Vedder turned out this past weekend for a star-studded musical evening in Hollywood for Hullabaloo 2007, a fete arranged by Flea of the RHCP to benefit his Silverlake Music Conservatory which helps to provide music lessons for underprivileged kids. Some absolutely fantastic videos of the night have turned up here (thanks for the tip, Bill). Vedder’s set also included Driftin’, I Am Mine (!!), the new one No More War, and Betterman & Corduroy with Flea and Co.
I love how Flea goes pogoing past in the background like that little hyperactive kid in your third grade class that the teacher could never get to sit down. Plus, it’s great to see Jack Irons wail again. I think he’s my favored drummer in the Pearl Jam pantheon.
I’m reporting for jury duty this morning like the good little citizen I am, and then I am off to see Andrew Bird/Apostle of Hustle in Boulder tonight (who else is in? Can I get an amen?) — but a quick post before I go.
This little video made me cackle with laughter last night. Brilliance:
Eddie and Boom Gaspar played the Kokua Music Festival in Hawaii this weekend with Jack Johnson. By all accounts, it was pretty rad.
I am sitting here ripping audio from the streaming webcast up right now on the Kokua Festival MySpace: www.myspace.com/kokuafestival. Currently they are playing highlights from Saturday night on loop (and loop, and loop) — tonight’s is supposed to air live soon or so we thought. Looks like it was just Jack’s set streaming from Saturday with Eddie dropping in.
It’s almost as good as being there . . .
AUDIO: Breakdown – Jack Johnson & Zach Gill from ALO No Eddie, but I started recording because I saw the ukulele, and then it was such a truly lovely rendition that I’m sharing here
Soon Forget – Eddie Vedder & Jack Johnson Ooh, they botch this one so bad…stopped in the middle — then where to pick up again?
Constellations – Jack Johnson & Eddie Vedder …with a Hawaiian guy whose name I didn’t catch yet. Absolutely stunning and gorgeous with flawless harmonies. Hands down, best of the night that I heard.
I Shall Be Released (Dylan cover) – The whole gang Grand finale. On the verses we’ve got Jack Johnson, Zach Gill from ALO, then Eddie taking the last verse. Boom Gaspar and Zach are on keys and various other dudes on percussion, etc (couldn’t tell from the video, sorry!)
SATURDAY setlist (Ed & Boom) Throw Your Arms Around Me (!!!!!!!!!!!) Don’t Be Shy No More War (new, Ed said he wrote it 3 days ago) Indifference I Am Mine (!!) Betterman/People Have the Power tag Jack Johnson came out here but the person isn’t sure of the song Corduroy w/Jack Johnson Elderly Woman w/Jack Johnson So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star
As linked above, Eddie joined Jack Johnson for: Soon Forget Constellations (with Hawaiian guy, I’ll get his name!) I Shall Be Released
New song from Eddie on Saturday night, “No More War”:
SUNDAY setlist (Eddie & Boom) Hide Your Love Away (started twice for some reason) Driftin (Oops -Ed screwed this up, started sucking/blowing on the microphone instead of the harmonica) I Am Mine No More (the new song, this time with a full band) Throw Your Hatred Down (full band) Wasted Reprise Hawaii 78 (full band) Betterman (full band, riff on the Ramones “i wanna be your boyfriend” — Hey mother earth, i wanna be your boyfriend) Warch Outside (with full band, jack johnson on bass) Corduroy (full band with jack johnson on bass) Elderly Woman (full band, jack johnson on bass and dueling vocals) Indifference (full band)
note from the poster: “2 things to keep in mind. this is all from memory, so the order may be wrong or i may have missed a song. and when i say full band i obviously don’t mean pearl jam, i mean the guys he played with last night.”
The rumors are true! Pearl Jam will headline this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago on Sunday, August 5th. This is the band’s only scheduled U.S. date for 2007.
Low-priced Earlybird 3-day passes go on sale tomorrow morning at 7:00am CDT here. Get ‘em while the price is right – the cost for the weekend pass will increase on April 12 when the complete festival lineup is announced or when this initial allotment runs out.
No single day tickets will be available until further notice. Check with www.pearljam.com for updates. There are no exclusive Ten Club tickets available for this show.
This is a dual purpose post. One, to tell any of my local readers that they should consider giving some blood at the weeklong drive at the Air Force Academy/Fort Carson. There’s a shortage of blood among our troops and one of the benefits of living in a military town is that they are airlifting all of the blood units donated immediately to Iraq. My blood from yesterday’s session is literally somewhere on its way to the Middle East right now. That’s pretty cool. So lay an arm and donate a pint! Plus you get charming medical attendants in uniform all week long at absolutely no added charge:
I had posted a Basketball-Diaries-esque picture here of the needle running into my arm (the nurse Mr. Christian snapped it for me of his own volition) but I took it down because it even made ME shudder and it was MY arm. Even though I do always watch the needle go in, and ask a lot of medical questions. It’s really just in case I ever run into Dr. John Carter/Dr. Doug Ross on an elevator and need to sound knowledgable.
And then the other purpose of this, of course, is to post up the soundtrack that was running through my head the entire time. You knew this was coming:
PS – I have that aforementioned “Blood Mix” I compiled on cassette back in the day, snippets of all their lyrics (at the time) referencing blood. I don’t know why I did it. However, does anyone have the technology to rip a cassette tape to mp3? If you do, and can help me, then we can listen to my masterwork.
And here are two more kitschy theme-time radio hour contributions:
Positive Bleeding – Urge Overkill (ohhhh, I forgot how fantastic this song is)
From Page Six, NY Post March 13, 2007 — When your parents are Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, you get first dibs on the jam sessions with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. Saturday night, the celeb couple’s son, Miles Robbins, 14, played with his band, The Tangents, at Bar East, on First Avenue and 90th Street. Vedder came as a guest of Sarandon and Robbins, and “Eddie jumped onstage and joined the band for a couple of songs, including a hot cover of ‘Watchtower,’ ” said our spy. “Tim was directing traffic, and the place was full of teenagers who were invited by the Robbins family.”
In all, Vedder provided vocals for three songs: Blitzkreig Bop (Ramones), Rockin In The Free World (Neil Young) and All Along The Watchtower (Dylan). And the band themselves, The Tangents, are pretty good — check the MySpace link above. Frickin how do you top an experience like that at 14? That never happened in my freshman-year world. Unfortunately.
The induction of R.E.M. into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night got me all sentimental about just how deep my love flows for this band, which I have logged thousands of hours listening to since high school. Yet there are times when I still feel like I have only scratched the surface of their careers, knowing there are dozens of tunes from them that are so deserving of my love, but that I have not yet discovered. What a great predicament.
This is a fantastic soundboard-quality set from the Avalon in Hollywood, 2003. It was a two-disc promo distributed to radio stations, so now you can be as cool (and with ears as happy) as the big dogs. Features Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) and Scott McCaughey (Minus 5) as band additions for this set.
The whole show: ZIP IT UP
(zip only re-upped 6/13/07, individual links are expired)
Regarding the induction last night, I got a few play-by-play emails from friends but I missed seeing it. Anxiously awaiting an mp3 of Vedder’s duet with R.E.M. on Man On The Moon. Man On The Moon – R.E.M. with Ed Vedder Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction, March 12, 2007
ADDENDUM: In his heartfelt induction speech, Vedder said, “How do you explain the dialogue between Michael and the listener — a dialogue that grew up and we grew up with it? Such wisdom in the feelings in these songs that — I think they helped us find things that we knew were inside us, and I think they helped us find things that we didn’t know we had inside us. And I can say, there are things that I hold and feel [hand on heart] very deeply about inside here that Michael Stipe put in there himself. What’s really incredible about this is, is that while this is happening — this all happens without ever being able to understand a fucking word he is saying. . .”
My Pearl Jam fanclub single for 2006 finally arrived in the mail just now, and I have to say that I literally jumped up and clicked my heels together in joy on the walk back inside. Because I am a dork.
I think the cover art is some of the best yet and made me get a little flutter somewhere in my gut. As previously mentioned, the tunes this year are the Who cover “Love Reign O’er Me” (which gives me even more chills with the pure vinyl audio sound) and the Neil Young cover “Rocking In The Free World,” with U2 from Melbourne last year.
This gives me pause to also mention two Pearl-Jam-related items I’ve been sitting on: ** Vedder will induct R.E.M. into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame on March 12 (link)
** Ed is the ultimate Cubs fanboy (more pics here). Cara saw these and affectionately referred to Vedder as “tiny mofo.” I think she means that as a term of endearment.
Taking a break from one festival to ponder another: Bill sent me an email link today to an article by Jim DeRogatis which speculates that Pearl Jam, the granddaddies of the 1992 Lollapalooza, may be set to take back that mantle for this year’s three-day concert madness in Chicago.
If you haven’t heard them reigning over their latest Who cover, I think that link is still active. If the news is true about Lolla, that would be awesome.
I’ve been pulling some songs together for a possible Glastonbury retrospective and smiled when I found a live version of Nick Cave‘s “Ship Song.” I used to have a cover of this by Pearl Jam on a mix tape that I made in 1995 of all the scorching shows from that tour.
To my unbounded joy, I was able to find it also on mp3, from their summer show at Red Rocks — I love impromptu covers that have that innocence to them, and this . . . well, this is just an enchanting few minutes.
The song is pretty off-the-cuff (Eddie acknowledges at the end, “Well, we need to work that one out one out a little bit”), but it was the only time they ever played it live, and I bask in the wavering simplicity of this moment. Combine it with the wistful, almost mythical lyrics and it is a song I’ve gotta listen to on repeat.
SHIP SONG By Nick Cave Come sail your ships around me and burn your bridges down We make a little history, baby Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs around me And let your hair hang down You’re a mystery to me Every time you come around
We talked about it all night long Define our moral ground But when I crawl into your arms Everything comes tumbling down . . .
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Hey, guess where I got that picture from? Yeah, that’s right: 
I had posted a Basketball-Diaries-esque picture here of the needle running into my arm (the nurse Mr. Christian snapped it for me of his own volition) but I took it down because it even made ME shudder and it was MY arm. Even though I do always watch the needle go in, and ask a lot of medical questions. It’s really just in case I ever run into Dr. John Carter/Dr. Doug Ross on an elevator and need to sound knowledgable. 
R.E.M. live in Hollywood
Name: Heather Browne
