Archives for April 2019

Certain Songs #1504: Pearl Jam – “Rearviewmirror”

April 7, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Vs.
Year: 1993

People probably don’t remember this, but Vs. was a huge huge fucking deal when it came out. After all, once Ten had broken through in the summer of 1992, it had remained a steady high seller — the eight best-selling record of 1993 — which just whetted everyone’s appetite for the follow-up. To the point where Vs. sold more copies in its late October 1993 release week — 950,378 thank you Soundscan — than any record in history, debuting at the very top of the Billboard album charts.

I was one of those people, of course. As Ten had somewhat grown on me, and the press played up the so-called rivalry between Pearl Jam and Nirvana, I was dead curious as to how both bands would follow up their surprise successes. And in retrospect, both bands did exactly what you’d now expect them to do: Nirvana got more abrasive and punk and Pearl Jam got bigger and sleeker, Producer Brendan O’Brien clearing out the fuzz so you could hear them.

Certain Songs #1503: Pearl Jam – “State of Love and Trust”

April 6, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Singles Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Year: 1992

While “Jeremy” was what tipped me over into buying Ten, this barnburner was the first Pearl Jam song I ever loved.

As part of the Singles soundtrack, which turned me on to not just Pearl Jam, but also Smashing Pumpkins (which took) and Mudhoney (which didn’t); reminded me that the Screaming Trees were pretty awesome; and premiered not one but two Paul Westerberg solo songs, “State of Love and Trust” knocked me out from pretty much the beginning.

Certain Songs #1502: Pearl Jam – “Black”

April 5, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ten
Year: 1991

Which isn’t to say that I loved Ten when I finally got it. Sure, there were songs like “Even Flow,” “Alive” and “Porch,” but to me, a lot of the album got buried deep in the murk that producer Rick Parashar ladled on top of them. (And, in fact, I much prefer the 2008 Brendan O’Brien remixes which blew the dust right off.)

That said, there wasn’t anything that was going to keep me from eventually loving what I now think is the album’s best track, the devastating break-up ballad, “Black.”

Certain Songs #1501: Pearl Jam – “Jeremy”

April 4, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ten
Year: 1991

I’ve been wrong about many many things. I will continue to be wrong about many many things.

But there were very few things I was as wrong about as I was Pearl Jam when they first came out. They were basically a microcosm of a larger thing I was initially wrong about: grunge. Which I guess doesn’t make anything better.

Certain Songs #1500: Pavement – “The Killing Moon”

April 3, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Major Leagues EP
Year: 1999

“Fate, up against your will”

So, way back in 2015, I pointed out that Echo & The Bunnymen’s original version of “The Killing Moon” wasn’t just Echo & The Bunnymen’s greatest song, but an absolutely enduring classic that will forever be counted among the greatest rock songs of not just the 1980s, but all-time.

And as such, should be totally uncoverable. Especially by Pavement, who you would think would automatically rob “The Killing Moon” of the epic, er, epicness that made it so epochally epic.

Certain Songs #1499: Pavement – “Carrot Rope”

April 2, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Terror Twilight
Year: 1999

Simmer, simmer, simmer down

Here’s the thing about Terror Twilight: it’s fine. It’s perfectly fine. That said, I saw Pavement for the second time on that tour — at the Fillmore, which was much preferable to the Warfield — and enjoyed them very much even as they focused the set on Terror Twilight material, all of which was perfectly fine live as well.

Problem is, that “fine” wasn’t what I wanted from Pavement; I wanted some combination of weird, funny, noisy and melodic. I never got those vibes from Terror Twilight, except for the final two tracks: the ominous jam “The Hexx” and the final almost too silly “Carrot Rope,” helpfully called “… And Carrot Rope” on the album cover because why not.

Certain Songs #1498: Pavement – “Fin”

April 1, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Brighten The Corners
Year: 1997

“No more absolutes”

It was so subtle that I literally didn’t realize it until the morning I’m writing this, but Pavement had at least one long Stephen Malkmus guitar jam near the end of every album from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain forward.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain had “Fillmore Jive” closing it off, but both Wowee Zowee and Terror Twilight stuck their long jams as the penultimate tunes, the former’s “Half a Canyon” somewhat obscured by the vocal shredding screams that accompanied it, and the latter’s “The Hexx” somewhat obscured for being near the end of Terror Twilight.