Pearl Jam - "Yield"

I've been told by a number of people lately that it's not a very "cool" thing to admit that you like Pearl Jam. If that is the case, then consider me officially uncool! I'll admit, for years I was scared of Pearl Jam. I just remember hating the bass player guy for wearing that lame hacky-sack hat in all their early videos. But that was over fifteen years ago, recently I did a little backtracking and checked out their last five or six records. And to be honest, they're all pretty damn good. Don't be scared of P-Jam kids. First, you gotta forget about their first record "Ten", just put that hippy glam record out of your head for now. Ease into it the world of P-Jam with their fifth studio album, "Yield". Just ignore the weird "untitled" song and the spoken word jam, those two are stinkers. After you get into this one maybe check out "Binaural" or "No Code". I asked, my friend and number one Pearl Jam fan, Joe Burns what I should write here to convince you to check out these two songs and this video for "Do The Evolution" (which is one of the coolest and well-made music videos I've ever seen). He had this to say.... "When all of you were in diapers in 1986, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were writing rad tunes with Mark Arm (Mudhoney) in Green River and that's the start of z killer tune writage. Yield slays all the tang, Brendan O' Brien slays the production duty, Jack Irons slays the drums, etc." I'm gonna check out P-Jam when they play with Sonic Youth at the Forum in June and then again later this summer when they're out with Tom Petty on his 30th anniversary tour, shit is gonna go OFF! Speaking of, I'm hoping I can talk some sense into Eddie... on the song "Wishlist" he says "I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off!" Eddie, you can go off anyways! ANYTIME! GO OFF!

(Download - "Brain Of J.")

(Download - "No Way")

Comments

[ryan r]

this record is the best pearl jam record by far.
that video blew me away when i first saw it in 7th grade.

- Ryan

[chris ekstedt]

dude. you need to hear the "lost dogs" album. some cool kicked back shit there.

[Mark]

Best pearl jam album easily. Vitalogy is kinda cool too though.

[p-jamdecrease]

yea..their singer is like half retarded or something? everytime i think of pearl jam i think of...nothing..

[Mark Kritz]

Please enlighten us then... what do you listen to?

[oldpantsnewjersey]

"Eddie, you can go off anyways! ANYTIME! GO OFF!"

Funniest thing I've read in a hundred years. You've described Yield perfectly. It's a pretty solid rock album, unlike Ten, which sounds totally corny 14 years later.

[exileonmainst]

i was at a guided by voices show once and bob pollard got going about pearl jam. it was something like this:

"i was hanging out with eddie vedder the other day. i was like 'ya know, i respect your band. you do your thing and thats cool, but you're responsible for some of the most evil shit ever: creed.' he just looked at me and said 'yeah i know'."

something like that anyway. i was drunk.

[jentwo]

Thank you so much for this entry. It's SO very true that it's not 'cool' at all to like Pearl Jam.

My opinion is: fuck 'cool.' I don't give a shit what the hipsters deem is appropriate to like. And the haters who waste their time posting negative comments clearly need to get a life.

Yield flat-out rocks, and it's one of my favorite PJ albums, right up there with No Code. I'll be at the Forum shows too, as well as San Fran and the Gorge!

[Jay]

Their new self titled album is their most solid work since Yield if you aske me. Their best album is a tie between Yield and No Code. Be careful though, there's a crappy leaked version out there right now, though. If you preorder their new album from their site it comes with a FREE bootleg(well, it's not really a bootleg if the band recorded it, is it?) from a '92 New Years Eve show. That's pretty rad.

[caspar]

no code is the best PJ record. yield has too many holes in it. no code is perfect from beginning to end.

closely followed by versus & then vitalogy.

so glad you guys posted this article - i've been a closet pearl jam fan for years, having bought every record & seen them live years after anyone else was bothering any more.

cheers.

[caspar]

that said - given to fly is probably one of the best songs they've ever done & that's on yield, so yeah.

[John Bultner]

"i was hanging out with eddie vedder the other day. i was like 'ya know, i respect your band. you do your thing and thats cool, but you're responsible for some of the most evil shit ever: creed.' he just looked at me and said 'yeah i know'."

All good bands spawn shit... Nirvana spawned puddle of mudd...

[shirts off boysss]

when did all you headybudders turn 100 years old? pearl jam?
WOW! collosal faggotry!

[Ryan]

it doesn't seem like buddyhead and pearl jam go together. ok, the first time u listen to vitalogy, u don't like it at all. the next time, u still don't think it's that great. then eventually, it grows on u, and ur completely hooked. that gets my vote for their best album. however, i still say their new album cover is one of the worst of all time.

[juan]

This blog has never gone wrong, But this time I have to differ. Vitalogy is the quintesscence Pearl Jam LP. No videos, no advertising. The album just appeared in the market silently and kicked incountable amount of asses. Just check the whole concept behind it: The lyrics, the vintage printing of the booklet and most of it the amazing sound it contains. Yield is good too, but I think Vitalogy outdraws everything Yield stands for. No Code is amazing too, dont get me started on the polaroid lyrics...

[$%&]

a while ago you had soundgarden on here, which i found as a surprise and pretty cool since i really wasnt expecting that from dr.keller. i, myself, happen to like soundgarden but pearl jam,,not happening pigface... they never really cut it for me in 6th grade,7th grade, 8th grade, 9th .etc......the singer needs to get beat up with a prettystick, yeah, since he already got beat up with a uglystick.I really didnt like this album but, one album that i do like alot is "A storm in heaven" by the verve. why hasnt dr.keller posted up some of that shit? its always northern soul this and northern soul that,

[Music]

"This post is about Pearl Jam. I DON'T LIKE PEARL JAM.
...
I DO LIKE OTHER ALBUMS,, THOUGH!"

That's my impression of the previous poster. I just wake up every day hoping people like that don't like my band. Seriously, you're an embarassment. Think before you write. Work on the whole "thinking" bit, first, though.

You're a good example of what's wrong with our society, churning out morons who don't know how to communicate or learn. DO THE EVOLUTION!

[Jason]

Someone fix the link to "Brain Of J". I've tried to download it and all i get is a warning saying that the file can't be opened.

[matthew]

didn't todd macfarlane do that video?

[David]

The problem I have with Pearl Jam is that whenever I like the songs I can't get over Eddie Vedder's vocals and general douchebaggery. To me, Pearl Jam is like a girl who has a really attractive body, but a really nasty face. Kick Vedder out of the band and I'm there.

[John Bultner]

What does eddie veder do that makes him a douchebag? Examples please.

[ryan r.]

i would also like to say that pearl jam is cool because they take awesome bands on tour with them (murder city devils, sonic youth, tom petty, et cetera).

i'd see pj and tom petty but i wouldn't want to have to deal with the dudebros with backwards hats giving each other hi-fives after every song.

such is the price of fame, i suppose.

- Ryan

[Sharon Shareweather]

What band are you in Music? Please share. Perhaps your music will get all the people thinking.

[chris]

Travis has been posting some really weird shit recently. I was actually thinking about how the Head used to be so rad... they were posting phone numbers, talking shit, not giving a fuck about anything. Dude even sold his fucking Platinum records! That's pretty punk if you ask me.

But it bums me out that Travis is acting like a 40 year old and he's still young. What bums me out even more is that I'll be his age in a couple of years, and I hope I am not as lame as he's been recently.

Pearl Jam sucks, and I think they are the Simpsons of the music industry: they had their good moments a long time ago, but they have sucked the big one for years now and they really need to call it quits.

Instead of listening to PJ, I recommend the following*: Autolux, Failure, My Morning Jacket and (newer) Fugazi

* These bands do not sounds like PJ, per se, but have a few subtle similarities

[brad]

I love these old Pearl Jam albums. "World Wide Suicide" makes me think they're still stuck in some shit, but I love 'em and will always check out the new stuff. No Code is all over the map (in a great way), and wins as best for me. Yield has great positive energy. There's an interesting metaphor of ocean waves happening on "Given to Fly" and "In Hiding" with time changes. Check out the documentary of the Yield recording sessions named "Single Video Theory". It's shot beautifully on film and edited very well. I think it would give a lot of people some insight into Eddie and the rest of the crew. Nice example of some mature artists working hard and keeping the fire alive (unlike the adolescents known as Metllica).