I've been occupying myself with other projects for the last while, and I apologize to you, blog, for being neglectful. To ween myself back onto posting, I'm starting easy...hello, Random 10!
1. Backwater, Meat Puppets
2. Jack-A-Roe, Bob Dylan
3. Jazzy Bells, Outkast
4. Bu$hleaguer, Pearl Jam
It's amazing to think that four years ago, Pearl Jam caused a hand-wringing storm by performing this song about this "aristocrat choir" that sings "What's the ruckus?" This is a nonsense song now, and I don't think PJ even performs it that much anymore (verdict: not really), but this was a big deal then. Eddie staked a Bush mask on the mic stand???? LAWSY MERCY!
Here's the song from the Live @ the Garden DVD...
5. A Joyful Process, Funkadelic
6. Section 2 (It's the Sun), The Polyphonic Spree
7. South Bound Suarez, Led Zeppelin
8. Pride and Joy, Marvin Gaye
9. All Right, Cecilia
10. Sweet Black Angel, Rolling Stones
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Random 10!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Serves me right...
...I decide that it AT&T's censoring of Pearl Jam wasn't totally intentional, and somebody digs up the fact that they did the same thing to the Flaming Lips and John Butler Trio. And Lilly Allen. And Lupe Fiasco. And...
- A fan emails reporters:And so on. I'll never doubt the conspiracy again. My bad. And I'd sure like to know what "steps" AT&T has taken...in the meantime, here's some info about the contracts artists sign to participate with The Blue Room (via Daily Swarm)...They did the same thing on the webcasts from Bonnaroo in June during the John Butler Trio show when he was talking about the lack of response from our government during Katrina, and also during the Flaming Lips show when the lead singer was talking about how much George Bush had screwed up. I was at both of those live shows and saw the webcasts later. The sound did not cut out at any other time – only when someone was talking about George Bush or the goverment in a negative way.Now, according the the Sun Times:- The Flaming Lips are not aware of the cuts, and are reviewing the tapes.- AT&T issues a new statement admitting that political speech has been censored in the past:
- Jon Butler Trio are unavailable for comment.“It’s not our intent to edit political comments in Webcasts on the Blue Room,” Tiffany O’Brien Nels, AT&T’s Austin, Texas-based spokeswoman, said Friday in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, it has happened in the past in a handful of cases. We have taken steps to insure that it will not happen again.”...
Alleged: Lupe Fiasco @ Lollpalooza 2007 (Pearl Jam message board)I actually missed the Pearl Jam set, but I saw Lupe Fiasco’s performance earlier in the day. He has a song called “American Terrorist”, and while the song itself seemed to go by untouched… Lupe’s lead in to the song was. It went something along the lines of “Some of you might know him as George W. Bush… The President. I know him as George W. Bush ___________ (dead air)”. Having seen Lupe in concert before, I know that muted out section was a “American Terrorist”. He pretty much yells it into the mic before launching into the song.Alleged: Lily Allen @ Bonnaroo 2007 (Lollapalooza message boards)They were definately censoring what Lily Allen was saying in between songs. When there are technical problems, the picture will stop and sometimes the word playlist above the buttons on the video screen will change to buffering. During Lily Allen my picture would keep playing fine and the sound was gone. The sound while the Roots were talking in between songs just cut out for the first time.
The release sent to bands participating in AT&T's Lollapalooza webcast contains no reference to the company's policy of deleting political speech from artists' performances. The section of the release that talks about the equipment used by C3 Presents (which produces live recordings of Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits) to capture audio and video footage, but did not divulge to artists that their political comments would be redacted from webcastsBusted...
Thursday, August 09, 2007
My Verdict: Slightly unintentional, but...
So I guess something strange happened during the Pearl Jam webcast the other night:
After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the "Blue Room" Live Lollapalooza Webcast.Whitney from EW’s PopWatch called the spokesperson for AT&T’s “Blue Room”:
When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.
During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast:
- "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and
- "George Bush find yourself another home.
"This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media.
[T]he company's spokesperson told me that the editing at Lollapalooza was not intentional, and was the decision of an "overzealous" web editor at a company AT&T subcontracted to handle the event. "We have policies for profanity and other actions," the spokesperson continued, "but this was a mistake, and we are working with the band to resolve it." They hope to have an un-edited performance online soon, and, naturally, they regret the situation.Art Brodsky at HuffPo had some questions as well.
That's nice. But the first question here, obviously, is how to keep something like this from happening in the future. One can't help but wonder how Joe Webcasteditorguy determined that Vedder's remarks were somehow inappropriate — according to the spokesperson, the Blue Room's only policy regarding editing is to remove "excessive profanity" from webcasts, based on the fact that they have no age restriction for the website. What I found interesting is the fact that all Blue Room transmissions are running on a two-minute delay, which, unlike your more standard SNL-and-news-broadcasts seven-second delay, must be an agonizingly long time for any editor to stew over a snap judgment — especially if they're engaged in a fierce internal debate about whether allowing the liberal rock star's anti-Bush comment through the filter might get them fired, or, worse, added to some sort of list that could lead to phone monitoring and/or the inability to get on a plane next time they want to visit grandma. And yes, that is a slight exaggeration. But throw in paranoia involving the giant corporation for whom they are working, the opinions/beliefs of shareholders, the chance that you might be providing the dreaded "succor" to the damn terrorists.... Well, one can see where Joe Webcasteditorguy was, maybe, just trying to do what's right.
The larger question is, why do they have a "content monitor?" This isn't TV, where the Federal Cussing Commission is looking over everyone's shoulder. There isn't a rule about what content can get streamed over the Internet, at least not yet.Despite my reflexive “DON’T YOU DARE MESS WITH MY PEARL JAM” instinct, I'm willing to at least slightly believe the "Mistakes were made...just not by us" excuse that this was something of an accident, and I’m glad that AT&T’s working with the band to fix the problem. That said, I hope this issue doesn’t go away after it’s fixed.
AT&T is really getting into its role as content nanny in a big way. First, it starts monitoring all sorts of conversations for the National Security Agency. Then it promises to work with the movie studios and NBC to come up with some super software to tag copyrighted material that flows through its network, regardless of how that content is used. Now it puts "content monitors" on its Webcasts.
We must ask: This is the company that want to be left alone to run the Internet as it sees fit? The corporate officials of AT&T like to give speeches and to tell the FCC and Congress that they won't block people's access to content. They made that promise when they bought BellSouth for $80 billion last year. Former AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre made it in a speech last March.
They protest too much. Despite the denials from Whitacre and others in the telecom industry, this incident is just one more count in the indictment. Millions of people all over the country have signed petitions and told the government that they don't want companies like AT&T to have control over what goes over the Internet. If you have to ask why, this is why.
As the band said on its Web page: "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media."
Pearl Jam has had a lot of hits, but it couldn't write anything more striking than this: "What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band."
The whole ‘webcasting’ idea has been so fresh and neat (“You mean I can watch the closing set from Bonnaroo in my underwear at home?? That’s awesome!!”) that I don’t think consumers have felt like they have a right to expect more just yet.
If AT&T is going to have basically a monopoly over this type of service, then it’s indeed time to start making some demands. The biggest one of all to me is that there really is absolutely, positively no need for removing “excessive profanity” on this sort of thing, being that a) you can find any cussword you want on YouTube and anywhere else, and b) you should probably know what you’re getting into if you let your young child watch a rock concert (HELLLLO, McFly). Plenty of parents brought their children to the concert, and I bet they knew what they were getting into. Besides, if you’re allowing your child to play on the Internet without your supervision, the last thing you have to worry about is them hearing some curse words on a concert webcast. If you take profanity off the table, then some "overzealous web editor" won't have decisions to make other than hitting 'Start' and 'Stop', and this kind of crap won't happen.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Lollapalooza Day 3 (Part Two): The Most Important Band in the World...
A rock world that tries to align itself with Pearl Jam is one with hope.
No offense to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who closed Lollapalooza last year—they’re the ultimate Professional Festival Closer, and they’re good at what they do. But while RHCP have energy, Pearl Jam has passion, be it political or emotional, and music is getting more passionate and relevant by the day. In a festival where bands were taking political stands starting almost first thing Friday morning, Pearl Jam was the only band who could have been chosen to finish things right. And they did so.
When I was in 9th grade, I was in a typing class (oh baby) with some upperclassmen, and Pearl Jam was on its way to play Oklahoma City, an hour away from my hometown. This was a huge deal. There was no way in hell my parents would let me go—I didn’t even ask—but a few juniors and seniors went to the show and couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks afterward (their trip to the show also led to the fantastic moment of one of the upperclassmen falling asleep in class and having his head actually hit the typewriter...phenomenal stuff).
This was 1993.
For whatever the reason— the political vibe in the air, the success of “World Wide Suicide”, or simply an outbreak of nostalgia, there’s no questioning that almost 14 years later, seeing Pearl Jam is an even bigger deal. And unlike 14 years ago, Eddie Vedder seems happy to accept the role of being the guy that almost 200,000 people want to hear from. He gets increasingly more comfortable in his skin with each passing year, and while he’s played to big crowds for the last 16 years or so, he seemed genuinely touched by the number of people watching, cheering, and singing along to songs from every era of the band’s career to date, from Ten’s “Why Go” and Vs’ “Rearviewmirror” to Riot Act’s “Save You” and Pearl Jam’s “World Wide Suicide.” Add extra adrenaline and passion to what has always been earnest, loose-but-intense, emotional live show, and that made for an amazing way to finish up Day Three of Lolla ’07.
I’ve got to admit something. For a millisecond, I was torn about letting people back on the bandwagon. Though 1995-2005 was supposed to resemble something of a ‘dark period’ for Pearl Jam, they continued to sell out amphitheatres and arenas and put out interesting, emotional works for the enjoyment of their ever-loyal fanbase, and as a member of that ever-loyal fanbase, part of me resented everybody trying to reclaim their seat on the train—I’m a music snob, that’s what we do. However, as the weekend progressed and I heard more and more about how “I’m so looking forward to Pearl Jam” and “They’re gonna be so awesome”, I started realizing that Pearl Jam is a band that people want to say they’ve seen—in the best way possible—and I found the music snob in me starting to get drowned out by the side of me that wants as many people as possible to realize how fantastic this band really is. And anybody who saw them Sunday night would have had trouble coming up with a different adjective than that. Fantastic.
Pearl Jam took control of the weekend from the very first note. At a majority of shows, Pearl Jam has historically started with a slow-burning song—something like “Release” or “Sometimes” or “Long Road”—before jumping into a long series of hard rockers. Not Sunday. Sunday started with one of the band’s first hard rockers, “Why Go.” Be it a reference to Eddie being in Chicago—a childhood home—or a statement of “Why go home yet, festivalgoers? We’re going to be here a while” (my guess is the former), it kickstarted the festivities beautifully. Things didn’t slow down for a while, nor did PJ’s propensity to jump from album to album, as “Corduroy” (Vitalogy), “Save You” (Riot Act), and an insane “Do the Evolution” (Yield) followed. The momentum finally took a breath with “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Vs), one of the better sing-alongs in the PJ catalog. Every fan knows all the words, and the “I just wanna scream...HELLO!” part is always fun to sing. The band then hit the gas again for a murderous “Severed Hand” (Pearl Jam), and six songs into the show, six different albums had been represented.
One reason PJ has maintained the almost-religious fanbase that they have is the way they nod to those fans by breaking out unexpected rarities on an almost show-by-show basis. They play so many different songs over the course of a tour, and they do so even when they’re playing for almost 200,000 fans who are expecting to hear the hits. You’ll get most of the hits, but when some might have been expecting “Jeremy,” instead they god “Education”, a rarity from the B-sides album, Lost Dogs, that had only been played in a show twice before.
With the rarities mission accomplished, it was back to the hits. "Evenflow" would have gotten tired years ago if not for Mike McCready. I said on Saturday that The Roots had the best guitarist at the festival--Captain Kirk. Sorry, Kirk...that was a silly thing to say. There's no problem with being #2 (and for the record, I guess the Black Keys' Daniel Auerbach would have to be #3). McCready would be #1 at any festival in the world. He is an absolute powerhouse, both in talent and showmanship. Pete Townsend wind-up? He does that. Solo behind his head? That too. Duel with everybody on stage at some point? Yup. Until seeing PJ live, Walsh thought of Pearl Jam as the Eddie Vedder Band. As powerful a figure as Eddie is, when he's on stage, he's only one-sixth of the band. Stone Gossard is just about the perfect rhythm/co-lead guitarist. Jeff Ament is all kinetic energy at bass. Since taking over drum duties in the late-'90s, Matt Cameron has taken PJ's performances to a new level. Even Boom Gaspar, the old surfer dude that Eddie met surfing in Hawaii, holds his own on songs like "Love Boat Captain" and "Crazy Mary." They are a complete band, but really...McCready is a step above the others.
After McCready's typical perfect solo, Cameron got his chance to shine on "Evenflow" with a solo of his own...one that coincided so well with a fireworks display starting south of the park that I thought it was planned.
Next up were “Given to Fly” and a killer “World Wide Suicide” before the band unveiled a new ‘song’ in response to BP/Amoco’s decision to—in the name of “expansion”—dump more waste into Lake Michigan, one entitled “Don’t Go BP/Amoco.” Things wound down during the main set with a fun “Lukin”, loud singalongs in “Not for You” (fans always love having an excuse to scream “F--- you!”) and Daughter (complete with an “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” tag at the end) and “State of Love and Trust” (from the Singles soundtrack) before closing with “Alive.”
Last year, Pearl Jam recorded an episode of VH1 Storytellers, and he discussed how fans completely changed the meaning of “Alive” for him. From Billboard:"In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused," he said of the tale, based on his own teenage discovery that the man he believed to be his biological father was actually not. "It was a curse -- 'I'm still alive.'" But as fans quickly turned the title phrase into a self-empowering anthem, particularly at Pearl Jam concerts, Vedder said, "they lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me."
I told Walsh beforehand about my favorite Pearl Jam moment (before last weekend, anyway): Alpine Valley in East Troy, WI, 6/21/2003. The crowd was fantastic—singing along to everything and having a grand old time. The euphoric memory of the crowd singing all of “Better Man” to Eddie was something I’ll always keep with me. Well, Alpine Valley holds 20K-30K people. Multiply that by about 6, and you get the Lolla version of that memory. Another way that fans have somehow changed the meaning of songs: “Better Man,” a song about an abusive relationship, has become the only song more celebratory than “Alive,” a song with the refrain of “I’m still alive, but do I deserve to be?” It’s such a happy moment in a Pearl Jam show, and it lived up to all expectations in Chicago.
Lord knows that the “Alive” performed at Lolla was the ultimate celebratory moment. Eddie is still alive, the band is still alive, hope is still alive for the future, et cetera. It was a pitch-perfect way to end the pre-encore set.
Encore #1 wrapped up with “Crazy Mary,” a song featuring an envigorating solos duel between McCready and organ player Boom Gaspar, a rousing “Life Wasted”, and the always-epic “Rearviewmirror.” But Pearl Jam doesn’t just play one encore.
Another of the more endearing things about Eddie Vedder is how is emotion and passion don’t prevent him from straying into cheesiness sometimes. He’s not part of the ‘ironic’ generation. This became clear during the first song of Encore #2. A documentary called Body of War will be finding its way into theatres soon. It's the story of an Iraq veteran named Tomas Young, bound to a wheelchair and speaking out against the Iraq war. Vedder had written music for the movie, and he brought Young out to greet the crowd and call them to action. It was an inspiring moment. Then Vedder brought Ben Harper out to perform a song from the soundtrack, entitled "No More." For better or worse, it is a cheesy, folky, anti-war song by any stretch of the definition.What he has seen is hard to believe
Cheesy lyrics or no, hearing Vedder and Harper cry out the chorus and seeing Young smiling, moved by the moment, was really cool. Eddie, however, did milk the moment a bit much, however, getting the crowd to sing along to the chorus for a bit too long and seemingly losing some of the crowd. As a fan of music, it was maybe a slight misstep. However, as a fan of imperfections, I loved how it showed Eddie's inner idealism and vulnerability. During the 2003 tour, he spoke out on Bush and the Iraq War on a nightly basis. Four years later, this grizzled rock star still wants to do everything in his power to change things.
And it does no good to just pray
He asks of us to stand
And we must end this war today
With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"
With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more war!"
Yeah, nothing's too good for a veteran
Yeah, this is what they say
So nothing is what they will get
In this new American way
The lies we were told to get us to go
are criminal, let us be straight
Let's get to the point where our voices get heard
Behind the White House gate
There was one more song on the docket for Encore #2, and it wasn't "Yellow Ledbetter," the song that has closed a majority of PJ shows over the last decade-plus. It might have been on the setlist, but it wasn't necessary, not after the brilliant debacle that was "Rockin' in the Free World."
Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" is the greatest protest song of the last 25 years, and Pearl Jam has pretty much made it their own. However, Eddie had been watching Iggy Pop earlier in the day, and he turned this into one of the most unique renditions. Ben Harper was already on stage, as was Tomas Young. So why not invite everybody else who was watching from backstage? It's not quite Iggy's "invite the entire crowd up" or anything, but...yeah, it was chaos nonetheless. Apparently Eddie happened to have like 75 tambourines backstage, so every new temporary PJ member had an instrument.
So the camera's panning across the people on stage...they come in all shapes and sizes, but there's only one 6'6 black man with nose rings on-stage. Everybody in our group has the same thought at the same time: "Was that Dennis Rodman??" Yes, yes it was.
I guess the randomness of seeing Dennis Rodman picking Eddie Vedder up on his shoulders was a relatively fitting way to end the evening. If the perfect Pearl Jam show has great performances, rarities, crowd interaction, emotion emotion emotion, politics, and complete unpredictability, I guess Sunday was the perfect Pearl Jam show.
So as I was saying...a rock world that tries to align itself with Pearl Jam is one with hope. They are students of classic rock who try to use their celebrity as they most earnestly see it, and after a weekend of Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Electric Six, Against Me!, the Polyphonic Spree, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Wailers, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, The Roots, Patti Smith, TV on the Radio, and every other band striving to make a positive social impact in their music, giving them Pearl Jam as a template was the least Lollapalooza's organizers could do. And I'm really glad I was there to see it. Walsh and I have all but already bought our 2008 tickets.