Pearl Jam

From ArticleWorld

Pearl Jam is a grunge rock band based out of Seattle and is considered to be one of the most influential performers of the 1990's. The band helped (along with Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains) to popularize and mainstream grunge music. In addition, they are one of the few bands from the grunge era to remain together and continue to turn out music.

Beginning

Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, previously of the band Mother Love Bone, recruited guitarist Mike Irons and recorded a three-song demo tape. Jack Irons, of Red Hot Chili Pepper fame, gave the tape to his friend Eddie Veder. Upon listening to the music, Veder recorded the vocals for the three songs: Alive, Once and Footsteps. He sent the tape back to the band and they invited Veder to Seattle. Veder and drummer Dave Krusen were added to the band.

In the beginning, they called themselves Mookie Blaylock but changed the name to Pearl Jam because of trademark issues. Their first album Ten was so named for Mookie's jersey number. Dave Krusen left the band shortly before the album's release and replaced by Matt Chamberlain. Chamber lain left to join the Saturday Night Li9ve band and suggested Dave Abbruzzese to replace him. They fired him in 1994 and Jack Irons replaced him.

Albums

After the release of Ten, Pearl Jam continued to record. Their second album was released in 2003. Vs sold a still-record 950,000 copies in its first week of release. Their third album, Vitology, was released in 2004 and the single Spin the Black Circle garnered them a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. 'No Code was release to lackluster sales in 1996. 1998 brought the release of the band's fifth album Yield. It was the first album that didn't peak at #1 on the Billboard Charts.

In 1999, they recorded the remake of Wayne Cochrane's 1950's hit 'Last Kiss. The song was a hit and is the bands most commercially successful single. The millennium brought Binaural, their sixth studio album. While on tour, the band decided to run with the idea of bootlegging. They recorded their shows and released 72 live albums. They set the record for the most albums by a single band on the Billboard 200 at one time. The released another 72 bootlegs during a 2003 tour. In 2003, they released Lost Dogs, a collection of rarities and b-sides. In 2004, Sony released a greatest hits compilation titled Rearviewmirror.