Superb piece, Eric. It will indeed be interesting to see how this little experiment turns out.

thanks very much, N!

There was a point in time that I loved Pearl Jam, but when Eddie Vedder decided to make his voice known and speak out against President Bush I was in total disgust. He aught to be thankful that he lives in the US and has his freedom. Who are we to decide whether the president is doing his job right or not. I don't see any of us standing up to the plate and trying to take over. I don't see Eddie Vedder going over seas to live because its so much better there. So as for me and my feelings of Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder. I honestly think they will fail. They lost a lot of respect with the comments that were made and rightfully so.

Come on, Roxanne, give it a little rest, okay? This country rests on a long tradition of disagreement with our political leaders, and Vedder has never made a secret of his political views at any point in his history. Speaking out against the President has nothing to do with gratitude, and doesn't mean someone is unhappy with America.

If you kicked out everybody who badmouthed either President Clinton or President Bush, you would have a pretty empty country.

Good point Philip. Go Pearl Jam. This is just another black eye in the music industry which deserves many more because of their slave like control of artists. They have become so monopolistic that music has become a tool they use to control what is and isnt popular in this country. Its so deep it can be likened to a form of mind control. Hopefully many other artists follow this trend and along with file sharing we can laugh at the end of the RIAA and monopolistic record labels.

Wow.

Hey Eric, great piece at MSNBC.

Thanks Amber, you're sweet!

This was a great piece Eric!
I have sort of fallen away from Pearl Jam over the years, but there is a warm spot in my heart indeed for their earlier recordings. I think it is a brilliant move on their part..moving away from a major label at the height of fan apathy for major labels, using the internet to their advantage (heck even Metallica got in the act) and doing things differently... Shaking stuff up is usually great for the creative process.

I think this means largely what Eric says it means, but I'm not sure it means quite as much of it as Eric does. I got up the gumption to quibble about Pearl Jam's import and popularity here.

Phillip, how come you don't have comments, dude? You wrote a lot of awfully nice things, but I don't agree you couldn't do it: you're super smart, extremely broadly learned and an excellent writer. It IS a matter of time. Not only did I work on that the day I talked to you, but parts of two other days, and a final rewrite of the ending just last night. As far as the idea goes: just surveying the scene, no biggie.

Sean, yours is very nice also. Certainly you can argue with the assertion that PJ is the most important of the '90s, but based on sales, tour receipts, and tempered with critical consensus, they were most popular. "Important" is largely subjective, but they have lasted a lot longer than Nirvana, and transcend subgenres as I mentioned, and so I thought that was a fair judgment too.

Now, my "favorite" band of the '90s is a whole other matter....

Thanks guys!

My opinion, for what it's worth? Pearl Jam should be listed as one of the top 5 bands of the past twenty years. Beyond that they belong in the top 50. Not bad ... not bad at all. And now, with their latest move, they could win me over even one more time.

I had some problems with comments a few years ago, so I turned them off. Blogcritics has convinced me that they are worthwhile, so I do plan on re-enabling them, but I have to redesign my site first, and I've been spending too much time working on this site to get around to that one!

But thanks. I'm still not sure it's just a matter of time, you are a good writer.

I have to agree also that Pearl Jam is still hugely influential. Even though they don't top the charts anymore, their actions are still closely watched.

To me, they'll always be the band that went up against Ticketmaster and, well, kind of lost, but tried really hard and sort of won, too. :)

Thanks P - I think the band may actually be artistically reenergized by all of this, too.

Eric, you really might be right about "most popular." Ten sold about a billion records, and none of its follow-ups were bombs, I guess. I'm probably just making my usual solipsistic mistake of thinking that since I no longer found them particularly relevant, they couldn't be relevant to everyone. But I really do think that the diminishing returns offered by their post-Ten recordings (of which only Vs. was a consistent hit-producer), plus the noble but self-immolating wars against Ticketmaster, MTV and the rock press, yielded a very low general-public profile by the end of the decade, one which remains as such to this day.

I don't really see any Pearl Jam t-shirts on kids in the mall; I still see plenty of Nirvana ones. That's the gauge I'm going by!

So what is your favorite band?

ggbj, knock off wasting space. I know you think you are a funny irritant. So...F, O an D.

Anyway, good for Pearl Jam!! They are good at that sort of thing. Funny, in the 60s almost every hit band was sure agasinst what was going on in D.C./etc. So cool..

Leaving Epic? Great! They are playing their card. It is a strong hand. Since Pearl Jam is a tool of the industry Epic sure can't do as much without them.

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