Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, and is considered one of the most influential bands of the 1990s. more...

Home
Accessories/ Storage
CDs
Cassettes
Music Memorabilia
Artists/ Groups
ABBA
AC/DC
Aerosmith
Bee Gees
Blondie/ Debbie Harry
Blur
Bob Marley
Bon Jovi
Britney Spears
Celine Dion
Christina Aguilera
Cliff Richard
Coldplay
David Bowie
Def Leppard
Depeche Mode
Dido
Dire Straits
Duran Duran
Elton John
Elvis
Eminem
Eric Clapton/ Cream
Fleetwood Mac
Frank Sinatra
Franz Ferdinand
Genesis
George Michael/ Wham
Green Day
Guns n' Roses
INXS
Iron Maiden
Jennifer Lopez
Jimi Hendrix
Johnny Cash
Joy Division
Justin Timberlake
KISS
Kylie
Led Zeppelin
Linkin Park
Madonna
Mariah Carey
Metallica
Michael Jackson
Motley Crue
Motorhead
Nirvana
Oasis
Ozzy Osbourne
Pearl Jam
Phil Collins
Pink Floyd
Prince
Queen
R.E.M.
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Robbie Williams
Rod Stewart
Rolling Stones
Sex Pistols
Shania Twain
Simply Red
Smiths/ Morrissey
Spice Girls
Stone Roses
T-Rex/ Marc Bolan
The Beach Boys
The Beastie Boys
The Beatles
The Clash
The Corrs
The Cure
The Darkness
The Doors
The Eagles
The Grateful Dead
The Jam
The Libertines/ Pete Doherty
The Police/ Sting
The Who
Tina Turner
Tom Jones
Travis
U2
UB40
Van Halen
Westlife
Whitney Houston
Blues
Classical
Country
Dance
Easy Listening
Folk
Indie/ Britpop
Irish Folk/ Traditional
Jazz
Metal
Other Music Memorabilia
Pop
Pop & Beat: 1960s
Punk/ New Wave
R&B/ Soul
Rap/ Hip Hop
Reggae/ Ska
Rock
World Music
Other Music Formats
Records

Founded in 1990, Pearl Jam was one of the "Big Four" bands of the grunge movement, alongside Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and sold, as of July 2006, almost 30 million records in the U.S. alone. They are one of the few bands to lead the breakthrough of grunge in the early 1990s that remain active today.

History

1984–1990

Pearl Jam's history starts with the seminal grunge band Green River, which formed in 1984 out of a number of earlier Seattle bands. Green River included Stone Gossard (of March of Crimes and the Ducky Boys), Jeff Ament (of Deranged Diction), Mark Arm (of Mr. Epp and the Calculations, Spluii Numa, the Limp Richerds, and later Mudhoney), Steve Turner (of Mr. Epp and the Calculations, the Limp Richerds, the Ducky Boys, and later Mudhoney), and drummer Alex Vincent. Green River toured and recorded to moderate success but disbanded in 1987. Green River was one of the first significant bands of the Seattle "grunge" genre, and Arm is often credited as having coined the term.

In late 1987, Gossard and Ament had begun playing with Malfunkshun vocalist Andrew Wood, eventually organizing the band Mother Love Bone. Through 1988 and 1989, Mother Love Bone recorded and toured to increasing interest and found the support of the PolyGram record label, which signed the band in early 1989. Their debut album, Apple was released in July of 1990, six months after Wood died of a heroin overdose.

With the disintegration of Mother Love Bone in 1990, Ament and Gossard set out to create their next band. They recruited former Shadow guitarist Mike McCready and began playing recreationally as a trio. During this time, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell had written two songs as a tribute to Wood. Gossard, Ament and McCready agreed to help record the tracks. The project was called Temple of the Dog, after a lyric from the Mother Love Bone song "Man of Golden Words".

With the help of Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, the group began recording a number of songs, many of which would eventually be re-worked into demos for the future Gossard/Ament/McCready band. One such song by Gossard wound up as both a Pearl Jam song, "Footsteps", and a Temple of the Dog track, "Times of Trouble".

The trio began looking for a singer and a drummer and found former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. The trio gave Irons a 5-song demo to see if he would be interested in joining the band and to distribute to anyone he felt might fit the singing bill. Irons passed on the invitation but gave the demo to his basketball buddy, San Diego singer Eddie Vedder, during a hiking trip. Vedder had been the lead vocalist for a San Diego band, Bad Radio. As legend has it, Vedder listened to the tape shortly before going surfing. While he was out in the water, the music played in his head and the lyrics came to him. He rushed back home and in one flurry of creativity recorded the vocals to three of the songs ("Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps"). The songs were what Vedder would later describe as a mini-opera. They formed a story of incest, madness, and murder that became known to fans as the "Mamasan trilogy". He sent the tape with his vocals back to the three Seattle musicians, who were so impressed that they had Vedder fly to Seattle. Vedder and the band hit it off, with Eddie even adding lead vocals to a Temple of the Dog song, "Hunger Strike". With the addition of Dave Krusen on drums, their first official show (as "Mookie Blaylock") was performed at the Off Ramp, a now-defunct Seattle club, on October 22, 1990.

Read more at Wikipedia.org