PEARL JAM

Pearl Jam was one of the most influential Seattle grunge bands of the 1990's, but their formation did not come easily. Bassist, Jeff Ament and guitarist, Stone Gossard had been members of two short-lived '80s bands, Green River and Mother Love Bone. Seeking a fresh start, Ament and Gossard teamed up with guitarist Mike McCready to record some demos, which found their way to Eddie Vedder, a singer based in San Diego. Inspired, he recorded vocals to accompany the songs. Impressed, the group invited Vedder to join the band. Dave Krusen was the band’s first drummer, but the group would go through several in their career.

Released less than a month before "Nevermind", the break through album of fellow Seattle grunge band, Nirvana, 1991's "Ten" helped establish grunge as the era's predominant rock style. More soulful and emotional than the hair metal acts that had been popular, Pearl Jam emphasized moody, introspective music that highlighted guitar hooks influenced by hard rock and punk. Vedder’s impassioned wails and vulnerable murmurs made him the prototypical front man for a new generation. A huge seller, "Ten" represented a more accessible expression of disillusionment than the snarling "Nevermind", balancing rage with moments of hopefulness.

By the time Pearl Jam worked on its second album, the group had gone through two drummers. Krusen had left the band, and his replacement, Matt Chamberlain, had also exited. Now with Dave Abbruzzese on drums, the group recorded "Vs.". Released in 1993, "Vs." sold approximately 6 million copies in the U.S. as grunge dominated the charts. As with "Ten", "Vs." came out around the same time as a Nirvana album, "In Utero". Just as Nirvana was trying with "In Utero" to distance themselves from a massively successful record, Pearl Jam adopted a grittier tone on "Vs.", though that didn’t prevent the album from producing four singles.

1994’s "Vitalogy" was the first Pearl Jam album to come out after Kurt Cobain’s suicide in April of that year. So fair or not, many looked at the record as Pearl Jam's response to the tragedy. Rather than self-consciously addressing Cobain's death, "Vitalogy" demonstrated that Pearl Jam was focused on the future and was confidently balancing the darkness of "Vs." with the uplifting spirit of "Ten". "Vitalogy" set the stage for the next phase of the band’s career and it would be the last album with Abbruzzese on drums.

After serving as Neil Young’s backing band on his 1995 release, "Mirror Ball", Pearl Jam returned with their own record, "No Code", in 1996. Introducing the band’s new drummer, Jack Irons, formerly of Red Hot Chili Peppers, "No Code" signaled a more isolated sound for the group, concerned less with obvious singles than sustaining a cohesive album length mood. Perceived by some as a commercial flop because it only sold a million copies in the U.S., "No Code" is the group’s most under-rated gem, a daring attempt to merge mysticism, folk and Neil Young-style garage rock into the grunge framework.

A bit of a commercial comeback after "No Code" has such disappointing sales, 1998’s "Yield" streamlined some of the previous album’s experimentation while maintaining its commitment to layered, challenging songwriting. By this stage, Pearl Jam’s best songs were not necessarily easily digestible radio singles, as typified by the seething “Do the Evolution,” a diatribe against consumerism. Ironically, the band had one of its biggest smashes when it covered Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders’ “Last Kiss,” which landed at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999, a higher charting than any original Pearl Jam song.

At the end of the '90s, Pearl Jam changed drummers again, with Irons leaving and former Soundgarden drummer, Matt Cameron, taking over. As the band moved into the 21st century, they watched as their fan base continued to shrink. The 2000’s "Binaural" and 2002’s "Riot Act", captured the group at a crossroads, moving from traditional grunge but uncertain about a new direction. Both albums had songs worth seeking out, but neither album possessed the inspired spirit of "No Code" or "Yield". But while their creative spark may have gone out, the band rewarded long time fans with a series of official bootleg live albums.

After leaving Sony, their home since "Ten", Pearl Jam signed with J Records, the label of record mogul Clive Davis. Hungry for a fresh start, the band’s 2006 album, simply titled "Pearl Jam", represented a critical resurgence, if not quite a repeat of the band’s sales of the early 1990's. Overtly political but focused on accessible radio singles, Pearl Jam was a welcome return to form and a sign that the band members still had plenty of life left in them.

Here's a little bit of history behind the band and a bit of biographical information.

Stone Carpenter Gossard, one of the band's guitarists and vocalists, was born on July 20,1966 in Seattle. He was an original member of the Seattle band Green River, and later moved on to Mother Love Bone, a precursor to Pearl Jam. After the death of MLB's lead singer Andrew Wood in 1990, Stone found himself in a tribute to the fallen vocalist. The project, known as the Temple of the Dog, was headed by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Wood's former room mate. Stone is currently a member of the band Brad. He runs his own production company, Loosegroove Records.

Jeffery Allen Ament was born in Big Sandy, Montana on Mar 10,1963. Like Stone, he was an original member of Green River and Mother Love Bone, as well as Temple of the Dog. Besides being the head bass player, Jeff is the band's official biographer. He designs a many of the band's album and single covers. On the side, Jeff is a member of the band Three Fish.

Michael David McCready, the band's lead guitarist, was born Apr 05,1965 in Pensacola, Florida. While being recruited by Jeff and Gossard to work on Temple of the Dog, the three ended up recording a set of songs with no words. They later became known as "Alive", "Footsteps" and "Once". Mike's past credits include the band Shadow, and his current side projects include a band called Mad Season, Disinformation and the Rockfords.

Eddie Vedder...there are so many stories about Eddie that it's hard to know where to begin. Born Edward Louis Eddie Severson III on Dec. 23,1964 in Evanston, Illinois, Eddie soon found himself having his name changed to Edward Mueller after his mother re-married, a guy Eddie refers to as "that lawyer fuck". Because of his extreme hatred of "the lawyer" and out of respect for his mother, he later had his named legally changed to Eddie Jerome Vedder. Vedder being his mother's maiden name. We now fast-forward to San Diego, during the late 1980's. Eddie is singing in a band called Bad Radio while working at a gas station pumping gas. Somehow, Eddie finds himself a demo tape containing three songs without words. After some intense surfing with the tunes stuck in his head, he decides to lay down some words to the music. He dubs his voice onto the tape and labels it "Mamasan". One of Eddie's good friends, Chili Pepper drummer Jack Irons, takes the tape to former Mother Love Bone members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. Eddie's favorite television show of all time is the original "Batman". Eddie thanks his Great Grandma Pearl's special recipe used to create some rather interesting jam...hallucinogenic recipe...for the name Pearl Jam. And Eddie is a strict vegetarian.

When Jack couldn't make the 1998 "Yield" tour, Pearl Jam found themselves in a bit of a pickle. In order to fill the void left by the manic-depressed Irons, Pearl Jam recruited former Soundgarden drummer, Matthew D. Cameron as a stand-in. Born on November 28,1962 in San Diego, Matt's first big break in the music industry came with the song "Puberty Love", a song featured in the terrible "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". In 1986, Skin Yard, the band he was in, fizzled due to internal problems, and Cameron left to fill a position open in Soundgarden, as the band's former drummer, Scott Sundquist, decided to quit. Matt was a member of the Temple of the Dog band. He can be heard on the recent live effort, "Live On Two Legs". To date, the band has not officially named him their drummer, but he will appear on their upcoming albums and concert tours.