RS Interview with Eddie Vedder

"I don't want to jinx it," Eddie Vedder says from a Los Angeles studio, taking a break from recording Pearl Jam's 10th studio album, which is coming together faster than the band expected. "But it's on!" At the same time, he's preparing to release Ukulele Songs, a delicate solo LP played almost exclusively on the title instrument. "There's one song with a cello," he says. "I let that one in under the four-string rule."After hitting the road behind the album in June, Vedder has big plans to celebrate Pearl Jam's 20th birthday, including a band-curated concert in Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend and a Cameron Crowe documentary about the group's history that will premiere this fall.

Why a solo record now?
The ukulele thing started as a writing exercise that I thought would be kept to myself. I've been kind of collecting songs over the past 10 years, and it wasn't till the last few that I thought of maybe putting this stuff in an album. It's not really my solo record - it's the uke's solo record. I was just there to guide it.

What made you want to focus on that one instrument?
I just wanted it to be the one sound. At first it was kind of a joke, and then it became a little bit of a challenge, a puzzle, to see if I could create 11 or 12 songs with just a ukulele. It's like painting with one color. You can really appreciate the subtleties and changes in tone.

The most memorable rock ukulele song is probably the Who's Blue Red and Grey, which you've covered.
Yeah, hearing that song when I was maybe 12 legitimized the instrument - it was just a beautiful piece of music.

Did that inspire you to play uke on Pearl Jam's Soon Forget in 2000?
The open chords are unabashedly Blue Red and Grey. After that, I felt like I almost had to make a whole 'nother batch of songs to make up for the fact that that one was 30 seconds of plagiarizing [laughs]. I thank Pete [Townshend] profusely, but I should probably send him some dough, or a nice ukulele. I think I owe it to him at this point.

You and Chan Marshall [a.k.a. Cat Power] duet on the standard Tonight You Belong To Me on the album. Did you first encounter that in The Jerk?
Didn't we all? Man, there's something about that song that just stuck with me. When I was singing on Chan's [2003 LP] You Are Free, late one night I asked if she would record something that I was working on, so we did that one. Later, my mom said that she and my dad used to sing that to each other before I was born, specifically on a trip through Seattle.

That's a little spooky.
Yeah - in a good way. It's a good ghost.

You're about to start a solo tour this summer. Do you get nervous facing a crowd by yourself?
It makes you really appreciate being in a group and just being able to ride with no hands every once in a while. Playing with the band is like being at a party and talking really loud - the solo shows are like when you find a quiet back corner to have a deeper conversation.

You've pulled out James Taylor covers at those shows.
I was always impressed by the amount of sound he could get out of a guitar, and the melodic lines he was drawing, like a surfer on a wave, were something to aspire to. At the same time I was listening to the Sex Pistols and the Clash, I'd still listen to James Taylor, or Rickie Lee Jones or Tom Waits.

Did you hide that side from your punk-rock friends?
Oh, I didn't give a shit at all. Punk rock is saying what you want and not giving a fuck.

There's a lot of Nineties nostalgia going around - with Pearl Jam's anniversary, are you feeling it yourself?
I feel like we have to keep our eyes on the road. Being nostalgic is like taking an offramp and getting a sandwich - and then you get back on the highway. I don't want to be spending the rest of my life at the gas station.

Is that why the band is back in the studio already?
Good call, that's exactly it. That and nothing else.

Are your kids into your music yet?
They are, and it's amazing what they pick up, like, "Is this the live version?" We've kept them away from Disney pop, but there's one other artist that they really, really like. All I can say is, it's hysterical watching a two-year-old singing "Let's go all the way tonight/No regrets, just love" [laughs].

-courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine

How To Become Clairvoyant

Bear this in mind: Robbie Robertson is a musical genius. His latest album and first in over a decade is music beyond my wildest dreams. Forget the fact that he can't sing very well; he's not trying to serenade listeners with his husky voice; he sings with authentic feeling. How To Become Clairvoyant is just one hell of an album, and what an awesome title it is. Here he brings some famous friends along for the ride. Old buddy Eric Clapton sings and plays on most of the songs. He co-wrote two, Fear Of Falling (also featuring Steve Winwood on organ) and Won't Be Back, which not surprisingly fits nicely on some of his late career solo albums. He plays a splendid restrained acoustic solo on the instrumental Madame X, backed by a soundscape courtesy of Mr. Trent Reznor. The record's polished production helps to bring the more dark undertones of the music.

Meanwhile, Axman is a wonderful tribute to some of the underrated but influential legends of the guitar (such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Link Wray and Albert King), enlisting the help of Tom Morello. Robbie hasn't lost that uncanny ability to write songs with such ambiguity that everyone can personally relate to, like in the superb title track; that's real heavy stuff. He's a fine storyteller. The simple and soulful When The Night Was Young (with some cool female background vocals) is easily one of the best songs to come out this year, and could be interpreted as Robbie's experiences during the early days with the then Hawks. This is an album that takes its time, draws you in, makes you ponder long after you've listened. It's so good it's scary. It's an instant classic, with not a single weak track on it. If I could, I would recommend everyone to listen to it. Robbie Robertson's heart and soul is definitely in the right place. God bless him.

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Let There Be Rock

Ever wanted to see the craziest audience in the world? Just watch AC/DC's latest concert film, Live At River Plate, in Argentina . The show was filmed over a three-night stand in Buenos Aires in 2009, part of the band's massive Black Ice world tour. It's mindblowing to see just how fucking nuts the South American fans are. Watching a huge sea of jumping people during Highway To Hell is rather hair-raising. On a side note, I always find it funny when people (at least those I've talked to before) use the term 'moshing' very loosely; GA doesn't necessarily mean you get people moshing. It seems at times the whole floor of the stadium was one gigantic mosh pit. Gotta love those glow-in-the-dark devil horns.

As for the music, well, it's AC/DC, so you can't really expect any surprises. Angus Young still does that little striptease halfway through the show. While the songs may sound a bit similar after a while, it's definitely something else to hear them played in a live setting. And like a Springsteen or U2 concert, the live experience can never be replicated on blu-ray. I'm still knocking myself for not seeing the band at Wembley in June two years ago (I went for Dave Matthews Band that night instead). But the next time they tour, I'll be sure to travel down to their home country.

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Give Till It's Gone

This is only the second Ben Harper album I own (first being White Lies For Dark Times), but I've heard a couple of his solo stuff and his previous outings with the Innocent Criminals. I like that he doesn't confine himself to one genre, always mixing in all kinds of musical styles on his records, and excelling in all areas. This latest one is no different. Recorded in Jackson Browne's studio, this could be considered a Relentless7 record (same band from 2009), though it's marketed as a solo effort. Seen Ben live twice so far, and he's a killer slide guitarist.

The album opens with mellow rocker, Don't Give Up On Me Now, that reminds me of something from Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers' Echo. And it closes with some real badass shit. Some of the songs here sound like he's still thinking about his divorce from actress Laura Dern. The man has a knack for putting some country and R&B flavors into the songs, as evident in Feel Love and Waiting On A Sign. And for some sexy southern blues, you got a number called Dirty Little Lover. The feel-good Rock N' Roll Is Free was made for the radio, and according to Ben, he was inspired to write it after watching Neil Young perform Rockin' In The Free World at Hyde Park! How cool is that?

The biggest and nicest surprise here though is Ringo Starr playing drums on two songs, the Beatle-esque Revolver-era Spilling Faith. That five second intro fill alone proves the Englishman still has the chops in him. Then it goes into the next song, a long psychedelic impromptu jam session; it obviously sounds like the band was having too much fun to stop, and they let it carry on for almost six minutes before you hear Ringo making some funny remark. I was just thinking about the concept of the album, which is sadly becoming more of a lost art today. It doesn't necessarily have to flow in a certain way (in a Pink Floydian kinda way) for it to work. It just needs to be chalked full of really good songs. Give Till It's Gone is one example of that.

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70

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the poet laureate of rock & roll.

The voice of the promise of the '60s counterculture.

The guy who forced folk into bed with rock.

Who donned makeup in the '70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse.

Who emerged to find Jesus.

Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the '80s, and who suddenly shifted gears releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s.

Ladies and gentlemen - Columbia recording artist, Bob Dylan!

Rome...

...is an album conceived and put together by American producer extraordinaire, Brian Burton (more commonly known as Danger Mouse), and Italian composer, Daniele Luppi, and took a period of five years to complete

...contains all original songs, but it is clearly inspired by and pays homage to the classic Italian film music by composers such as Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovaioli, Pierro Piccoli and Alessandro Alessandroni. Hence the album title.

...was recorded in the capital's Forum Studios, originally founded by Ennio Morricone, and it was only appropriate the producers use (hard to find) vintage recording equipment and record the music live to tape, like it was done in the '60s and '70s, without any fancy computerized bells and whistles.

...acts almost like a soundtrack to an imaginary movie, as such, it brings out the filmmaker in all of us.

...is surprisingly short for an album of this magnitude (only 35 mins), but listen to it and you'll know why -- the producers knew exactly what they wanted and the result is an incredibly tight and concise record; every second counts.

...has a modernly retro sound and boasts a slick production, with hauntingly gorgeous orchestral arrangements and whatnot, and I must also stress, one of THE MOST remarkable sounding bass and drums you'll ever hear on any album.

...is best way appreciated when listened to in one sitting, with the correct medium being CD (with a good hi-fi and played loud) or even better, vinyl.

...flows perfectly; the sequencing of the songs is pretty much flawless.

...can be described as sublime, a word not to be used lightly.

...reunites some of the old musicians who used to play on the classic film scores (like Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West), including the legendary choir known as The I Cantori Moderni, and of course, soprano Edda Dell'Orso, who sings on the opening track.

...features Jack White and Norah Jones contributing vocals on three songs each, Jack (who wrote his own lyrics) effortlessly crooning his way through, and Norah singing in her most seductive voice yet.

...is so far the best album of 2011.

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