Friday, November 25, 2011

Pearl Jam--PJ20 OST

I've been so busy with school that I haven't even thought about posting here in a while. I've got some time off for Thanksgiving though and am wide awake at 2 in the morning. I spent the day napping and the night watching Netflix. Over the last few weeks, my only entertainment has been reading Everybody Loves Our Town: The Oral History of Grunge on the bus back and forth from school/work. I should start by saying I've never been a fan of grunge. I love Nirvana, but I think they transcend that Seattle scene that happened to spring up around them and never personally related them with grunge, as erroneous as that may be. To me, it's like saying the Beatles are rock and roll. The Beatles are The Beatles and Nirvana are Nirvana. The Who is The Who. You can't put bands like those into categories. So anyway, I bought the Oral History more as a tourist than a fan. It was basically research. And I downloaded a lot of records to listen to while reading on the bus--again, more research. I pretty much stuck to my guns though, and as much as I've enjoyed reading the book, I haven't come much closer to loving this music. I have happened upon an appreciation for the more Stooges-esque Mudhoney stuff, the heavy drone of The Melvins, and developed sort of a fascination with Mark Lanegan. But I still can't really say I like any of this music. As for Pearl Jam, I have never taken them seriously and even after reading the book, I still didn't think too highly of them. I have to say the book, kind of unfairly, paints them in a bit of a negative light. And I bought into it, cause I never really liked their music anyway. Tonight, though, I'm up late and I can't sleep and I just watched Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam 20 on Netflix. I have to admit I was kind of blown away. There aren't many bands with their level of integrity and work ethic that are also, yes I will finally admit it, kind of awesome. Say what you will about me, but I am a convert. I like Pearl Jam. Warts and all. Pearl Jam's not Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam is grunge, but they're OK. First U2, now Pearl Jam. What next, Lady Gaga?



1 comment:

  1. Hey, I'm the author of Everybody Loves Our Town. Thanks for reading!

    Mark
    grungebook.tumblr.com
    twitter.com/markyarm

    ReplyDelete