When I began doing the Stereogum Douchebag of the Week a few weeks ago, I knew its novelty wouldn’t last, but I never suspected that I would get tired of it so quickly. It’s fun to read the comments on Stereogum and watch indie-rock assholes fight with each other, but then devoting actual time and energy to it is ennervating and makes me feel like I’m feeding into the detrimental nature of the whole enterprise. Responding to snark with more snark is fun, but I’m just not as good at it as some people are, and it just makes me feel crappy for adding more fuel to the fire. My post about the New FADs, for example, wasn’t as entertaining or as catty as the SgDbotW, but it felt much better to write it. I guess I’m just too much of a warm-fuzzy, sensitive new-age guy to be bitchy about music. Plus, it gets boring. Regardless of their content, all the negative Stereogum comments are essentially saying the same thing. A “meh” post is a “meh” post, no matter the subject.

However.

My final SgDbotW, at least for a while, will at least tangentially address the new Pearl Jam album and the Stereogummers’ response to it.

what’s with all the pearl jam hostility? maybe pitchfork will give it a good review and you guys will be allowed to like the album.

Posted by: polops at April 28, 2006 12:42 PM

actually, that would be a reason to dislike it. liking or disliking an album because pitchfork says so is so 2003.

Posted by: EJ at April 28, 2006 01:19 PM

no no, saying you dont read pitchfork when you secretly do is sooo 2006.

Posted by: bob at April 28, 2006 01:23 PM

I’m not necessarily here to advocate for Pearl Jam and this is not a review of the new album, since I haven’t heard it yet (though I am curious); it’s more a commentary on the reactionary response to Pearl Jam and other bands that have been around for a while (the Chili Peppers, Neil Young, whatever), and how they are punished for having any sort of staying power, accused of being irrelevant, and sloughed off in favor the Next Big Thing.

Too bad I threw out my Doc Martens in 1995.

Posted by: EJ at April 28, 2006 11:09 AM

Mind you, my point is not that these artists necessarily are relevant, or how they’re relevant—relevance is a highly subjective and slippery thing, anyway. But while measured consideration is clearly not the forte of many Stereogum commenters, it might be worth their while to reflect on what today’s hot young bands might owe their musical ancestors. Even while people dismiss currently popular bands for being flash-in-the-pan fads, they dismiss rock and roll dinosaurs for being around too long. Sometimes they make a strong case and it’s clear the band in question has jumped the shark, but sometimes their hindsight is myopic. And the anti-Pearl Jam trend is perhaps the best example of the sort aesthetic patricide that young music fans and musicians are committing.

hmmm…. lemme think…nope …. I still don’t give a shit about this band. This music was boring, self-serving, and faux deep whiney back in 1992. 14 years has done nothing to improve it.

Posted by: john jacob dinglehoffer at April 28, 2006 03:48 PM

My own experience with Pearl Jam is, I imagine, pretty typical for anyone my age. And I seemed to be of the perfect age at the perfect time for Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, the Pumpkins, etc. since grunge or the Seattle sound or the alternative revolution or whatever the fuck it was seemed tailor-made for my demographic. I got vs. the day it was released, an initial pressing without an album title (supposedly, the band hadn’t yet thought of one), so that technically, the album was eponymous. Anyway, along with the rest of the world, this album blew my face out my ass, and I would sit in third-period chemistry class talking about it with Marc Bunnell and comparing favorite tracks. (Marc had honest-to-god Doc Martens and I wanted some.) My favorite songs at the time were “Go” and “Leash”, but, like a lot of people, I thought “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” was totally gay. Little did I know at the time that “EWBtCiaST” was and is one of the most beautiful rock songs ever written. It’s hard to believe that anyone considered vs. a “difficult” album, as many did at the time, when in retrospect it seems like a natural and perfect step in a progression.

Why couldn’t Kurt have shot Eddie too? Selfish Kurt.

Posted by: Eddie Bedvedder at April 28, 2006 12:16 PM

Wes and I had a long-standing debate about PJ; I was consistently bowled over by them (at least until No Code, anyway), and his interest started to wane after vs. I could see his point: they were taking chances, and no longer executing the can’t-lose formula that had propelled Ten and vs. into the stratosphere. There was a backlash, and anyone in the post-Kurt era who was ready to move onto another scene was perfectly entitled. Later, around the turn of the century, Pearl Jam resurfaced as a straightforward, earnest touring band with seventy-two virgins officially-released bootlegs and a slew of live videos on MTV2. Wes and I were watching one such video in the apartment we shared in Iowa City, and he said, “You know, I haven’t listened to a Pearl Jam album in forever. But I can respect what they’re doing. They’re fighting the good fight.” That was an excellent way of putting it: Pearl Jam had emerged relatively unscathed from the decade that minted them, with a noticeably different ethic and a new (by way of the old) drummer, and they didn’t seem to care how many grunge holdovers or indie assholes they succeeded or failed at taking with them. They just wanted to rock, with or without Ticketmaster.

I listened to the leak already and thought it was completely boring, except for a couple of songs near the end. Not sure of the titles.

Posted by: Andrew at April 28, 2006 02:41 PM

Anyone who wants to bag on PJ now is more than welcome to, of course, but aim carefully: chances are, your beloved band of today owes more to Vedder & Co. than you probably realize. Plus, the Dismemberment Plan opened for them, and my old band opened for the Plan, so by The Transitive Property of Openings, I opened for Pearl Jam. Ergo, you’d best check yourself before you so on and so forth.