It toured North America, Australia and notably Europe Pearl Jam had not toured the continent for six years.
To support Pearl Jam, the band embarked on its 2006 world tour. foreign policy, was released as a single and topped the Billboard Modern Rock chart it was Pearl Jam's first #1 on that chart since "Who You Are" in 1996. "World Wide Suicide", a song criticizing the Iraq War and U.S. A number of critics cited Pearl Jam as a return to the band's early sound, with Mike McCready having compared the new material to Vs. The band's eighth studio album, Pearl Jam, was released on May 2, 2006. Stone will pull back and play a two-note line and Ed will do a power chord thing, and I fit into all thatĬlive Davis announced in February 2006 that Pearl Jam had signed with his label, J Records, which like Epic, is part of the Sony BMG group. McCready said in 2006, "Even though there are three guitars, I think there's maybe more room now. The dynamic began to change when Vedder started to play more rhythm guitar during the Vitalogy era. When the band started, Gossard and McCready were clearly designated as rhythm and lead guitarists, respectively. The band’s latest album, 2006’s Pearl Jam, was cited as a return to the band’s early sound.Ĭritic Jim DeRogatis describes Vedder's vocals as a "Jim Morrison-like vocal growl." Vedder's lyrical topics range from personal ("Alive", "Better Man") to social and political concerns ("Even Flow", "World Wide Suicide"). After 1998’s Yield, which was somewhat of a return to the straight-ahead rock approach of the band's early work, the band dabbled with experimental art rock on 2000’s Binaural and folk rock elements on 2002’s Riot Act. The songs on the album featured elements of garage rock, worldbeat, and experimentalism. By 1994’s Vitalogy, the band began to incorporate more punk influences into its music.The band’s 1996 album, No Code, was a deliberate break from the musical style of Ten. Pearl Jam has broadened its musical range with subsequent releases. Pearl Jam’s success has been attributed to its sound, which fuses "the riff-heavy stadium rock of the '70s with the grit and anger of '80s post-punk, without ever neglecting hooks and choruses." Pearl Jam continues to generate hit albums, tour successfully, and garner critical acclaim into the 21st centuryĬompared with the other grunge bands of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam’s style is noticeably less heavy and harkens back to the classic rock music of the 1970s.Pearl Jam has cited many punk rock and classic rock bands as influences, including The Who, Neil Young, and the Ramones. Pearl Jam has outlasted many of its contemporaries from the alternative rock breakthrough of the early 1990s, and is considered one of the most influential bands of the decade, and "the most popular American rock band of the 1990s". Since its inception, the band has sold 30 million records in the U.S., and an estimated 60 million albums worldwide. Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame." However, its members became noted for their refusal to adhere to traditional music industry practices as their career progressed, including refusing to make music videos and engaging in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster. One of the key bands of the grunge movement in the early 1990s, Pearl Jam was nevertheless criticized early on as being a corporate cash-in on the alternative rock explosion. The band's current drummer is Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden, who has been with the band since 1998.įormed after the demise of Ament and Gossard's previous band Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with its debut album Ten. The band's original line-up consisted of Eddie Vedder (lead vocals), Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Dave Krusen (drums).
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990.