Asleep at the Wheel - or - Read This Post if You Love or Hate Pearl Jam
I have no idea what I've been smoking the past couple months...Pearl Jam has a new B-sides CD and Live concert DVD out as of yesterday, and I thought they didn't come out until next week. I had it marked on my calendar at work for who knows how long that these items were coming out yesterday, yet my mind was certain, certain, that this CD and DVD were not released until next Tuesday. This normally wouldn't be an issue and I'd be on top of it anyway, except I have been under the weather so far this week and therefore do not have the disks in my possession. So I'm a little sad that I'm not listening to Lost Dogs right now...oh well.
Though, looking at the song list, is just proof positive why Pearl Jam should be considered one of the top 5 bands of the past decade. While most bands that come out with a "Best of" or "B-sides" collection with one new previously unreleased song for fans to hang their hat on (or, more accurately, sucker them into buying the disk) Lost Dogs is a two disk set containing 11 songs that were virtually unattainable previously. How many bands do that? It's like another entirely new album release. This is one solid reason why they are my favorite band, they buck the tide. This is why I love them. Is this set perfect? No, there is a song or two I would have dumped in an instant (Gremmie Out of Control for example) and a song or two I really wish were included (the studio version of Sonic Reducer for example). Then again you can never completely satisfy hardcore fans. It comes with the territory of being a band.
Of course, speaking further to those songs I wish were included, as per usual with Pearl Jam there are some funny things going on with this release. Song listings in news articles written when the disk was announced have listed "Angel" as one of the tracks on this 2 disk set. When searching the band's Rumor Pit (a section of their Sony website that confirms or denies strong rumors) they list the reason for Angel not making the the album as "the wishes of the band"...whatever that means. If you (and by "you" I mean Pearl Jam, cause I know they read this :) don't want this fantastic song on the album that's one thing...but to have it reported earlier and cut at the last minute, come on, give us a reason a better reason than that.
Regardless of the Angellessness of this recording, you should buy it now:
If you like any aspect of Pearl Jam, including only being a fan of their old school fare there is more than enough here to keep you interested. Oh, and any of you who are into the downloading of music - search out Angel, it is a fantastic song. You won't be disappointed.
Naturally, today, I've been looking into a articles written about this B-side collect and other aspects of all things Pearl Jam and came across a couple real gems like this interview with Mike the lead guitarist of Pearl Jam. The article discusses his thoughts on a few of the songs found on the new disk and it actually manages a couple real interesting tidbits and factoids I didn't know. Bravo.
...then we come to some more depressing bits like a poll by a Seattle Radio Station KISW that does a weekly Top 99 songs of a given artist or theme (like 99 best covers of all time, etc)...now the amount of popular artists that have 99 songs that one could rate in such a manner is low to begin with, and usually require a rather rabid hard-core fan base to even attempt. So it's more than a little saddening that this is the best Pearl Jam fans can do. Compounding the depression is the fact that this station is from Pearl Jam's home town and the best hometown listeners can do is rank their songs in virtually the most obvious manner possible. I look at it like this: if I were only a passing fan of Pearl Jam and not terrifically well versed in their body of work I'd want to look at this list as an opportunity to catch a few jems that the fans really like, but radio never quite caught on to. Unfortunately the top of this list is virtually every song that got any kind of radio play and offers no surprises. I couldn't create a more vanilla list if I tried. What this list does for me is virtually nullify any other list this station produces; I'll just assume that the top 10 is all songs I've heard.
Perhaps I'll get around to posting my top 99 pearl jam songs one of these days.
Though, looking at the song list, is just proof positive why Pearl Jam should be considered one of the top 5 bands of the past decade. While most bands that come out with a "Best of" or "B-sides" collection with one new previously unreleased song for fans to hang their hat on (or, more accurately, sucker them into buying the disk) Lost Dogs is a two disk set containing 11 songs that were virtually unattainable previously. How many bands do that? It's like another entirely new album release. This is one solid reason why they are my favorite band, they buck the tide. This is why I love them. Is this set perfect? No, there is a song or two I would have dumped in an instant (Gremmie Out of Control for example) and a song or two I really wish were included (the studio version of Sonic Reducer for example). Then again you can never completely satisfy hardcore fans. It comes with the territory of being a band.
Of course, speaking further to those songs I wish were included, as per usual with Pearl Jam there are some funny things going on with this release. Song listings in news articles written when the disk was announced have listed "Angel" as one of the tracks on this 2 disk set. When searching the band's Rumor Pit (a section of their Sony website that confirms or denies strong rumors) they list the reason for Angel not making the the album as "the wishes of the band"...whatever that means. If you (and by "you" I mean Pearl Jam, cause I know they read this :) don't want this fantastic song on the album that's one thing...but to have it reported earlier and cut at the last minute, come on, give us a reason a better reason than that.
Regardless of the Angellessness of this recording, you should buy it now:
If you like any aspect of Pearl Jam, including only being a fan of their old school fare there is more than enough here to keep you interested. Oh, and any of you who are into the downloading of music - search out Angel, it is a fantastic song. You won't be disappointed.
Naturally, today, I've been looking into a articles written about this B-side collect and other aspects of all things Pearl Jam and came across a couple real gems like this interview with Mike the lead guitarist of Pearl Jam. The article discusses his thoughts on a few of the songs found on the new disk and it actually manages a couple real interesting tidbits and factoids I didn't know. Bravo.
...then we come to some more depressing bits like a poll by a Seattle Radio Station KISW that does a weekly Top 99 songs of a given artist or theme (like 99 best covers of all time, etc)...now the amount of popular artists that have 99 songs that one could rate in such a manner is low to begin with, and usually require a rather rabid hard-core fan base to even attempt. So it's more than a little saddening that this is the best Pearl Jam fans can do. Compounding the depression is the fact that this station is from Pearl Jam's home town and the best hometown listeners can do is rank their songs in virtually the most obvious manner possible. I look at it like this: if I were only a passing fan of Pearl Jam and not terrifically well versed in their body of work I'd want to look at this list as an opportunity to catch a few jems that the fans really like, but radio never quite caught on to. Unfortunately the top of this list is virtually every song that got any kind of radio play and offers no surprises. I couldn't create a more vanilla list if I tried. What this list does for me is virtually nullify any other list this station produces; I'll just assume that the top 10 is all songs I've heard.
Perhaps I'll get around to posting my top 99 pearl jam songs one of these days.