In a move that would make my roommate proud, I listened to "Vitalogy" by Pearl Jam today. Lately I've had somewhat more of a motivation to listen to their catalogue, as I am going to see them in concert soon (I won free radio tickets to go see them). Overall, it was an excellent CD with hard rocking beats, though provoking lyrics, and some interesting musical experiments. It left a better impression on me than "Ten," which I listened to some time last year. Though I thought "Ten" was a great album in its own right, something about it bugged me, and I later realized that as I was listening to it, I felt like I was hearing a band that sounded like it was trying too hard to sound important and matter, rather than have fun and make expressive music. As a musician, I like to think of music as a form of expressing one's feelings and emotions (as I'm sure like EVERY MUSICIAN IN THE WORLD does :P), and it should bring about pleasure or cathartic release as a result of expressing yourself through this medium. Honestly, in listening to "Ten," I felt like I was listening to a band that was going to work rather than having fun with it. Sure it was great music, but for some reason I just didn't hear that spark that really really makes the music come to life. Sure it came out at certain points (most notably in pretty much the entirety of "Even Flow", "Once", "Black" and at the end of "Alive", when Eddie Vedder screams "yeah!yeah!yeah!yeah!yeah!yeah!"), but I thought that it brought the overall mood of the album slightly down for me, as I really felt like it was just a bit too deliberately heavy-handed to listen to it over and over (I really haven't felt like listening to it start to finish ever since the first few listens to it).

Flash forward to about a month ago, when "Pearl Jam" was released. Then flash forward to like a couple weeks ago when I actually sat down and listened to the whole thing. Overall, I was a lot more impressed with this effort, as it was more driving and creative and I finally heard that spark that I felt was missing from most of "Ten". As a whole, the band sounded like they were contributing more wholly to a single vision and honestly having more fun with it. Yes, the album is fairly dark and heavy, but they sound like they mean with all their hearts. Pearl Jam had certainly learned a thing or two in the 15 or so years since "Ten" My favorite track from the CD is still the first single "World Wide Suicide", but other notable tracks are "Life Wasted," "Marker in the Sand," "Parachutes," "Big Wave," and "Severed Hand."

My roommate and I don't really see eye to eye on a lot of topics, particulary when it comes to subjects that are near and dear to him and have defined a large part of his existance. And so, after listening to "Vitalogy", it was interesting to have a discussion on certain parts of Pearl Jam. In particular, I brought up the fact that there at least a couple very experimental and "out there" tracks on the album and how much my roommate likes to blast me for my strange musical tastes (such as Radiohead and J-Pop), yet he likes to listen to weird things in his own right! Hehe, he is a very stubborn person and has thus far managed to adamantly resist my efforts to spread my interests on to him, while I have kept an open eye and ear to his interests. In the end, however, I must say that we are all alike in that we find value and personal importance in things that others find strange. For Adam, it is his Pearl Jam, for Tammy it was her goth/witchy stuff, for Allison it is (currently) Korean dramas, and for me it is anime. I guess the important thing to take away from this is that the next time you find another's interests to be really outlandish and strange, take a good long hard look at the things you find interesting and try to see that others could find them to be just as outlandish and odd. Also, don't be afraid to give things a chance, as you never know how you will like it, even though past experience may tell you otherwise. Even though I didn't particularly find "Ten" to be very impressive, I still managed to get into some of their other catalogue.

For all those who dislike anime and all things Japanese, know this: Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh are all childish shit and are not representive of the wide gamut that anime spans.

(To his credit, Adam has tried his hand at some videogames that I find particularly impressive)

Quote of the day: "Yeah, would you try the snake blood and the heart that's still beating?" -Chris Gilling