The 11 Best Albums By Pearl Members

It's been three years since our last Pearl Jam album but that hasn't stopped the members from keeping productive.  This year alone...there have been three side projects put out by PJ members.  Earlier this year we had a new Brad album, United We Stand.  And just in the past month, two new side projects were released.  The first album features Jeff Ament and Joseph Arthur, called RNDM.  The second group...which is actually truly random...features Duff McKagan (of Guns N Roses) and Mike McCready, called Walking Papers.  Two decades ago, Duff and Mike represented two different worlds of popular music.  Duff was in one of the most heralded metal group of 80s with Guns N Roses, while McCready and Pearl Jam were on the front lines of the alternative music that pretty much decimated 80s metal from the mainstream.  Now, the two musicians are basically equals.  Both groups raise the question of whether musicians can be great on their own or are they really stronger as the sum of all parts.  RNDM borrows the sound and style of Pearl Jam from the old days as if they're better doing what they do best.  Walking Papers does the opposite.  They toss the styles of their previous bands out the door and try to establish their own sound.  They have more in common with King Crimson or Black Label Society then they do with anything they've done before. It's interesting to be able to hear both strategies side by side.  On one hand it's comforting to hear the familiar sound of a band you love...but it's also an intriguing listen when a band goes out on a limb and tries something new.  Getting two side projects at the same time with both styles is basically the best of both worlds.

Here are the 11 Best Side Project Albums by Pearl Jam Members:

1. Brad - Shame (1993)
2. Mad Season - Above (1995)
3. Brad - Interiors (1997)
4. Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild (2007)
5. The Rockfords - The Rockfords (2000)
6. Jeff Ament - Tone (2008)
7. Brad - Welcome to Discovery Park (2002)
8. Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs (2011)
9. Tres Mts. - Three Moutains (2011)
10. Three Fish - The Quiet Table (1996)
11. Stone Gossard - Bayleaf (2001)

Buy Jeff Ament's side project RNDM's new album Acts and Mike McCready's new side project Walking Papers.

The 11 Best Songs By The Band Brad

AC/DC might be geniuses. Their albums sales continue to remain steady while everyone else's have been slipping. The first thought is the reason for that is because they don't sell their music via itunes, etc. They would be wrong. Not selling your music on itunes does not prevent internet downloading. That's not how people trade music. They trade via peer-to-peer networking. But AC/DC has does something brilliant to prevent this. And they did it...over 30 years ago.

AC/DC's masterful move is in their name. It's not the "AC." It's not the "DC." It's the backslash: "/." Computers read the backslash as if it's a piece of programming. They think it means your trying to file something. It can not distinguish between a line of code and a symbol meant as a name of a file. Therefore, it renders many AC/DC files undownable. Smart move guys.

I wonder how long the music industry will take to figure out this basic piece of protection. Looks like Brad did.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By The Band Brad:

1. Good News (Shame)

2. Some Never Come Home (Interiors)

3. Buttercup (Shame)

4. The Day Brings (Interiors)

5. Screen (Shame)

6. If You Could Make It Good (Welcome To Discovery Park)

7. We (Shame)

8. Secret Girl (Interiors)

9. I Must Confess (Brad vs. Satchel)

10. Brothers and Sisters (Welcome To Discovery Park)

11. Never Let Each Other Down (Welcome To Discovery Park)

Buy Brad's new album Best Friends?...now!?!?!

The UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#4)

4. Brad - Shame (1993)

In 1993, if you didn't live in breathe Seattle grunge, you were either living in Antartica or you were dead. Today, Nirvana is credited for revolutionizing music. But any of us who lived through the early 90s...especially in college...it was Pearl jam that everyone was obsessed with. It was Eddie Vedder who was on the cover of Time magazine. It was Eddie Vedder who was the teen heartthrob. It was Eddie Vedder who sang lead vocals for the Doors. Pearl Jam ruled all. And the members of the band realized this might be short-lived and quickly tried to capitalize on their new found fame.

I was a sophomore when I heard the Stone Gossard was forming his own band. But in the days before the internet, finding out any information was like unearthing buried treasure. You had to rely on friends...who mostly lied, radio DJs...who mostly lied, and CD store owners...who mostly lied. I kept a list of hard to find CDs on yellow legal paper, and kept it folded in my wallet for any random stop at a music store. I was on the way to a Cure concert when we stopped to get a quick bite at a sandwich shop next door to a used CD store. I ran in and did a quick canvas of the store. In my rushed state...I only got to the Bs...but Brad was there and waiting.

All I remember is listening to the CD in the car all the way to the concert, thinking about the CD all through the concert, and listening all the way home. It was mesmerizing. Shawn Smith's vocals were such a drastic constrast to Vedder's...but at the same time...somehow similar. The band put out 2 more albums with Stone...and 3 without him. But this first release, 15 years later is as magnetic as anything PJ ever did.

Good News

Buy Shame here.