Pearl Jam has released their first music video in 8 years (bet you didn't even know about that one, did you?).

And it scares me.

A lot.

(Watch it here.)

Dear writer's of Grey's Anatomy,

Boooooooooooo.

Seriously.

Sincerely,

Matthew

I don't want to be rude here, because apparently at some point he finds ways to score (last night he had 32 according to the paper), but I never really see Shawn Marion do anything but miss lay-ups.

I'm not a Suns fan but I've watched a few of their games during the playoffs and it's infuriating from a fundaemntal perspective. The Suns will be out on a 2-on-1 break and Nash will dish to Marion for an uncomtested lay-up ... that he misses. Or he'll pull down an offensive rebound and go back up ... and miss the lay in. Hell, last night I only saw one play in the Suns-Clippers game as I walked through the bar of a restarant where we ere eating. The play was Marion missing a lay-up on a fast break.

How good would this guy actually be if he made all his easy shots?

I think maybe someone should take my credit cards away.

(Diana, I’m in $50,000 of debt and this is how I’ve chose to tell you. Just kidding! Did you really think I was Nicki from Big Love? You did for a second, didn’t you?)

For the past several weeks I have been holding out hope that, since Pearl Jam’s current tour plans ignore pretty much everything south of the Mason-Dixon line (including Arizona) that they would announce fall tour dates for our part of the country for when they finish their European tour. Instead they have announced they are going to go tour in Australia. I now bear a grudge toward boomerangs.

So, either they will come visit Phoenix (but not until 2007 sometime) or we’re getting skipped completely. I know this is ridiculous, but this really bums me out.

I’ll see them on this tour anyway, because I’m driving to San Diego on July 7 to see them there. But now, with little prospect of them playing Phoenix for a year at best or three or four more years at worst, I’m getting the itch to drive to Vegas for the show the night before that one, too. (I could take a half day from work and be there in time! I think.)

This all started a few years (wait, actually 6 years. God I’m old) ago, in 2000 when (living in Tucson and having no Friday classes) I decided I could drive to Albuquerque on Friday, see the show, then drive and see them in Phoenix Saturday night. Then I found out the Sunday night show in Vegas would be their tenth anniversary concert and I had to go to that, too. And so I became a person who is willing (indeed, gets giddy at the prospect) to travel to concerts. I saw three shows in three nights in three different states.

But since then I’ve only seen Pearl Jam in concert once. In 2003 I had planned to see them in Las Vegas and then again the following night back here in Phoenix. I changed my mind, though, and decided to just spend the weekend in Vegas with friends. I sold my Phoenix ticket to some guy on eBay.

Pearl Jam tours are few and far between so I have always tried to maximize. I saw them first when I was in eighth grade (1993) and then made sure I found a way to get tickets to both of their 1995 shows at Red Rocks. Then nothing until 1998. It was the prospect of having only seen one show in 5 years that inspired me to go on the road in 2000. And now I’ve only seen one show since then.

Tickets are still available for Las Vegas via Ticketmaster. I thought perhaps if for whatever reason our June Disneyland trip didn’t work out that I would be able to justify taking another day off to go to LV. Happily (and I really mean that) Disneyland has worked out and I’m excited to be going. But now my excuse for going to LV is gone.

It is so tempting, though.

Dear Pearl Jam,

Thanks for the really great new album. I mean, I’ve been a big fan of all your stuff but there’s an energy to this new stuff that is special. I can see why you’re excited about sharing it, being more visible in the press, and all that. So thanks.

Having said that, and without wanting to be rude, let’s talk about something you really have to do.

See, the penultimate song on your new record (“Come Back”) is one of the most amazing things you’ve ever written. I was happy to see that the song made its live debut the other night at Irving Plaza. But … mid-set? What’s that all about?

I mean, you would never play Yellow Ledbetter randomly in the middle of a set, right? So why do it with Come Back, seeing as it’s so obviously such a perfect “last song”? You’ve probably already thought of this, though. You’re all very good at what you and when it comes to putting on a concert no one is better. Maybe this is already in the works for tonight’s set. You know, Ed, how you’ll say something like, “Thanks for coming. We hope you’ll all come back tomorrow night so we can do this again.” How you’ll let Mike just go off on a ridiculous solo, then bring back Ed with the little woos and “Come Back! I’ll be here!” with the crowd singing those lines right along, really feeling it. Maybe the band will even leave the stage while Mike is still playing (the way you sometimes do with YL) and the crowd will keep singing and Mike will keep kicking their asses.

Won’t that be an especially perfect closer for the first show of a two-night stand in a given city? I thought so. But you wouldn’t even have to limit it to that. One of the genius things about Yellow Ledbetter is that it’s not just a great musical way to say goodbye – the whole “I don’t wanna stay” thing is poignant. “Come Back” could be equally poignant, reassuring. As fans we often wait 2, 3, even 4 years between shows in our hometowns. Why not at least thank the fans for such patience with a simple request like this at the end of some shows?

As I said, though, I’m sure you’ve already thought about this. I’m really looking forward to it. (In San Diego.)

Thanks again. Great song. Great record.

Sincerely,

Everyone with ears

PS

If you decide you want to use it as a set closer or as the last song in an encore break I won’t be too upset. Just for variety’s sake.

Golf and Dads

Earl Woods, Tiger’s dad, died yesterday after years of pretty extreme sickness and prostate cancer.

I’m not usually a big fan of parents, like Earl Woods, who really press their kids toward some potential professional career. The father of Venus and Serena Williams, for example – or Jennifer’s Capriati’s parents – may have produced well-known star athletes, but you have to wonder how many kids out there had the same lack of a childhood due to that kind of parent and yet will never achieve any sort of fame at all. But Tiger’s dad, for all his faults and bad quotes, seemed to be a genuinely good guy, and I’m sad to learn of his death.

Maybe I forgive him because it seems (to the extent that anyone on the outside can know) that Tiger himself is a phenomenally well-adjusted person. I think it’s a great compliment to any parent to have a child turn out to be as composed and articulate as Tiger is – never mind how much harder it is to be well-adjusted when you’ve lived a life under such intense scrutiny as Tiger has.

Tiger is only in his early 30s – I think he may actually have just turned 30, but I’m not sure – so this is still a young age to lose a parent. His dad has been sick for years, and this is no surprise, but it still has to be hard.

Over his career, Tiger has often been accused of lacking emotion – which I think is completely ridiculous – but even if it were true I don’t think any son could have sat unmoved through the victory speech he gave after winning The Masters last year. He plainly choked up and nearly cried as he recalled that every previous time he had won the tournament his father had been there with him – 2005 was the first year he was not. And Tiger, barely able to get the words out, said he couldn’t wait to get home to give his dad a hug, then quickly thanked the crowd and walked away. It is to me a moment as defining and wonderful in his career as any of the many great shots he’s hit and putts he’s holed.

So, I’m very sad for Tiger today.

But, as a fan, I’m also very intrigued. Golf is one of those few games that you can excel at by sheer force of will. Even the player who doesn’t have all parts of his game working can win if he wants it more than the other guy. Tiger has proved this himself often enough (and it helps that even when he doesn’t have his A game that he’s still as good or better than anyone else talent-wise). He hasn’t won a major since that Masters last April. For Tiger, that actually counts as a long drought.

I think that “drought” is going to end, though, in a big way. In 2000 I was lucky enough to get to attend some of the US Open at Pebble Beach – when Tiger broke every conceivable record winning by such a ridiculous margin that you’d have thought he was playing a different course. I frankly expect the same thing at this year’s US Open. That is, I don’t just expect him to win, I expect him to embarrass everyone else in the field. And the same thing at the British Open in July, the PGA in August, etc etc. I’m just telling you now: Look out.

Super Tuesday!

So today is the big day.

You know what I’m talking about.

I’ve been waiting for years for this to finally happen.

A new album.

From one of the greatest artists of the 90s.

One of the greatest artists of all time, really.

Finally, today it happens.





Jewel’s new album is out.









(Oh, also I guess Pearl Jam and Tool have new CDs coming out. Who even knew they were still around?)

* * *

If you thought I was done foaming at the mouth over how good the new Pearl Jam is, well, then you obviously don’t know me very well.

As for Tool, I’ve heard the artwork with their new album is really spectacular. The case comes with a pair of 3-D glasses and … well, you know, it’s Tool so we can all guess at what kind of 3-D images are inside. And, considering the album is only $10 on sale this week, it’s a tempting purchase. Unfortunately, I already listened to the album and it’s … pretty uninspiring. I like Tool, and this album is by no means bad, it’s just nothing new. Only two tracks really capture my interest. (On the plus side, that’s two more tracks than captured my interest on Lateralus so at least it’s an improvement.)

I hate avocados. But not records with avocados on their cover.

I know I’m biased.

I am one of those obsessive Pearl Jam fans who buys their new records at midnight and buys their bootlegs and travels to neighboring states to see them play live.

But the thing is I’m a realistic obsessive Pearl Jam fan. I never would have tried to convince anyone that Binaural or Riot Act (their two most recent efforts) were albums worthy of praise or even purchase by an average music fan. So try to take me at face value when I tell you that you should really at the very least strongly consider buying Pearl Jam’s new self-titled record when it comes out tomorrow.

It’s their best album in 12 years. Actually, maybe longer.

There’s a little bit of everything on offer here. The album kicks off with five of the strongest straight-ahead punch-you-in-the-face rock songs that the band has come up with in years.

“Life Wasted” is all power chords and a positive Eddie Vedder who sings: “I have faced it, a life waster. I am never going back again.” It’s actually one of the few personal songs on the album. This is one of the strengths. Eddie seems to have finally learned that whe it comes to telling stories showing is better than telling.

This is Pearl Jam so there are political tracks and those will be talked about, but it’s not as political as I would have expected.

There are typically almost-punk Pearl Jam rock tracks in the tradition of “Animal” or “Even Flow”: World Wide Suicide, Comatose, Severed Hand, Big Wave. There are songs with huge soaring melodies in the vein of “Alive”: Life Wasted and Marker In the Sand, an open letter to God that may be the album’s best track.

But after the jolting first five songs, the album gets significantly softer in tone. And – this is what really makes the album stand out from their lesser efforts over the past decade plus – the second half of the album is as strong or stronger than the first half. “Parachutes” features a drifting melody that’s reminiscent of Lennon. “Gone” sounds like a classic Bruce Springsteen track. And the seven-minute closing track “Inside Job” heeds the well known truth that rock music is always just a little better with piano.

But all of those tracks pale in comparison to “Come Back,” which is the most unique song Pearl Jam has ever written. The song feels a little like an old Elvis lounge song, as if the band took inspiration from the feeling of their last hit, their cover of J Frank Wilson’s “Last Kiss.” It’s the best vocal Vedder has put down in I don’t know how long. Some sad songs are pretty. Some are just sad. This one is both and yet is also redemptive – it’s the kind of sad song that pays tribute to how good the good times must have been. Can you tell? I’m obsessed with this song.

I’d almost say that “Come Back” by itself is worth you dropping $10 to get the album while it’s on sale this week, or from iTunes at some point. Even if not, then Come Back and Marker In The Sand together are worth it. But the whole thing shines.

I’m serious. If you like rock music, do yourself a favor and buy this record. Pearl Jam, finally, is back.