Pearl Jam
photo: lugnuts · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Pearl Jam formed in Seattle in 1990 out of the ashes of Mother Love Bone, with guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament recruiting San Diego surfer Eddie Vedder as their singer. Their 1991 debut 'Ten' made them one of the defining bands of the grunge explosion, pairing Vedder's brooding baritone and socially conscious lyrics with a muscular, classic-rock-rooted guitar sound. Famously wary of the machinery of fame, they picked public fights with Ticketmaster and largely abandoned music videos, yet endured for decades as one of alternative rock's most respected live acts.
Pearl Jam's ragged, extended guitar workouts and Vedder's unpolished, socially conscious writing draw on Neil Young, whom the band came to idolize and later backed as his studio band on the 1995 album 'Mirror Ball.'
listen forHear Young's sprawling, distorted guitar rave-up on 'Rockin' in the Free World,' then Pearl Jam's 'Rearviewmirror' — both let a churning riff spill over into a long, unruly guitar climax.
Vedder is an avowed punk fan who inducted the Ramones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and Pearl Jam's faster, stripped-down blasts channel the band's two-minute, buzzsaw attack — most overtly on their punk homage 'Spin the Black Circle.'
listen forThrow on the two-minute buzzsaw rush of 'Blitzkrieg Bop,' then Pearl Jam's 'Spin the Black Circle' — both barrel ahead on a breakneck, downstroked riff and a shouted, no-frills hook.
The heavy blues-rock dynamics and loud-quiet-loud builds in Pearl Jam's songs reach back to Led Zeppelin's blueprint of thunderous electric riffs balanced against acoustic light and shade.
listen forCompare the coiled riff and roaring dynamics of 'Whole Lotta Love' with the surging build of Pearl Jam's 'Even Flow' — both hang a wailing vocal over a heavy, blues-rooted riff that erupts into a guitar solo.