I’ve always found Eddie Vedder to be incredibly annoying.

I understand the great irony in this given that I work for an alternative radio juggernaut and were it not for Pearl Jam, I might be out of a job, but I have never bought into The Brand, nor The Lifestyle that the alt-rock Gods have conjured up. Whenever Pearl Jam comes up in conversation, which is always done by men who are just beginning to sport their first prominent grey hairs, I remind them that while 1994 seems really cool, I spawned onto this Earth five years later, and as a Gen Z stalwart, there is nothing “revolutionary” to me about this band. They are, in fact, the least interesting of their contemporaries. This could be because they ape more from classic rock bands more than any other Seattle band, and as someone that thinks most rock music created before 1982 is not worth listening to (Parallel Lines being the main exception), rarely does the genius of Pearl Jam penetrate me.

This dissertation isn’t to say that Pearl Jam sucks. I like the same songs that everyone else likes. ‘Alive’ rips, ‘Corduroy’ excites my Bill Simmons-infested brain, and the Unplugged version of ‘State of Love and Trust’ is possibly the finest output that show ever had if you don’t include Jay-Z or Nirvana’s catalogue (weird qualifier, but I’m being as fair as I can be). I just can’t buy into this band, however, and for as much as author Steven Hyden tried in his excellent new book, ‘Long Road’, I am still denying Vedder’s almost universally accepted status as the frontman of The Biggest Band in the World.

Author Steven Hyden (co-host of the excellent Indiecast podcast) penned a thoroughly compelling book about Pearl Jam, thankfully avoiding the monotonous backstory of how the band formed and getting right into the action. Hyden leads us along an 18 song journey, with each chapter marking another song in what becomes a fruitful playlist by the end of the book. ‘Long Road’ focuses on live performances, capturing the band in their most raw moments, which is far and away the most compelling way that I’ve ever seen the band documented. As someone’s whose fandom doesn’t escape past the 7 or 8 alt-radio mainstays that we continue to play daily, the strongpoint of this book is Hyden making a seemingly endless back catalogue seem so accessible. The passion in which the author speaks about the band’s 1995 Red Rocks gig is something to behold. I read the chapter, I watched part of the set, I didn’t get it as much as Hyden did, and then I got annoyed all over again at Pearl Jam’s existence. This was pretty much my experience throughout this entire book.

Hyden luckily doesn’t push the band’s later work on us too hard. The apathy towards the band’s later work does illuminate my biggest issue with the band as a whole, however. For all of the shy, reclusive rock stars out there, I simply don’t think Eddie Vedder is the best one of the bunch. The band’s catalogue is nothing compared to what R.E.M. was able to accomplish. The urgency present on Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy is never captured again, and I don’t hold those releases in the same light that the generation before me does. The band has faltered out of the gates with every release since. A lot of time over the last month was dedicated to listening to No Code through Gigaton and every album left me cold and uninspired. They are what Kurt Cobain warned us about. Their teenage angst paid off well, then they quickly got bored and old.

I find it so interesting that Vedder, who puffed his chest out while on tour with Mike Watt and sang “Against the 70’s”, a rallying call to fight off Boomer Nostalgia, hasn’t been able to pen a worthwhile song in my lifetime. I think the most infuriating part of Pearl Jam’s story is Vedder’s desire to be something that he’s not. He has swatted away this and that for so long that he finally exists on his own grumpy island where he can be adored in peace. He’s alienated anyone with a dissenting opinion and while there’s no denying his success, he’s turned into a bore. He’s so obsessed with being like Ian Mackaye and yet Mackaye’s words, while sparse, still pack a much harder punch than Vedder’s ever did.

Whereas Michael Stipe and his cohorts aged gracefully and continued to pump out quality records even after their commercial success ended, Pearl Jam has become nothing more than a Jimmy Buffet-like brand. Pearl Jam: The Show is an entity entirely propped up by Vedder’s words that have been spoken for 30 years now.

The author makes a very fair attempt at saying that the band evolved through their live act and thus the post-prime records aren’t as big of a blemish as they appear to be, but with this band, for all of the macho-posturing they’ve done throughout the years, I have a hard time accepting that.

This is all to say that ‘Long Road’ is excellent, because it made me think about Pearl Jam in a way that I haven’t before. They’ve been accepted as Rock Royalty for so long that sometimes we need to go back and evaluate how they got there and in the case of a band like this, why they’re still accepted as such. I consider Vedder to be somewhat of a fraud and a songsmith who wasn’t as big of an outlaw as Neil Young, wasn’t as biting as Kurt Cobain, and wasn’t as introspective as Michael Stipe, but there is no denying Pearl Jam’s generational impact that is still rippling through the alt world today and Hyden demonstrates his case beautifully throughout the entire book.

‘Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation’ can be purchased here.

Harrison Ford, space outlaw and Nazi killer, isn’t going to get a statue in Park Ridge. Ford attended Park Ridge’s Main East High School in the 1950s. The city claimed that the statue is too expensive to build, but having something to do in Park Ridge seems priceless.

What statue should your city fund? The conversation lives on Facebook!

By clicking on this link, you’ve already outed yourself as being a deviant, so there’s no turning back now. The next time you get ready to suck on a little piggy, take a moment and think, “does my mother know that I like this?” For one recently married man, he and his mother have excellent communication skills.

Next time you call your mother, try being totally honest with her…for once.