Pearl Jam Twenty from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.

Hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Pearl Jam came on the scene. When their first album “Ten” came out, my first few listens to it were so-so. I really didn’t like it. I did the same thing with Alice In Chains “Facelift” as well as Guns N’ Roses “Appetite For Destruction“. Obviously, I would later greatly embrace all three. But for Pearl Jam, they ended up being one of my favorite bands.

The roots of Pearl Jam started with a band called Mother Love Bone. Before their first album dropped, their lead singer Andrew Wood died of a herion overdose. After some mourning time, another pre-Pearl Jam iteration – Temple of the Dog, was a tribute band to Andrew Wood, with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden spearheading the project. Eddie Vedder’s demo tape arrived somewhere around this time. And as they say in the entertainment world, the rest is history.

The documentary project, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Cameron Crowe, is not the first time the band has worked with the famed director. The 1992 movie “Singles” starred many Seattle musicians, including Eddie Vedder as drummer for the movie band Citizen Dick. Add to that Cameron’s music history and this is one of the most anticipated music docs.

The movie plays to a limited number of theaters on September 20th. If a theater is not showing the movie, you can tune into PBS American Masters series on Oct 21st at 9pm ET/PT.

And if that’s not enough, there is also a soundtrack and a book being released for this project, which you can pre-order at the above links.

But wait.. that’s not all. The live cover of “Crown of Thorns” that Pearl Jam performed in 2000 is available for listen below. This song will be part of the soundtrack.

1-11 Crown Of Thorns by pj20

Can you tell I’m excited for this to come out?

Did Chris actually read it? I seriously doubt it, but at this point who cares.

Chris is getting the band back together….

Soundgarden Is Back

Yep, it’s official. Mr. Cornell tweeted the following at midnight on January 1st, 2010:

And there’s a new site, with the tag line: The 12 Year Break is Over and School is Back in Session.

Best news of the new year. Now we wait for dates and put all of the Soundgarden on the iPods.

UPDATE – 3/16/2009

While this album was officially released on March 10, 2009, several of the singles have been available since last September on streaming sites like YouTube. My listens to the songs were done in late October. The album’s original release date was November 4th, but obviously got pushed back to March 10th. Now that the album is out, I plan on giving it a fair listen and posting my thoughts in a future blog post.

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Dear Mr. Cornell,

Can I call you Chris? Ok. Thanks.

Let me get right to the point here. You need to get the band back together, and I’m referring to Soundgarden.

Don’t get me wrong. Audioslave kicked serious ass. I bought all three albums and while I wished I would have seen them live in 2003 [we were at a friend's wedding that night - they are now divorced], I still enjoy just about every song that the Cornell/ Rage Against The Machine combo recorded.

Solo wise, you had two incredible albums: Euphoria Morning and Carry On. I missed a chance to see you live on the Carry On tour in 2007 and am kicking myself for missing it. Especially after reading the set list, which was littered with Soundgarden tunes.

Which brings me to the point of this letter.

Something happened. Your last effort, Scream, made me want to scream. And that’s not a good thing. Here’s some simple math for you:

• Timbaland is great, both as a producer in the studio and as an artist.
• You have an incredible voice and are one of the great vocalists in rock today.

That doesn’t mean you and Timbaland can make great music. Don’t take this personally, but Scream didn’t scream. It didn’t chart. It didn’t move. It didn’t do much of anything. Your contribution to the James Bond flick, Casino Royale, was great. Scream was not. Plain and simple.

What was it I said above… oh yeah, get Soundgarden back together. Pronto.

Kim Thayil. What’s he doing these days? I’m sure he’s busy and all, but I think he may actually want to work with you again. I mean, it’s been over 12 years since the last time you guys performed together on the same stage. Patch up any differences.

Matt Cameron. We all know where he is. Pearl Jam got a gem of a drummer when Soundgarden broke up. Not sure what Pearl Jam is doing, but I think Eddie, Mike, Jeff and Stone could let him on tour for a bit. Hell, they would even come by to watch you guys play songs like “Jesus Christ Pose” and “Spoonman”.

Contact a good band management company and get a nationwide tour planned. Now. Don’t delay this any longer. Pick up the pieces and make this happen.

And Ben Sheppard. Not sure what’s he’s been up to, but I don’t think it was anything as big as Soundgarden was. I’m certain he would love getting a phone call.

And stop poisoning the well. You’ve said in previous interviews that you don’t think any of the other members would want to get back together. Have you asked any of them? When’s the last time you talked to any of them? If it was recent, that’s good. But don’t just assume they don’t want to do anything with you again. They might. Find their numbers on your iPhone and call them.

And one last thing. Stop with this bullshit that “… I think getting back together would take the lid off that and then could possibly change what… to me seems like the perfect lifespan of the band. I can’t think of any reason to mess with that.”. That makes no sense. All of you guys are still alive. Your solo career can take a hiatus. You deserve this. Kim, Matt and Ben deserve this. Your fans deserve this. It’s time, dude.

Sincerely,

Marty

A big Soundgarden fan