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| December 2001
The last Brad show off the Mini-West Coast tour took place at The Showbox in Seattle on December 2nd. During the tour the group honed new songs it has written since its initial recording sessions this past spring. In an attempt to bottle the energy of those performances, the group thought about moving upcoming sessions away from Gossard's Studio Litho in Seattle.
12/02/01- The Showbox:
Seattle, WA Encore: Crown of Thorns (Shawn solo), Sweet Al George, Good News, Nadine, Buttercup, Playground
"I would say most likely it will be the beginning of next year, or spring even. There's some more work to do on it, like mixing. Just putting a record deal together is infinitely boring and meandering", Stone Gossard. Stone and his bandmates in Brad (including ex-Satchel Shawn Smith and Regan Hagar) continued to polish their then-untitled third album. The set was not attached to a label by that time. During the month of December Pearl Jam was close to start working on its seventh and final studio album under its contract with Sony's Epic Records label. "Sometime after the first of the year, we'll be starting the process of making another record. We haven't really figured all that stuff out yet [the band hasn't yet decided on a location or a producer for the sessions], but we know we're going to do some recording", Stone Gossard. "I think we'll be looking to do what we've been always looking to do, which is do things a little unconventionally, and do things that maximize our enjoyment and control over getting the stuff out. At the same time, you need a collaboration with a larger company to get records in certain places, particularly internationally. We'll be looking to put together the right balance of artistic control and financial reward and unconventional style", Stone Gossard.
"The
next studio album is our last under our contract. We're not going to re-sign
with a major, under current ways of thinking. I
think they'll continue to make records and find ways to kind of empower
themselves and have more control over how records get to their fans. And the record companies will take less and less of a
role in that. The
band isn't even thinking about its next tour. We'll see how everybody feels. Because nothing's definite with these
guys. They
can decide to tour and only give me a month's notice "Like any great band, there's peaks and valleys. If they continue to do what they want to do, they're going to be one of those bands that's around for 20 years. It's not that easy to achieve", Michael Goldstone (Epic Executive). "I'm a fan of the Pearl Jam organization, of what you might call the culture around the group. It's like the Grateful Dead. We've been thinking a lot about that West Coast way of doing business. I must say, I'm not sure how long U2's going to have the energy to take on the mainstream. And the Pearl Jam/Grateful Dead model is something to be really proud of. They exist entirely unto themselves. They don't depend on the media, don't depend on the radio", Bono (U2's vocalist). "If we're at all like the Grateful Dead, that's the ultimate-a band believing in their own weird little world and people loving it because it is in a little bit of a vacuum", Stone Gossard. "What comes across is that Pearl Jam are real and right sized. They have somehow managed to maintain a connection with their audience. They have also watched and learned. They have not stopped just because the creative process got hard, or because tragedy struck", Pete Townsend (The Who).
"I still don't think we know what's going to happen, but we're much
more relaxed about it. We've had a nice little ten-year run", Jeff
Ament.
"Individually, each person in this band has a lot of music in them and what
we decide on as a band, as far as what out next record will be. I just never
know what's going to happen. I'm sort of hoping for a renaissance. I want to
just get in a room together and jam a little bit. See where Ed takes us",
Stone Gossard. "On both those records [last two studio records], I don't think all our pistons were firing at once. We were underutilizing [drummer] Matt Cameron. If you listen to the rhythm section of 'Temple of the Dog,' you see what we're capable of with him. I'd like the record to rock out a little more", Stone Gossard.
"I'm
writing on ukulele a lot [lately]. It's an interesting instrument, 'cause it's
four strings, and the fewer strings, the more melody, I'm finding. And it's also
about the smallest instrument you can play. So I'm just shrinking. As for the
future, right now I have the luxury of not thinking about it at all. At the
moment everyone is getting to figure out things about themselves. After
everything that's happened, it's just really good that we're not trying to do
what we usually do right now. That would just be unbearable. But I have a
feeling that recording again is going to be a very similar thing. It's going to
be the same kind of practice place, and the same kind of walking around,
plugging in. And Stone's gonna plug in first and play really loud while the rest
of us are trying to talk and say hello. We're gonna yell out, "Does anybody
have a tape recorder?" And then they're gonna find a ghetto blaster from
the back room, and then we'll play some songs, and we're gonna learn a couple of
them, and then I'm gonna go home and drink beer",
Eddie Vedder. On December 17th, Pearl Jam's official site (pearljam.com), posts a message for fans about the 2001 Xmas single "Thanks to some delays in getting clearances on the artwork for the 2001 holiday single, it will be late. We're sure that it won't be there by Christmas, but it should follow shortly after. Of course, that is assuming that all goes well with the artwork. Keep your fingers crossed. It will be worth the wait. It is excellent". The Xmas single started to arrive in our mail boxes on January 16th, 2002.
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