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| September 2001
Brad played three shows in Seattle at the Breakroom during the following days 1st,2nd and 3rd of September. They performed new songs, and Shawn Smith (vocals) did a solo version of Crown of Thorns, a song by Mother Love Bone. "We're right next to finishing it [Brad's third album]. We recorded for about 20 days a couple of months ago [May 2001]. We've got a bunch of material. We're going to put it out some place outside of Sony. We're getting ready to play some shows and maybe do a showcase, and look for a producer to kind of help us close the deal and mix, and sort of tweak it a little bit before we put it out", Stone Gossard. "Pearl Jam's going to get together after the first of the year and figure out what we're going to do. We're doing a couple of benefit shows here [Seattle] in the next month or so and a couple of Bridge School shows down in San Francisco - acoustic, and then we're playing a show called Groundwork 2001 which is another benefit show in Seattle. So we are doing a little bit of stuff here and there, then gonna make some more music after the first of the year sometime", Stone Gossard.
Setlist: Breathe Deep, Good News, Where The Fun Is, Brothers & Sisters, 20th Century, Shining, Built 4 It, Upon My Shoulders, Time O' The Year, Slippin' Away, Screen, Encore: Crown Of Thorns (Shawn solo), Playground, Yesterday's Gone, Sweet Al George, The Day Brings, Isn't That Right, Secret Girl, We, Buttercup Notes and Quotes: Brad got up on stage for the first time in a few years at the packed Seattle's Breakroom. They played a 2 hour set that included 19 songs from their previous 2 albums (Shame and Interiors) along with some new cuts and a couple Satchel songs. For the first song of the encore, Shawn broke out with an acoustic guitar and proceeded to address the crowd. "I wanna tell you a story, about Mr. Faded Glory. This is Seattle, isn't it?" Shawn then got into a rendition of "Crown of Thorns." Stone played bass on some songs.
09/02/01 - The Breakroom: Seattle, WA Setlist: Upon My Shoulders, Good News,
Where The Fun Is, Brothers & Sisters, 20th Century, Playground, Slippin'
Away, Sweet Al George, Isn't That Right, Time Of The Year, Yesterday's Gone,
Built 4 It, Shining, Screen,
Setlist: Nadine, Good News, Yesterday's
Gone, 20th Century, Playground, Buttercup, Mr. Pink, Where The Fun Is, Brothers
& Sisters, Shoulders, Built for It, Time O The Year, Shining,
On September 8th, Mike played at the Jimi Hendrix tribute in San Diego, CA. He performed "Machine Gun" for nearly 14 minutes. Mike jammed with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles (The Band of Gypsies rhythm section) for a Jimi Hendrix tribute sponsored by the Jimi estate.
Throughout Pearl Jam's 10 years of history, none of it's members ever released a solo album. [Stone made his lead vocals on the song "Makind" from Pearl Jam's 1996 "No Code" album]. Well on September 11th, Stone Gossard's "Bayleaf" was released.
"Well, I think [laughs] just figuring out how to sing, or at least how to feel like you can put your voice down and finish a song as it is, without... I think the more you work with other artists that are, well, how do I put this? I think it's just about figuring out how to be comfortable with your voice. I certainly don't think I'm totally comfortable with mine at all, but at the same time, it finally got to the point where I had enough stuff recorded and felt like it started to seem more like a record. I don't know if any of that makes any sense or not", Stone Gossard. Here´s the press release he wrote on his site www.stonegossard.com a month before (Stone also posted the unreleased track "Shame on You" for streaming on his official Web site):
Almost 35. My name is Stone Gossard. I've recently completed a record with ten songs. "Bayleaf" represents the idea/concept
of a child who There are two people in particular that helped
greatly in the making of this record: I sing on 7 of the 10 songs. Ty believed in me when I had severe doubts
about making this record. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pete
Droge who helped me to finish and mix the record. By the way, I have played with Pearl Jam, Brad, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, and Green River. I don't have any plans to tour. It took me a
long time to make this record. Some clues: Thank you.
"I just knew that I'd been writing songs. In the time off between Pearl Jam, I've always liked to get up and play guitar and write. That's always what I felt is my strong suit. That's what I naturally started doing when I picked up a guitar. It wasn't that I ever considered myself to be a musician other than being able to pick out melodies that I liked and having a sense of how the rhythm of the song should progress. I think that my natural tendency when I'm just having fun and really am at my most relaxed is to just write songs. In the process of doing that, I wrote a bunch of songs. I had been recording and trying to learn how to sing, and attempting to finish something without it having to be a Pearl Jam song. I think being in a band, especially a real band where everybody writes music and partakes in the songwriting, there's only so much space. I think especially when you have a singer like [Pearl Jam's] Ed [Vedder], who writes a lot of songs and who has a real strong sense of where he wants to go, there's a more limited scope in terms of everybody being able to write all the songs, and get them out, and keep progressing as an individual outside of the band. I think everyone has felt that within the band, and everyone wants to write songs. I just happened to be the first guy to get them all together and make the final push of getting them out", Stone Gossard.
"All of them are Seattle-based guys. Matt Chamberlain came in during the
last week and played over a couple of tracks. It was really exciting, because
he's just an incredible musician. He's on the first one and the second one. He
definitely rocks. Then, the other guys I played with are all guys I was
introduced to through local musicians here in Seattle. Skerik, who is a
saxophone player in town and is also in Critters Buggin'. Plus, Ty Willman, who
I've known for years through Green Apple Quick Step, had been playing with Mike,
Guy, and Ron. Guy was in another band in Seattle called Sage, and has another
band called Guardian Alien. So, I kind of went over to Ty's house one day with a
song. I ended up singing and playing it, and they went, wow, this is really good.
This was the real impetus for me to finish it. Ty was super supportive and told
me I could sing. We thought, well, if I can't go in and sing everything, that
whoever sounded best on a track would make sense. We just kind of went in to
making the record that way. As much as it is a solo album, it also is a
collaboration with whoever is in the room at the time. I wrote the songs and the
lyrics, but at the same time, the interpretations of those things is huge.
Having people around you that believe in what you're doing is the key to
everything. The amount of energy you get from other musicians feeling what
you're doing or believing in what you do is a big part of anyone doing well.
Even to say it's a solo record is in a way misleading. It certainly wouldn't it
be what it is without the other people who were involved", Stone
Gossard. "Before, I always approached music as rhythm. 'Does it make my head swing?' was my only question. To expand that and see that I've got a lyric in me that shows a perspective on life, then to channel that into songwriting, is thrilling", Stone Gossard. "I feel in some ways that I'm closer to what I was when I first picked up the guitar right now than I have been for the past five or six years, even in terms of trying to keep evolving. I've rediscovered picking up the guitar and just screwing around with it and not having any preconceived notion of how people are going to perceive it. It's fun to go into the studio and just make something out of nothing, you start out the day with maybe a riff you've been just kinda screwing around with and by the end of the day you might have a whole song with a story and sort of an emotion behind it and that's just fun to do. I think, in general, people are at their best when they're least self-conscious about writing songs and just trust their instincts", Stone Gossard. "His voice [Neil Young] inspired me to feel comfortable with the kind of voice I have. ... My voice tends to want to crack, and tends to want to sound nasally", Stone Gossard. "I'm excited about it, I started singing in the studio about four years ago. ... It's been a lot of stops and starts since then. Those guys (Shawn Smith and Eddie Vedder) are both like the anti-exercise gods. They both find whatever they're feeling and go toward it. ... It's a pursuit of honesty. I'm just starting to look at words, words can have the same kind of magic as riffs can", Stone Gossard. "I like to play music,I like projects. I like excuses to hang out with my friends and play music. On some planet, I probably could have been a lawyer. On some planet, I could have been somebody in advertising. I recall going to Capitol Hill's alternative high school, the Northwest School, and watching all my friends playing acoustic guitars in the hallway. ...I picked up a guitar, and I knew what I wanted to do", Stone Gossard.
On September 25th, the Royal Albert Hall DVD was released. It features Eddie singing 'I'm One', 'Let's see action' with Roger Daltrey and 'See me Feel me' with the other guests. There's also a 2 minute rehearsal clip featuring Eddie.
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09/01/01 - The
Breakroom: Seattle, WA
09/03/01 - The
Breakroom: Seattle, WA
Former Pearl Jam drummer Matt Chamberlain turns up on the
album's first two tracks, "Bore Me" and "Fits." Former-Green Apple Quick Step frontman Ty Willman
relieves Gossard of vocal duties on three cuts, including the first
single "Unhand Me." The rest of the band includes three veteran
Seattle musicians: pianist Ron Weinstein, bassist Guy Davis, and drummer Mike
Stone. He began 
On September 11th,
a very dissapointed day.
Terrorism striked against the US, New York and Washington were the main targets.
Many victims, World Trade Center no longer exists. I would like to express my
anger for all the people whose life was taken, and give my condolences to
everyone who lost their relatives, friends. A very sad day for the Humanity. During this day as also, The Rockfords (Mike´s sideband) announced that they will not perform in October,
due to "Pearl Jam rehearsal schedule" for the Bridge and Seattle shows.
On September 21th, Eddie, Mike and Neil Young perform 'Long Road' for the World.
This was part of a TV broadcast called 'A Tribute to Heroes', from the World
Trade Center tragedy. Other acts included Tom Petty (I won´t back Down), Neil
Young playing 'Imagine' by John Lennon, U2, etc. 