pearl jam

Ed Vedder-Vocals, sometimes guitar-Mike McCready-Lead Guitar-Stone Gossard-Rhythym Guitar-Matt Cameron-Drumer-Jeff Ament-Bass

Pearl Jam, The beginning age of Pearl Jam goes way back into the mid-80's with a Seattle based band called Green River. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard were members of this band. After the band made an early split, Jeff and Stone went and joined Mother Love Bone along with former Green River guitarist Bruce Fairweather and a guy named Andrew Wood. After Wood past away from a heroin overdose, the band was done. They were set to make it big and was actually the first one to get a major record label from Seattle. After this, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and a good friend of Wood's asked Jeff and Stone if they would like to do a tribute to Wood. They agreed. Stone brought up a school friend named Mike McCready to join in on the project while Cornell invited Matt Cameron of Soundgarden. While recording the Wood tribute, Jeff, Stone, and Mike were recording music of their own on the side. They asked former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons if he would want to join in on the project. He declined because he was in a band called Eleven at the time but passed the demo tapes to a poor dude in San Diego, CA named Eddie Vedder. Eddie wrote lyrics to the songs and created a trilogy out of them. Jeff, Stone, and Mike immediately invited Eddie up to Seattle. Soon, the Wood tribute was complete and Eddie even gave a helping hand on it. The tribute was called Temple Of The Dog. After that, Jeff, Stone, Mike, Eddie, and new member Dave Krusen were now a band called Mookie Blaylock but changed their name to Pearl Jam and got a major label deal with Epic Records. Their first album "Ten" after Mookie Blaylock's jersey number was released in August of 1991. Krusen left the band after the album was released and was replaced on tour by Matt Chamberlin. Chamberlin recommended a more permanent drummer to the band named Dave Abbruzzese and he joined the band. The band's first big break was opening on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Smashing Pumpkins, but even bigger was headlining the 1992 Lollapalooza tour. Later on in 1993, Pearl Jam would win Video Of The Year for "Jeremy". In late 1993, Pearl Jam released their second and eagerly anticipated second album called "Vs.". The album broke sales records selling nearly one million copies in a week! The band also refused to make any music videos or promote themselves at all because fame was bringing the band down. In 1994, Pearl Jam did something that no other artist had done before. Pearl Jam filed a non-trust suit against Ticketmaster for not keeping ticket prices low. This cancelled a lot of shows in 1994 and that same year they kind of made up for it with the release of "Vitalogy". It also sold nearly one million copies in its first week of release. Pearl Jam did not tour off that album and in 1995 the band members worked on side projects. The whole band was involved with Neil Young's "Mirror Ball" album. Mike McCready was involved with Alice In Chains' Layne Staley in a side band called Mad Season. Stone Gossard was in Brad and Jeff Ament was in Three Fish. In the summer of 1996, Pearl Jam released "No Code". It did not have as much success as the previous two albums though. It followed with an extensive fall North American Tour without the aid of Ticketmaster. In February of 1998, the band released their fifth album, "Yield". It was followed by an extensive world tour that sold out every show and Pearl Jam was named by the Billboard Music Awards as the "Alternative Band Of The Year". In November of 1998, Pearl Jam released their first live album cleaverly titled as "Live On Two Legs". In 1999, Pearl Jam released the single "Last Kiss" which became their highest selling single but they didn't make anything out of it. All the proceeds went to an orgainization called CARE in benefit for the Kosovar refugees. Besides that, Pearl Jam did little in 1999 together but only 2 concerts. 2000 is expecting a new album called "Binaural" and a huge European and North American tour.

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