Vedder covers Nick Cave and Trent Reznor

On August 21 Eddie Vedder began a two night stand in Chicago, part of his ongoing his solo tour (which I was fortunate to catch in Berkeley back in April). I'd heard that he covered both Nick Cave and Trent Reznor during his inventive set. Fascinating.

In honor of me planning to see Nick Cave tomorrow night with his Bad Seeds, it seemed a good time to dig up the mp3s. I love it when Eddie covers Ship Song.


Ship Song (Nick Cave cover) - Eddie Vedder [stream]
Hurt (Nine Inch Nails cover) - Eddie Vedder

10/1/08: mp3 links removed again at the request of the Ten Club.
Hmmm, starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

[photo credit Andrea Latina]

Someday Eddie Vedder and the Cubs will go all the way and it will be magical

Ed's never made his love for the Cubbies a secret. Now he's gone and penned a song especially for them with lyrics that go something like:

We are not fairweather, but foulweather fans
Like brothers in arms, in the suites and the stands
There’s magic in the ivy and the old scoreboard
The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score
In a world full of greed, we could never want more

His unjaded joy for the sport that I love is heartening, and this song makes me happy. Here's a live version; there is talk of him releasing it (a studio version?) on vinyl as a 45 single, and it's currently burning up the radiowaves around Chicago.

STREAM: Someday We'll Go All The Way - Eddie Vedder
(file removed, you can now buy it over here)


Like The Hold Steady's effort to bolster the Twins, or even the slightly less prominent Rockies anthem, Vedder's effort is a noble contribution to my favorite sport. Now can someone rad could just please, please make a song for the Giants that will pull them up by, oh, 12 or 13 games? Thank you.


[song and story via Hire Jim Essian. thanks!]

The insurgency began and you missed it

R.E.M. had a little help tonight at their encore in Philly; Eddie Vedder joined them (and Johnny Marr) onstage to sing the excellent "Begin the Begin." So many great shows happening from both artists lately, to see them together would be astounding. Until video surfaces (edit: here), I'm gonna have to imagine it went something like this:



[video from 2004, the mutual admiration society continues]

UPDATE: mp3 from last night!
Begin the Begin (live in Philly 6/18/08) - R.E.M. and Eddie Vedder

Lucky stars in your eyes :: Eddie Vedder in Berkeley, 04/07/08

"Trying to remember, but my feelings can't know for sure
Try to reach out, but it's gone
Lucky stars in your eyes..."

With those lyrics, Eddie Vedder took the stage Monday night in Berkeley with a rare Daniel Johnston cover that I've heard only a handful of times since 1994. Sitting on a gorgeous set with actual decoration and design (old suitcases, projection machine, gold lamé wings, a backdrop facade with abstract buildings of wood, later lifted to reveal blue skies) Vedder strolled out, hung his coat up on a hook like he was entering his living room, and sat down with us for over two hours.

Thanks to the good people at the Ten Club, I was in Row C and felt intimately engaged in Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall (capacity 2089) with its pristine, warm acoustics. Given the amount of banter back from the crowd, maybe the acoustics were too good. Maybe we can work out the one-way directional acoustics somehow. More on that later.

Accompanied with an arsenal of guitars, ukuleles, a banjo, and an amplified footboard, Vedder's set was a far-reaching collection of solo tunes from the Into The Wild soundtrack, unreleased songs and covers, with only a handful of standard Pearl Jam tunes -- and many of those deep cuts from the back catalog. It was really a delight for this fan to see material I had never heard live, and Vedder's voice sounded rich and golden and pure.

There was little variation from the setlists of previous nights, so anyone who had read a review in the paper or trolled the boards online knew what was coming next. I would have liked to see a little bit more changeup from night to night, as there are so many great songs he could have explored, but I am not complaining.

The soaring "I Am Mine" is a favorite song, and it was gorgeous to hear early on in the night, as was the rare "Dead Man" from the Penn film soundtrack (Sean Penn was there both nights, I hear). Dead Man was the very first song I ever saw Vedder perform, in a solo pre-set at the San Jose show in 1995, so it was a somber treat to see it again. The rarely heard "I'm Open" from 1996's No Code was played as a modified version that left out the spoken word bit about a man lying in bed in a room with no door (good call there, Ed).

"Man of the Hour" did a phosphorescent slow-burn with its malleable melody and honey-rich vocals, while "Porch" was not something I was expecting, and completely rocked my face off. Ed's furiously strumming arm was a rapid-fire blur of heart and urgency, and I found myself (quietly!) singing along to every word and meaning it. That's my favorite song off Ten on most days, one of the few songs off that album that I could hear a good number more times live. It was nice to hear a rocker in with the acoustic stuff. And Lukin!! Acoustic performances of Lukin are something I never fail to get a kick out of.

The conversational tone of the evening led to some interesting storytelling on Ed's part between songs, filling in details that I hadn't known before. During the explanation of the West Memphis Three situation (tickets were auctioned off for each show to support their legal defense fund), Ed led into the extremely rare song "Satellite" that I had never even heard before Monday night, saying it was written for the wife of one of the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols. She was in attendance Monday night, and Ed performed the love song he wrote just for her and Damien.

Satellite - Eddie Vedder
(an especially nice live premiere from 2002)

Despite Ed's requests for mitigation of the constant barrage of comments from the small crowd, the living room feel proved too enticing for many who wanted a chance to converse with their idol in that quiet setting. Vedder first quoted Tom Waits in a gruff imitation, saying Waits had once revealed to him that "silence is like a blank piece of paper," then later telling the yellers a bit more blatantly to "shut the fuck up," to little avail. From song requests to comments about everything from presidential candidates (wait, he's supporting Obama?! Shocker) to general supportive "We love you" sentiments, I kept really wishing people would please just sit quietly and listen to the man I came to hear. I'm all for enthusiasm but it got a bit much after a thousand times.

One guy did yell after "Guaranteed" that Ed should've won an Academy Award, to which Ed humorously mused that he had been watching VH1 'I Love the 80s' special recently, and had seen that the Ghostbusters theme won an Oscar in 1985. "That song I just played you is not as good as Ghostbusters," he said with a smile, "but I'm going to keep trying." Ed also threw in some pretty horrifying song lyrics from a Bay Area punk band called the Yeastie Girls, during a conversation about Fugazi. The words yeast and girls should really never ever be used in a sentence together, much less a band name. Please and thank you.

After an amazing run of well-selected cover songs, Ed closed his first encore with the vocal loopings of the song "Arc" from 2002's Riot Act. The piece incorporates layers of wordless vocalizations, and was written for the 9 Pearl Jam fans killed in the crowd during the tragic happenings of the 2000 Roskilde festival. In 2003, Pearl Jam played this song at 9 shows, one show for each of the victims. It is rarely-played, a raw and haunting piece that echoed on after the blue velvet curtain closed and Ed left the stage.

After lengthy applause, Ed brought back out opener Liam Finn and accompaniment from Eliza-Jane Barnes, along with Marin County songwriter Jerry Hannan (who had joined him earlier to help perform his song "Society") for a rousing version of "Hard Sun." The security guards were being prison-guard-tough for the whole set on photos or video, patrolling the aisles every three minutes, giving sharp looks and pointed finger threats to fans who dared desire to capture the moment for posterity or for their music blog. But during Hard Sun, the crowd overflowed down to fill the aisles and I was able to capture a bit of that joyous closer for you, complete with Eddie-the-Pearl-Jam-frontman air jump on the final guitar chord:



EDDIE VEDDER SOLO SETLIST
BERKELEY 4/7/08
Walking The Cow (Daniel Johnston)
Around The Bend
I Am Mine
Dead Man
I'm Open
Man of the Hour
Setting Forth
Guaranteed
No Ceiling
Far Behind
Rise
Millworker (James Taylor)
Goodbye
Satellite
Drifting
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Lennon, McCartney)
Here's To The State (Phil Ochs)
Trouble (Cat Stevens)
If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (Cat Stevens)
Parting Ways
Forever Young (Bob Dylan)
Porch
Society, with Jerry Hannan
Growin Up (Bruce Springsteen)
Lukin
No More
Arc
Hard Sun, with Liam Finn, Eliza-Jane Barnes and Jerry Hannan (Gordon Peterson)

(AUDIO FILES REMOVED BY REQUEST OF THE TEN CLUB)

Other notes:
**I didn't arrive early enough to snag a limited edition poster, but there were some very cool playbills being given out at the door with details on the show, artwork, and all the relevant causes and musicians. But PJ fans got greedy and took more than one apiece. After some Robin-Hood-like thievery from those with plenty, I went home a happy girl with my own ill-gotten souvenir. I didn't do the swiping but I can't say I turned down the gains.

**24-year old New Zealander opener Liam Finn was energetic (almost spastic, in a wonderfully unbridled and enthusiastic way) as he worked through material from his solo debut album I'll Be Lightning. His music has strong melodic sensibilities (not unlike his dad Neil Finn) but he also really had an edge on the rhythms, with the proclivity to lapse into some rock and roll shrieks. He was out signing things after his set, and I told him I enjoyed watching him on the drums. A reader compared him to Animal from the Muppets, all flailing limbs and furry faced. I would see him again.

**One of my faithful readers is an Iraq veteran named Josh who recently wrote me an immensely moving and humbling email to tell me how much my words and music had meant to him while he was in the desert, flying Blackhawk medic missions and trying to save kids' lives. Josh and his wife flew out from where he is currently stationed in Hawaii specifically for the Berkeley shows, as an anniversary gift to each other, and a vacation before he undergoes surgery for a broken back sustained in Iraq. Josh was in row 2 with his back brace, and one of the most moving moments of the night for me was when he and his wife stood silently together for the entire performance of "No More." I felt overwhelmed.

**Finally . . . near midnight on Tuesday night, I was on the train heading back from an awesome Giants game (man I've missed that ballpark) and I get a frantic breathless call from my friend Sam, telling me that Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready had just showed up at night two. Apparently during the encore, Vedder started musing, "I've got Jeff Ament's rug, Stone Gossard's guitar, Matt's drum... but I didn't have anything from Mike McCready . . . so I Fedex'd him out." Then they rolled Mike out on a cart, and the two went on to play All Along The Watchtower and Yellow Ledbetter together. Ha! Sean Penn also joined in on the jubilee, a bit oddly (does he sing?).


More than anything, I'd say these shows are great because of the sense of fun and experimentation, a chance to explore some musical ground that we haven't seen. I'm heartened and glad to see Ed in such a good place.



[Vedder stills credit SFGate]

Baby we only got today, and then the moment's gone forever

The Burn To Shine DVD series artfully combines two of my favorite things: cool old buildings and terrific bands, with a series of performances captured within the doomed walls of homes slated for destruction. The cameras roll for the band alone, and by the time we see the footage, the building no longer exists.

This series is a project of Fugazi dummer Brendan Canty and filmmaker Christoph Green (the pair also directed the Wilco Sunken Treasure DVD). Musicians representing the regional scene are selected by local "curators," including Ben Gibbard in the Seattle film and Chris Funk of the Decemberists in Portland. The musicians set up shop in the condemned building, each performing one song, one take, on one day. Then the local fire department will receive the property and it will be destroyed by fire for training exercises.

What makes these films exceptional is the weighty sense of a fleeting, ephemeral moment that will never happen again. I've thought about this, but never been able to articulate the concept as finely and viscerally as the combination present in this series does.

So often I'll see an exceptional performance in a venue, and the next time I'm there I might think of what took place on that very stage. But the moment is gone and will never happen exactly the same way again. This series crystallizes that into footage and teases it out to the forefront -- the way that musical creations dissipate, and how they are fleeting by their inherent nature.

Baby, we only got today, and then the moment's gone forever.

WILCO: Muzzle of Bees
(Burn to Shine Chicago, 2002)

Muzzle of Bees (Burn to Shine version) - Wilco


SLEATER-KINNEY: Modern Girl
(Burn to Shine Portland, 2003)

Modern Girl (Burn to Shine version) - Sleater-Kinney


EDDIE VEDDER: Can't Keep
(Burn to Shine Seattle, 2005) - I love this house's architecture

Can't Keep (Burn to Shine version) - Eddie Vedder


Read the excellent full listing of who has played for this series, and if this concept interests you, you must listen to the podcast interview with Brendan Canty about the series. Canty talks about how the concept got started during a period when Fugazi was undergoing a time of flux and dissolution, and how he wanted to capture that feeling somehow through this old building that fell into his lap. It's a fascinating and brilliant concept, and a series deserving of further development.

Vol 1: Washington DC (2001)
Vol 2: Chicago (2002)
Vol 3: Portland (2003)
Vol 4: Louisville (not yet released)
Vol 5: Seattle (2005)


Burn to Shine 4-DVD complete set

Vedder plays $5 secret shows in West Seattle

One of the things I am most looking forward to about seeing Ed Vedder solo next Monday in Berkeley is the variety of rare and semi-rare tunes I'm hoping he'll play. I've seen Pearl Jam so many times that they'd have to dig quite deep to throw something I'd never seen, but within the framework of a solo setting there are many songs that I'd love to see live for the first time.

Judging from the setlists at the two secret shows Vedder played to fewer than 150 people this past Monday and Tuesday night at Kenyon Hall in West Seattle (tickets for an "Into The Wild event" were sold for $5 at indie record store Easy Street), I could be in for some pretty rad selections.

Here are (other live versions of) a few tunes he played at the shows this week:

THE "SOLO VEDDER HYPOTHETICAL SETLIST 2008" MIX
Walkin' The Cow (Daniel Johnston cover, Bridge School 1994)
Around The Bend (live Bridge School 2006)
I Am Mine (live Bridge School 2004)
Dead Man (live, Not In Our Name Benefit 1998)
Broken Hearted (live at the Wiltern Theatre 2002)
You're True (live at the Wiltern Theatre 2002)
Goodbye (live at UCLA 2002)
Trouble (Cat Stevens cover, live)
Picture In A Frame (Tom Waits cover, Bridge School 2006)
Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover, live in 93-ish)
Forever Young (Dylan cover, 5.24.06)
I Used To Work In Chicago (Bridge School 06)
Millworker (James Taylor cover, live in 2004)
Drifting (live in Mansfield, MA, 2003)
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Chicago 5.16.06)
Growin' Up (Springsteen cover, live in 2003)

ZIP: "SOLO VEDDER HYPOTHETICAL SETLIST 2008" MIX


[Late addition/not in the zip] - Patriot!! Thanks to the comments, I'm gonna post up a few versions here of one of my favorite covers that Pearl Jam does, and add my voice to the small chorus suggesting this for the solo shows. Such a fantastic song.

Patriot (punked out version, Tibetan Freedom Concert 6/13/99)
Patriot (acoustic, Madison Square Garden 10/13/00)
Patriot (all reworked, live in 2003)

Ed Vedder's solo jaunt down the West Coast

The Ten Club wasn't lying when they promised an exciting 2008 for members. Just a few weeks after announcing that Pearl Jam will headline Bonnaroo, we members were notified yesterday afternoon that Eddie Vedder will be doing a solo tour down the West Coast in April. The venues are small, the tickets are unfortunately not cheap, and members will have a stab at presale on Monday. A friend of mine is combining the tour with some baseball park visits; the season is right, and dang that sounds like a lovely idea to me.

Liam Finn opens these shows.

EDDIE VEDDER SOLO TOUR
Apr-02 The Centre, Vancouver, BC
Apr-05 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
Apr-07 Zellerbach Theatre, Berkeley, CA
Apr-10 Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA
Apr-12 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Apr-13 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Apr-15 Spreckels Theater, San Diego, CA

Five special ticket packages per show will be auctioned off for the legal defense fund of the West Memphis Three. On-sale to the general public is Friday through (yes) Ticketmaster.

Bruce Springsteen will also be tracing a somewhat parallel journey to Vedder, notably with his Vancouver show March 31 and the Sacramento show April 4th. Following the reliable old adage that starting a rumor on the internet is obviously likely to yield actual results, maybe there will be some collaboration like these:

No Surrender (with Vedder, Meadowlands 10-13-04) - Bruce Springsteen
Betterman (with Vedder, Meadowlands 10-13-04) - Bruce Springsteen
My Hometown (with Vedder, Chicago 9-26-02) - Bruce Springsteen


For good measure we'll throw these in too:

Growin' Up (Springsteen cover, 7-14-03 New Jersey) - Pearl Jam
Atlantic City (Springsteen cover, 10-01-05, Borgata Casino) - Pearl Jam**
No Surrender (Springsteen cover, 09-30-05, Borgata Casino) - Pearl Jam**

**The encoding on those last two tracks is too low to stream right (Chipmunks!) but if you download them they do sound fine, and that recording No Surrender is one of my all-time favorite covers. If anyone has better quality mp3s, please send em my way.

[top photo credit Kerensa Wight]
[Vedder/Springsteen photo 10-13-04, taken by Paul Hawthorne]

Into The Wild demos from Eddie Vedder

How in the world did I not consider Ed Vedder's Into The Wild soundtrack album when I made up my best-of 2007 list? I think it's a richly nuanced, evocative collection that's perfectly suited to the weight of the film - you can read my thoughts on it here. Since the finished product is so grand, I was very excited to discover that some of his work-in-progress demos for the soundtrack have made their way onto the internet. Enjoy.

INTO THE WILD DEMOS
Guaranteed (Humming version demo) - Eddie Vedder
Guaranteed (demo 2) - Eddie Vedder [full lyrics jpg here]
Hard Sun (instrumental) - Eddie Vedder
No Ceiling (demo) - Eddie Vedder
Rise (demo) - Eddie Vedder
The Wolf (demo) - Eddie Vedder

ZIP: INTO THE WILD DEMOS

These are from the excellent new Pearl Jam b-sides site http://www.gremmie.net/bsides/

Also -- a music video from Eddie? If you haven't seen it yet:

I now walk into the wild

This past weekend, Into The Wild finally trickled down to those of us not located in big glamorous cities. I promise not to wreck it for you if you haven't read the book or seen the movie, these are just a few of my thoughts after having done both this past week.

Components of McCandless' grand Alaskan adventure tug relentlessly and almost perniciously at some loose threads inside me. I suspect that elements of following your passion with such unbridled drive and joy touch many of us on some level, which is why the book sold so well, and why the movie was made. I was glad I had read the book first, shading the characters, the motivations, filling in the missing chunks, but the movie was very faithful to the book.

The movie review in our local paper said that McCandless was "sanctimonious and arrogant," and that sat so wrong with me. I surely didn't know McCandless, and it's easy to forget after the book and the film and a big-name soundtrack that he was actually a real person. But more than anything to me, he seemed sincere, even if the misguided optimism about his odds of success in the wild ended up fatal.

As one interviewee in the book named Sleight said, while relating Chris with another wilderness wanderer who was profiled named Everett Ruess: "Everett was strange, kind of different. But him and and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That was what was great about them. They tried. Not many do." That, for me, was the core of the story.

I noticed that McCandless seemed to deeply affect everyone whose lives he came into, like a bolt of lightning. Everyone interviewed for the book remembered him well, much better than your standard vagrant who enters your life for a few hours or days, for a meal or a ride. But you know, I found myself empathizing with the people that McCandless left behind at every stop along the way, after he took what he needed from them -- be it conversation, a father figure, travel advice, a laugh, a discussion of literature, the bouncing off of ideas and philosophical concepts. Like a blue-green bolt of ephemeral electricity he lit up their skies for a moment. But very soon, the wanderlust inside him compelled him to travel on. Everyone seemed to feel a gaping void there after Chris left, something you see especially vividly in the movie. Maybe he's one of those shooting stars that you almost wish you'd never crossed paths with at all because everything seems dimmer in their absence, the afterglow they leave behind radiating off the otherwise dull grey walls around you.

How does the music complement the film? Very well, as I suspected. Vedder's scoring is bittersweet and powerful, especially a memorable scene with "The Wolf," where Vedder sounds his barbaric yawp over the roofs of this world (or actually the treeline of the Alaskan wilderness) as McCandless stands with arms outstretched on top of his bus-home, feeling the pull and glory of the wilderness. Vedder's unselfconscious animal cries made the little hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

One specific lyric on the soundtrack that I keep rolling around in my mind is found in the song "Guaranteed." Vedder sings "Circles they grow and they swallow people whole..." I keep thinking of what he may have meant by this line. I come up with more than one circle. Anyone who has ever found a certain idea hard to leave behind knows the exhaustion that comes with continuing to revisit it, as it soaks up the attention and the circle gets stronger in our minds. I wonder if McCandless escaped the beige circles of mediocre daily living, only to find himself pursuing a more savage circle of Alaskan wilderness. Both will swallow you whole.

Which one is worse?

Guaranteed - Eddie Vedder


Now that I am done reading Into the Wild, I have moved on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road and it is currently scaring the absolute bejesus out of me with its incinerated post-apocalyptic vision. More on that later but sheesh.

Exclusive! Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers, "All Along The Watchtower"

The new Dylan biopic I'm Not There takes the interesting, surrealistic angle of illustrating Bob at different stages of his life through the rubric of six distinctively different actors (including a black man and a woman): Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and Christian Bale. I am very curious to see how this works itself out in the film - at least it's a fresh angle (I mean, how many Dylan movies can you make?).

In addition to this creative lens used in the film to examine the man himself, the soundtrack is a double disc jamboree of some pretty cool Dylan covers, including disc 1, track 1 with Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers covering "All Along The Watchtower." Fuel/Friends is pleased as punch to get an exclusive stream for you guys to take your first listen of this!

EDDIE VEDDER & THE MILLION DOLLAR BASHERS
"All Along The Watchtower"

Stream FLASH
Stream QUICKTIME
Stream WINDOWS MEDIA



And who are said Million Dollar Bashers? It's Wilco's god-like guitarist Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley (from Sonic Youth), bass player Tony Garnier, keyboardist John Medeski (from Martin, Medeski and Wood), and guitarist Smokey Hormel (onetime Beck guitarist, Smokey & Miho). I never thought I'd hear musicians from those bands all jam together. The guitar solo (assumedly from Nels?) is pretty blazing, and Vedder's got the seething caged scream goin' on.

Historical tie-in from last summer: there was an absolutely scorching live version of this song that full-band Pearl Jam did in San Francisco (when Sonic Youth opened), climaxing in a very rock n roll moment of Mike McCready giving his guitar the Townshend treatment and then surfing on it across the stage. PJ has played Watchtower 4 times live before, but that was my favorite. If you'd like to hear that one as well, the link over on that old post still surprisingly works.

You can also stream four other full songs from the biopic over on the soundtrack's MySpace (the ones by Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power, Jeff Tweedy, and Jim James with Calexico). Among others, I'm also looking forward to hearing Mason Jennings' two contributions, The Black Keys cover of Wicked Messenger, and The Hold Steady enticing me to climb out my window. The soundtrack is out October 30, and the film opens Thanksgiving weekend.

NEW CONTEST:
Would you like to win one of two copies I have to giveaway of this lovely double disc? Of course you would. Leave me a comment to enter, make sure I have a way to contact you (might wanna spell out that email addy), and if you feel so inclined, please let's talk about your favorite Dylan cover. So I can wrap this up before I head to NYC, this contest ends Wednesday at midnight.


I'M NOT THERE (FULL SOUNDTRACK LISTING)
Disc 1
1. Eddie Vedder & the Million Dollar Bashers: "All Along the Watchtower"
2. Sonic Youth: "I'm Not There"
3. Jim James and Calexico: "Goin' to Acapulco"
4. Richie Havens: "Tombstone Blues"
5. Stephen Malkmus & the Million Dollar Bashers: "Ballad of a Thin Man"
6. Cat Power: "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again"
7. John Doe: "Pressing On"
8. Yo La Tengo: "Fourth Time Around"
9. Iron and Wine and Calexico: "Dark Eyes"
10. Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers: "Highway 61 Revisited"
11. Roger McGuinn and Calexico: "One More Cup of Coffee"
12. Mason Jennings: "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"
13. Los Lobos: "Billy"
14. Jeff Tweedy: "Simple Twist of Fate"
15. Mark Lanegan: "The Man in the Long Black Coat"
16. Willie Nelson and Calexico: "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)"

Disc 2
1. Mira Billotte: "As I Went Out One Morning"
2. Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo: "Can't Leave Her Behind"
3. Sufjan Stevens: "Ring Them Bells"
4. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Calexico: "Just Like a Woman"
5. Jack Johnson: "Mama You've Been on My Mind"
6. Yo La Tengo: "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
7. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova: "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
8. The Hold Steady: "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window"
9. Ramblin' Jack Elliott: "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"
10. The Black Keys: "Wicked Messenger"
11. Tom Verlaine and the Million Dollar Bashers: "Cold Irons Bound"
12. Mason Jennings: "The Times They Are a-Changin'"
13. Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers: "Maggie's Farm"
14. Marcus Carl Franklin: "When the Ship Comes In"
15. Bob Forrest: "Moonshiner"
16. John Doe: "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"
17. Antony and the Johnsons: "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
18. Bob Dylan: "I'm Not There"

[Vedder photo credit Kerensa Wight, header image credit Playlist]

Pearl Jam movies are so hot right now

[thanks to pearljamevolution for ripping/youtubing the video clips; that acoustic Lukin made me laugh out loud in its wonderfulness]

The new Pearl Jam tour DVD Immagine in Cornice which chronicles their scorchingly fabulous Italian shows from last summer (directed by Danny Clinch) will be released upon the salivating masses of PJ fans on Tuesday. My copy is somewhere in the mail in between Seattle and Colorado, according to the Ten Club, and I may try to attend what we fondly call a "dork gathering" of friends to watch this blessed film when it arrives in mailboxes all over the Colorado Springs/Denver/Boulder area.

However, for those unbelievably lucky saps living in "select cities" (Tulare but not Denver?) you get to go see an all-digital fancy schamncy movie theater premiere experience next week. I would love to see this movie on the big screen, since my speakers are just the built-in ones that came on the TV. I actually checked airfare to, like St. Louis and Vegas (but, uh, see previous post). For more information or to buy remaining tickets, see the D&E Entertainment page.

September 24
UK and Ireland Screenings
Covent Garden - Odeon
Surrey Quayes - Odeon
Manchester - Odeon Printworks
Dublin TBA

September 25
U.S. Screenings
Atlanta - Midtown
Austin - Highland
Berkeley - Elmwood
Boston - Kendall Square
Chicago - Lake Theatre
Chicago - Charlestowne 18
Detroit - Novi
Grand Rapids, MI - Celebration
Lansing, MI - Celebration
Las Vegas - Galaxy
Los Angeles - Plant 16
Memphis - Paradiso
New York - Zeigfeld
Philadelphia - Clearview
Riverbank, CA - Galaxy
St. Louis - Chesterfield
San Diego - UltraStar
San Francisco - Embarcadero
San Luis Obispo - Movie Experience
Santa Rosa - Lakeside
Seattle - Metro
Seattle - Galaxy
Tulare, CA - Galaxy

Also, the Into The Wild premiere was in L.A. last night, featuring a soundtrack by Ed Vedder (and is it just me or does Sean Penn look like he just fell off his barstool in that picture?). It opens ONLY in New York and L.A. this Friday, for those of you searching the movie listings fruitlessly. Apparently it will get wider release on October 12; I finally got the book from the library so I am preparing myself according to my philosophical principles ("always read the book before you see the movie").

Come with me and Vedder off "Into The Wild" [with a FULL album stream!]

Ed and I are totally going on a journey into the backcountry and you are invited to join us.

We're just a few weeks from the opening of the movie Into The Wild that Vedder soundtracked, based on the Jon Krakauer book of the same name. Reports from the Telluride Film Festival had folks leaving the theater screening with tears running down their faces, so people, get ready. I still haven't read the book so I don't know the ending (but . . . I'm guessing he dies).

GO LISTEN: The entire Into The Wild solo Vedder album is now streaming at WROV The Rock of Virginia (with voiceovers at the start and end of each song, but who's complaining?).

I'd heard about half the tracks on this album from little leaks, but this is the first time I've experienced it start-to-finish. My impression is that it's a superbly nuanced, ramblingly organic album. But to allay concerns of going soft or being coddled -- even though it is acoustic, it's not at all boring or sedate or old-mannish. There are several tracks that borderline wanna bust out the rock and yowl, with fierce strumming and solid drum action. There are even a few scarcely suppressed growl-screams that Vedder does best, to the delight of this rocker girl.

We've gotten lots of warm acoustic Pearl Jam songs over the years (think Thumbing My Way, You're True, Soon Forget, Off He Goes) but they're always sandwiched on albums between other rockers. This cohesive effort feels like a long Saturday afternoon in late summer with the right proportions of relaxed rambling and more intense energies.

As far as first impressions go, one of my favorite songs so far is the closing track, "Guaranteed," which I've listened to about a dozen times. It captures an ineffable, unspeakable sweetness and emotion for me, a song to a soul adrift in a figurative sea. I also am drawn to the humble ukulele meandering of "Rise." The soundtrack opens with the short and spirited "Setting Forth," which is acoustic but impassioned. Despite having the same name as both the Candlebox screamer and the new Social D song, "Far Behind" is neither of the two. Instead it is one of those almost-rockers I was mentioning above, and I love that. "Society" is a slightly heavy-handed collaboration with North SF-Bay singer songwriter Jerry Hannan about our modern wants and needs, and both "Tuolumne" and "The Wolf" are instrumentals, with the latter containing some chill-inducing ethereal yips and howls from Vedder.

If the goal of a soundtrack is to effectively score the emotional terrain of a film, and tease out a feeling into the foreground, Vedder seems to succeed with this effort. I look forward to seeing the movie and adding the visual storyline to my impressions of the heart of this film that Ed has scored.

PearlJam.com is currently doing a special presale of the solo album bundled with a limited-edition commemorative tshirt. The album will officially be released next Tuesday the 18th.

[In related PJ bundle news, they're also taking preorders of the new Immagine nel Cornice DVD with a tshirt as well. Like a good little Ten Club member, I've already placed my order, and am waiting with bated breath]

New Eddie Vedder solo song: "Hard Sun" (with Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker)

Clearly intended as a birthday gift for me (it's tomorrow), the first Eddie Vedder solo song from the Into The Wild soundtrack has now been posted on the Into The Wild website. This initial listen sounds well-suited to what I understand the movie is about (note to self: get the book!) -- a journey into the great wide open, wanderlust, sweeping vistas, solo strength.

It builds from an organic acoustic/tambourine affair to a heavier, fuzzier, driving thing of beauty by the end. It is apparently a cover of an obscure song by Canadian musician Gordon Peterson under the name Indio, from the 1989 album Big Harvest. Searching for information on Peterson is near impossible, as he seems to have all but vanished since the album was released, but the original song apparently features backing vocals from Joni Mitchell.

Ed's version ramps up the Middle-Eastern influences and reminds me of Pearl Jam songs like "Who You Are" or "Face of Love," a bit exotic. Sleater-Kinney punk goddess Corin Tucker duets, taking the part that Joni filled 18 years ago.

Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder & Corin Tucker
(or stream at Hype Machine or IntoTheWild.com)

The soundtrack album of solo material from Eddie Vedder will be coming out one month from today on J Records, and the Sean-Penn-directed movie opens in U.S. theatres on September 21.

Holy leaked Pearl Jam demos, Batman!

Recently a cool little Pearl Jam promotional CD which circulated during the production of Lost Dogs made its way to my ears, and I am beyond excited. It's a loose assemblage of demo versions and rough mixes of Pearl Jam songs from over the years, with the occasional live cut tossed in. A couple of these songs have never been heard before by John & Susie Q. Superfan (including me), while others were tunes that I have on various cassette tapes (like this KISW performance of Bee Girl, the alternate version of Alone, or Just A Girl) but haven't dug out or heard in years.

When something is a great find, my innards shake a little while I am downloading them. This was an innard-shaker.

Anything In Between (unreleased, Binaural outtake, 1999)
In The Moonlight (rough mix, Binaural outtake, 1999)
Fatal (rough mix, Binaural outtake, 1999)
Sad (a.k.a. Letter to the Dead, rough mix, Binaural outtake, 2000)
Wishing Well (live) (written by The Free, Mookie Blaylock, 1990)
Hitchhikers (rough mix, Binaural outtake, 1999)
Puzzle And Game (unreleased, vastly different demo of "Light Years", Binaural outtake, 2000)
Education (rough mix, Binaural outtake, 1999)
Sweet Lew (rough mix, Yield outtake, 1997)
Sunburn (unreleased, w/ Stone on vocals, No Code outtake, 1995)
Hold On (rough mix, Ten outtake, 1991)
(Just A) Girl (rough mix, Ten outtake, 1990)
Alone (rough mix, lyrics differ from Lost Dogs version, Ten outtake, 1991)
Brother (rough mix w/ different vocals, Ten outtake, 1990)
Don't Gimme No Lip (rough mix, No Code outtake, 1996)
Bee Girl (on Rockline, KISW FM, Seattle, 10/18/1993)
Against The '70s (From Mike Watt album 'Ball-Hog or Tugboat?', 1995)
"New" Jeremy (live version from Red Rocks, CO, 06/20/1995)

ZIP UP THE PEARL JAM DELICIOUSNESS

Also, for those baseball fans out there (I can't talk about the Giants this year, it's too painful) Ed's gonna be singing at the Cubbies game this Friday. Now that's my kind of seventh inning stretch.

Ed Vedder with Flea, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and Jack Irons: "The Kids Are Alright"

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.

VIDEO: "The Kids Are Alright" (direct link)

click here to see more videos like this

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.

The Kids Are Alright (Who cover) - Ed Vedder, Flea, Steve Jones & Jack Irons

Eddie Vedder @ the Kokua Festival this weekend

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":


No More War - Eddie Vedder

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."


A few good articles from the weekend:

Interview with Eddie in the Honolulu Advertiser: Vedder rocking in a magical place

Star Bulletin feature on native Hawaiian Boom Gaspar: Way to go Boom! Local guy plays with Eddie Vedder at Kokua Festival

Bonus re-up: Remember last time PJ was in Hawaii?



Hey, guess where I got that picture from? Yeah, that's right: Getty Images. There's several good shots from last night up there now.

Vedder surprise solo set at The Croc last night

Ed Vedder (didn't play - see note) a small surprise solo set last night at The Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. I ate breakfast there the last time I was in Seattle (mostly I was being a musical stalker, but in my defense I was also hungry and they make really good omelettes).

Some interesting cover choices, especially the Nick Cave one (which they've not previously done that I am aware of) and the awesome "Don't Wanna Grow Up." I can't wait to hear this boot --surely someone was taping it?

AMENDED: Someone with too much time on their hands seems to have made up this appearance, but I am leaving up the good mp3s and we can all close our eyes and pretend it happened anyway.


SETLIST
Happy Birthday (to guitarist Mike McCready's new baby girl)
I Don't Wanna Grow Up (Tom Waits/Ramones cover)
You're True
Can't Keep
cover/improv/new song?
Gone
Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)
cover/improv/new song? (tag: Modern Girl/Sleater-Kinney)
Porch
Where The Wild Roses Grow (Nick Cave cover, duet with unknown female singer)


BONUS EAR CANDY
Here are some other live versions of a few of these great songs; this mp3 of "You're True" is one of my very favorite PJ boot songs ever:

You're True - Ed Vedder solo 2/26/02 @ Wiltern
Can't Keep - Ed Vedder solo 2/26/02 @ Wiltern
Gone - Pearl Jam @ 10/22/06 Bridge School
Modern Girl - Pearl Jam 9/20/06
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - Ed Vedder solo 2005 Tsunami Benefit @ Wiltern
*

You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Dodge keeps up his blue streak of cover song finery with the latest collection: all the versions of the Stones' classic "Wild Horses" you can imagine.

I sent him this one for possible late inclusion as well - such a great song, made (imho) a bit better.

Wild Horses (with Ed Vedder) - The Rolling Stones
9/28/05, PNC Park, Pittsburgh

So the Chipmunks have possessed this post. The streaming feature doesn't work (it's all sped up, and oddly enough, Mick's first words are "We're gonna slow it down a little bit for you.") but the downloaded mp3 should play just fine.

I remember when I was 14 and Vedder jumped on stage with me and my band, too. No, wait.

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.

A killer live R.E.M. show from Hollywood, 2003

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.

R.E.M. live in Hollywood
The Avalon, Oct 29 2003

Finest Worksong (what a way to start)
These Days (ooh yay! love this album)
The Wake-Up Bomb
So Fast, So Numb ("This is now, this is here, this is me, this is what I wanted you to see" -- one of my favorite driving & singing songs)
Exhuming McCarthy
Animal
Sweetness Follows ("live your life filled with joy and wonder"; introduced by Stipe as "a beautiful song from 1991" and it is indeed a masterpiece)
Bad Day
World Leader Pretend
Strange Currencies (a vastly underrated love song)
Losing My Religion (even after hearing this song so many times, don't you just feel happy at those opening notes?)
At My Most Beautiful (another vastly underrated love song; "I read bad poetry into your machine, I save your messages just to hear your voice")
She Just Wants To Be
Walk Unafraid (I loved Up)
Man On The Moon
Life And How To Live It
Welcome To The Occupation
Nightswimming (can't even talk about how flawless this one is)
Final Straw
Permanent Vacation (unreleased)
Imitation Of Life (fantastic last song choice)

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

God bless the Pearl-Jam-crazy Italians! [more mp3s]

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. . ."

Read the full transcription here