Artist bio

See also: Hovercraft, Mad Season, Three Fish

When Pearl Jam first rose to superstardom in the early ‘90s, the quintet was rarely regarded in the same light as Seattle colleagues such as Nirvana (more attitude) or Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (they rocked harder). Indeed, at first everything was a struggle for Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, from getting “metal” radio to play “Alive” to struggling for cred amid its more established local mates. Then suddenly Pearl Jam and its roaring update of Aerosmith, the Who, and Led Zeppelin was more popular than them all. Ten went on to sell 9 million copies. Vs. set a record by shifting nearly 900,000 units in its first week of release. Listeners followed the band’s every whim: when 1994’s Vitalogy was issued on vinyl two weeks before it came out on CD, enough people bought that version that it debuted just outside the top-50 of The Billboard 200. Appropriately, the first single was called “Spin the Black Circle” and was the band’s least radio friendly track to date.

But with success came struggle, some media generated (the famous losing battle with Ticketmaster) but most of it fueled by band members’ own insecurity with their newfound celebrity. Pearl Jam pulled back on every level, looking to its influences for guidance and in the process establishing for itself new and important means of collaboration. What followed were a series of increasingly personal, musically intricate albums (1996’s No Code, 1998’s Yield, 2000’s Binaural) that often befuddled the masses but cemented Pearl Jam’s place as one of the best rock bands of its generation. The group’s rabid following was always rewarded with thrilling live shows that never featured the same setlist, justifying the otherwise preposterous scheme that saw 72 complete concerts from the 2000 tour made available to retail. By the 2002 release of Riot Act, Pearl Jam had reached a milestone not one of its hometown rivals had even come close to achieving: more than a decade of great music, made on its own terms.

Albums by this artist

Binaural (2000)

'Given To Fly' (1998)

Yield (1998)

No Code (Recommended) (1996)

Merkin Ball (1996)

Vitalogy (Recommended) (1994)

Vs. (1993)

Concerts

August 18, 2000
Deer Creek Amphitheater, Indianapolis

Pearl Jam

Yield

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

Pearl Jam Yield Epic, 1998 RiYL: The Who's Who's Next, The Ramones' Road To Ruin, Led Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy

It's ironic that the band with the most ambition to prove rock music as the ultimate means of expression has spent its entire career shunning its celebrity status in one form or another.

But time heals all wounds: On the heels of 1996's No Code, Pearl Jam is making some of the only rock music that means anything, sidestepping cliches and the scores of imitators that latched on and cashed in when "grunge" was a term that even the PTA and the local newscaster was using.

Yield, the band's fifth album, is the smile-inducing sound of five guys who absolutely love what they're doing and who've emerged from the throes of superstardom with their integrity and their sense of purpose intact.

This message is conveyed in a variety of ways, particularly on earnest confessionals like the low-key "Wishlist." "I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good," frontman Eddie Vedder sings in his best Springsteen rasp. It re-appears in the churning, sexy grind of "No Way," where Vedder firmly pronounces, "I'll stop trying to make a difference / I'm not trying to make a difference, no way."

Rocking just as hard, if not more so, than 1994's scathing Vitalogy while retaining the adventurous feel and spiritual overtones of No Code, Yield works on all of its many levels, from the abrasive, Fugazi-tinged throttle of opener "Brain Of J," the focused thrash of the check-yourself "Do The Evolution," the splendid balladry of "Lowlight" and the White Album-era Beatles-ish "All The Yesterdays," the locked-in, dead-on rock of the soaring "In Hiding," "Faithfull," and the lofty epic "Given To Fly."

In fact, Yield is nothing short of a spiritual experience. Imagery of angels and redemption pervade the record, manifested most notably on first single "Given To Fly." Vedder narrates the tale of a Messianic youth distracted by "faceless men" from completing noble deeds -- the uplifting chorus sends chills down the spine. "Pilate" approaches redemption from a different angle, curiously likening the wayward narrator to Pontius Pilate and in the process ending up as one of Pearl Jam's most musically interesting songs in recent memory.

Yield is also about conformity, namely the band and its singer's lack thereof. Vedder ruminates about the future in the dark, driving chorus of "Brain Of J" while offering a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the band's own staying power in the emphatic "Faithfull": "We're faithful / we all believe / we all believe it."

You bet your life we believe it.

Elsewhere, Vedder is uncharacteristically vulnerable ("No Way") and awestruck ("MFC"). Here, the frontman isn't lecturing to arenas full of disaffected youths- he's relating to the listener on an uncommon level.

Musically, Yield bears the collaborative stamp and ever-present influence of seminal rock acts such as the Who and Neil Young. Indeed, Pearl Jam's songwriting here is consistently more challenging and intricate, with a much greater influence on structure and individual parts.

Examples: "No Way" is temporarily sucked into a bizarre, angular breakdown before bursting back into the room with a head-nodding chorus, while "Push Me, Pull Me" is a disorienting jolt whose tape loops, belt-busting bass and ponderous lyrics seem equal parts Beck and Hendrix.

Drummer Jack Irons again does a fine job of shifting gears and keeping things interesting. On "Brain Of J" and "Do The Evolution," he's heard pounding the shit out of his drums like there's no tomorrow. But instead of attempting to lead the more ballad-oriented songs into tough-guy territory, Irons hammers out a sturdy pace for his bandmates to navigate. Easily one of the most solid pure rock albums of the decade, Yield fully realizes an inspiring ambition and passion.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"