Pearl Jam are more visible for the new album than they have been in YEARS. You literally need a scorecard to keep up! =)
We'll do our best to track their appearances here in terms of interviews -- we are NOT tracking album reviews because we don't really care what the media thinks about the album and there will be too many to keep up with, and we don't think you need to have someone tell you what to think of the album! =)
If there's something that's not listed, please write and let us know about it!
TV
Thanks, MTV (not)
- February 6: MTV News 1515. MTV visits the guys at the Monkeywrench location, shows us some great live stuff, and talks to everyone. GREAT stuff. (The link above has a live clip of GTF from the broadcast.)
- February 3: Short taped interview with the boys on MTV Live.
- CANCELED - February 10: Canadian music station MuchMusic was airing an exclusive interview with Stone and Jeff on the program "The New Music". Somehow MuchMusic was expecting a video or live performance footage before they've even toured, and when they didn't get it, they cancelled the broadcast.
Radio
- January 27: The Canadians luck out with not one but TWO PJ radio interviews:
- Eddie and Jeff on 102.1 The Edge, 6-7:30pm EST. This one was going to be cybercast, but Curtis Management pulled the plug on it. (See related News story.)
- Eddie and Stone on Q107, also from 6-7:30pm. This will be broadcast across Canada; for a full list of stations that COULD carry the broadcast, check out the Rock Radio Network site. (You will have to contact the individual stations on your own to see if they will be carrying the interview.)
- January 31: Monkeywrench Radio. Follow the link for full details.
Print & Online Media
- Modern Drummer, June 1998: Interview with Jack, before the South Pacific Tour, that possibly sheds some light on his reasons for temporarily leaving the band. Excerpt on their web site if you don't want to buy it.
- Raygun: *Great* interview, accompanied by exclusive photography by the great Charles Peterson that's well worth the price of the mag.
- CMJ, April 1998: Janeane Garofolo interviews Eddie. Yes, you read that right. It is absolutely fucking hysterical, and so are the photos. Thanks to CMJ for putting it online so we don't have to type it!
- Guitar World, April 1998: An interview with Stone and Eddie, where they disagree (there's a change), but it's funny:
GW: Eddie, to many, you're the voice of the Nineties...
EV: It's written above my bed.
If you're so inclined, worth picking up.- Musician, April 1998: Basically the left-overs from Dave Marsh's ATN interview. For completists only, and now on their web site anyway!
- Associated Press:Believe it or not, I STILL haven't read this one.
- The Rocket, February 11-25, 1998: The local PNW music mag has the guys on the cover this issue, with an interview conducted pre-Monkeywrench. Of course, heaven forbid the Rocket actually acts like they like PJ (that would be too uncool), but there are a few good quotes in there (like Jeff saying there's going to be a taping section during this summer's tour?!) and a somewhat cute true-or-false quiz. Now online.
- The Chicago Tribune: We know about this one and frankly we haven't had time to read it, but others have mentioned it favorably. Apparently there's a mention in there that the band almost broke up in 1995, and considering that both of us thought that at the time, this doesn't surprise us as much as it does some people. We'll take a look and link it if it looks good.
- Juice! (Australia):We've got this one, we just need to 1) read it through and 2) html it if it's good. We also have another Aussie interview to read and html.
- New York Times, 2/9/98 Arts & Leisure Section: Jon Pareles visits the boys pre-Monkeywrench and gives us a typically unenthusiastic NYTimes-type piece. [You have to register with the NY Times site to access this, but registration is free.]
- Addicted To Noise: February cover story and interview with the boys by Dave Marsh (who, as we noted below, also did the interview for the promo cd and wrote their bio). This is a lengthy interview, about 12 pages worth, and is in our opinions one of the best pieces ever written on the band.
- Massive! (Australia), Feb/March 98: Short interviews with Mike and Stone, and a poster of Ed. Great, lengthy think-piece and interview with Stone and Mike.
- Der Spiegel (Germany): Interview with Eddie and Jeff. This one isn't worth archiving, as it buys into the whole media-manufactured image of the old PJ, circa 1992.
- The Independent (UK), 1/23/98: Short interview with Ed and some cute stories.
- Details, February issue: Pat Blashill writes a less-than-thrilling whine-fest, mostly about Eddie.
- NME (UK), January 17 issue: The best of the recent interviews. Transcript is online now.
- Tentaciones: This Spanish magazine interviews Eddie and Jeff. English translation now available; another thoughtful, insightful piece.
- Kerrang! (UK): An excellent, funny interview with Stone and Eddie. Transcription now available.
- Guitar World: Interview with Mike and Jeff. This is AWESOME; incredibly honest and insightful. Accompanied by photos from Lance Mercer and Charles Peterson, and they aren't the usual ones. Worth the $$. Transcription now available.
- Entertainment Weekly, January 23 issue: Yield is described in a pathetic, we're-too-HIP-to-like-Pearl-Jam attitude as one of the "top gambles of 1998". Any article that says, "Let's just say that the Wallflowers are more relevant to the masses" when describing PJ isn't even worth lining your hamster cage with. Luckily, you can read it if you're so inclined by following the link.
Advertising & Promotion
Epic claims that this is "the most extensive plan ever for a Pearl Jam release." I don't see any doormats or watches on this list! =)
TV Commercials: Yes, TV commercials. So far, there are two:
- U.S.: Featuring "Given To Fly", and shown so far on MTV, Comedy Central and NBC during "Saturday Night Live".
- Canada: Now, this one is COOL. Minimalistic, no visuals except for the yield sign, and featuring "Brain of J".
- Australia: Sounds like it's similar to the US commercial.
- Italy: Again, sounds like the US commercial.
Billboards: No, you're not hallucinating if you've seen a billboard for the album in your city! Here's a list of the cities which have billboards: Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Phoenix, Mesa, San Diego, Oakland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Houston, Salt lake City, Santa Ana, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington DC, New Orleans, East Lansing, Ann Arbor, New Haven, Austin, Gainesville, Columbus, Lincoln, Knoxville, Nashville, Tuscaloosa, Athens, Baton Rouge, Boulder, Bloomington, South Bend, Milwaukee.
(Notice how Seattle isn't on this list - we can't decide if it's because the guys don't want to have to see it every day, or because they don't want to get shit from their friends about it!)
In-store Merchandising: Stuff you can covet over the next month or so includes the usual posters, album flats, and the like, but also free-standing bins for cd's, counter bins for singles, floor stickers, cool laminated passes, and electro-static window stickers.
Other Promo Stuff:
- An incredibly beautiful set of promotional photos, taken by the great Anton Corbijn (of Depeche Mode and U2 fame).
- Interview cd, moderated by Dave Marsh (ex-Rolling Stone, Creem and now of Rock and Roll Confidential. He also wrote the bio. Opinions on Marsh are mixed, but we're long-standing admirers of his work. He's also a *tremendous* Who fan.
- LOTS of local "listening parties" and radio promotion: we cannot possibly begin to list all the activity in cities around the world, but urge you to listen to your local alternastation, no matter how painful it may be. This may not be the best venue in which to hear the album for the first time, but they often give away posters and other cool stuff, so it's well worth going to if there's one in your town!
Charts
We are absolutely not going to track chart action (unless something really amazing happens), but we did think it was worth noting here for the sake of completeness that the album debuted at #2 on the charts. (See our related News story.
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