. Loses a point for overdone vocals I guess, but it's nothing to hate. Certainly not as good as Soundgarden, who made a solid attempt to make heavy, Sabbathy music with an awareness of what was going on in rock outside of metal. Alice in Chains, too, a weirder stew and with a lot of unfortunate Ratt-like qualities, but interesting and sometimes really enjoyable to listen to.

What's to like?

I m completely indifferent to Pearl Jam...Which probably the last thing any band wants.

Probably just jealous we didnt get to play Crazy Horse and sing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley.

I like the 'Do the Evolution' video. I've only heard Ten and Vitalogy and probably a few other singles. Ten is a good listen for stoned ears (my ears), although I haven't done this in years. The reason why I never explored them further was that they never seemed to 'rock'. Neither their guitars nor the drumming ever kicked my ass, and I wanted precisely that as a teenager. Plus they really do have a cock rock vibe. And like most people around here, I'm overly sensitive to that. I'm not a fan of Soundgarden either. Alice in Chains... Better than Pearl Jam, maybe, but they do that same thing over and over. And I'm not into depression at all.

I like Ten okay but I'm not sure if this is just out of nostalgia for hearing my brother blasting it in his room when I was a wee lad. I've heard other songs here and there but I've never had any desire to seek anything else out of theirs. As another FM mentioned, they're no Screaming Trees, and whatever itch Pearl Jam scratches for me, the Trees scratch it much more satisfyingly.As far as Soundgarden goes, I probably know a couple of their hits but mostly I just know them from their tracks on the Deep Six compilation. I would trade getting to listen to those few tracks over ever hearing Pearl Jam again, easily.

There are way bigger enemies in rock 'n' roll than Pearl Jam.It's obviously true that they're a product of the machine, but I respect the fact that they've just become lifer road-dogs now. Eddie let himself get naturally older/fatter/less sexy, which makes me respect them and take their music more seriously. They're the Grateful Dead of rock. Which reminds me of how Ben from Dillinger Escape Plan summed up the grunge bands:Pearl Jam is the jam band of grungeNirvana is the punk bandSoundgarden is the prog bandAlice in Chains is the metal band

Hey N1ck, by your analogy, Screaming Trees must be blues right? But what about Mudhoney and Tad?

I have several Pearl Jam apologist friends who've kept me up to speed and helped me appreciate things about them. At this point bagging on PJ is about as reflexive as some punk rocker bagging on Pink Floyd. It's a majority opinion in most discerning rock fan circles to the point where it's kind of automatically assumed.Anyhow, they had a run of stuff that came after the casual listener stopped paying attention that had some pretty cool songs; No Code, Yield, Binaural and Riot Act are all records with a pretty well crafted pastiche of garage rock, Neil Young stuff, 80's punk, Laurel Canyon folk rock. Not really sounding like the band that might be responsible for NIckleback and Creed. I'd say everything they've done in the last 10+ years is totally inferior. Which is crazy in of itself, to say "the last decade of this band is not nearly as good as a fruitful mid period". Maybe you could say that about Guided By Voices.That said, I'm not sure if that's the kind of praise that would motivate someone on here to dig through the discography searching for gems. I know a few people I could corner with a 6 pack of beer, pick out some of the finer work and make them scream mercy, as in "yeah I guess that song was pretty cool". Somehow these kinds of exercises don't happen as often as they did when I had roommates in college.