New Pearl Jam!!!!!

I just had a beer with Alex tonight and he reminded me that we had this awesome blog where we shared music with each other and discussed how great tastes we all had. I'm sorry. I suck.

BUT WAIT!!!

New Pearl Jam has come out and I want to tell you all about it. So, Eddie Vedder and his band of merrymen have a new album coming out next month called Backspacer. And while I have only heard the first single, "The Fixer", I already think we can tell something special is here. You have a band that rocked our faces off in the 90s... but how do you adopt to the current culture? I say the answer is Melody. The other weekend, Mark and I rocked out 15 rows back at the Kings of Leon's Friday night headline spot at Lollalapalooza (word to wise: if you can, see those guys live. awesome.) There's a band that has the same love of a 90s-rock band, but with the cool bass grooves and melodies that we've all come to expect from new artists. If you're Pearl Jam, an album of 15 tracks of what has worked before will be nothing more than a Greatest Hits record. You have to reinvent yourself. And I think they have.

"The Fixer" has the same feel as any track off of Only By Night, but with some more 90s-rock influence. Hell, I hear a bit of Third Eye Blind on this track when it jumps from the verse to the chorus. I'll be honest, that gets me physically excited. I am halfway erect right now. It's 90s-rock to the T. And it is awesome. If the song being great isn't enough, the video was directed by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) and is totally reminiscent of old-school live-show Pearl Jam videos when MTV still knew what the "m" stood for. I know I posted that thing a few weeks back about how there has in fact been stand-out bands since 1980 and Billy Bob Thorton just sucks... but if there was any doubt if 90 bands had staying power, I think Pearl Jam just debunked that shit. I heard next week Vedder is taking on gravity. Newton, watch your shit.