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on the cover ol Rolling Slone and sub
sequently never shut up about how hor
rible the whole situation was Now, after
six years o< earnestly demanding that he
and his bandmates are iusl normal guys
who love rock music and not supernat
ural root stars, Vedder has found that
the public is more than willing to accept
Pearl Jam as an average, insigniticant
rock band So. ot course, in the past two
years Pearl Jam lias ditched all ot its
arty-No Code-pretension, gone back to
the Stone Gussard/ Night Ranger rifts
and released more product in ttie past
two years than many small industrial
ized nations in an effort to regain the
public's attention.
As interesting as all this might be
tor a psychological case study it doesn't
do much as tar as good music
Binaural. Pearl Jam's sixth lull-length
record, isn't necessarily bad once you
stop hoping it will progress past mid-
tempo radio rock candy Hhin Air."
“Evacuation”) and become interesting
on any level besides vague nostalgia lor
1992, but it isn't anything you could call
good
"Pariing Ways.” the last song on the
album, is pedecl example ol the band's
bizarre lackluster. It's a slow, pulsing
ballad with a droning guitar and rolling
drum line that you expect to build to a
crescendo or bombastic chord change
somewhere along the line but it never
does It just goes on and on and then
tades out It s really strange it you sit
down and think about it (something I
don’t advise doing). The more you listen
to Binaural the more you realize the
whole album is kind ot like the dull
drone ol “Parting Ways."
Listen for an hour or two and you'll
start to think how Pearl Jam's whole
career can really be summed up by this
song and how maybe they should have
titled the album Left For Dead In
Malaysia because, like Neil Hamburger.
Pearl Jam is straining its way through a
dull mutine in front of an uncompre
hending audience that would rather be
watching some drunken floozy stumble
her way through a karaoke version ol
"Maggie May ”
It's kind of sad. really. After being
one of the biggest rock phenomenons in
pop music history s^les-wise (and radio
level influence-wise if you care about
Slone Temple Pilots, Creed, Matchbox
Twenty, Collective Soul, etc ). Pearl Jam
is now not even an interesting band but
merely a decent rock anachronism in a
big titled/ testosterone fueled pop world.
(550 Maison Ave., NY, NY 10022)
Travis Nichols
BAND SPEAK
by MATT THOMPSON
STEVIE T
Stevie Tombstone—vocals, guitar
Long-timers remember The Tombstones,
Atlanta's own bunch of rowdy redneck rockers.
Back in the '80s, like the more famous Jason &
The Scorchers, The Tombstones tore a hole in the
local music scene by mixing punk-edged rock
with wild-eyed country. But like all good things,
The Tombstones came to an end in the early '90s
after numerous personnel changes and an
aborted album recorded for Sony records.
However, guitarist, singer and main song
writer Stevie Tombstone soldiers on, but in a
somewhat different vein. His latest record,
Second Hand Sin, has more to do with introspec
tive singer-songwriters like Kevn Kinney and
Tommy Womack than the old band's hell-raising
rock and roll. If anything, it shows an artist
who's matured and, dare we say it, matured in
the world of rock music.
Natives of north Georgia, Tombstone's folks
had a number of musician friends who were nat
ural role models to the young man. Getting his
start in local church bands, Tombstone began
playing music at 12, and by 15 was playing in
local cover bands. He helped form The
Tombstones in the early '80s, staying with them
right up until the bitter end. During the
Tombstones' final years, Scorchers bassist Jeff
Johnson briefly joined ar.d struck up a friend
ship with the band's frontman. This led to a long
stint with the Scorchers as both a technician
and opening act for European and a few U.S.
dates. Johnson also produced Tombstone's solid,
stripped-down and introspective solo debut, arid
he has a live EP, Acoustica, coming soon, as well
as plans for a full-length project to be released
next year. Tombstone speaks:
How has your music evolved over the years
from what you did with The Tombstones?
"The main difference is most of the Tombston"
stuff was fantasy-based thematically, and most
of the stuff I do now is based in reality. In The
Tombstones, we were putting on a front; it was
more about the whoie vibe of that kind of music.
What I write now is more about what I've gone
through and I'm concentrating more on the
songs. The next album, I do may be a
stretch, somewhere between both."
How has your songwriting, lyrically
speaking, evolved from what you did
with the Tombstones?
"Well. I write fewer songs now but I
don't throw as manv away [laughs].
Seriously, I think out the songs a little
more and have to live with them a
while before I can perform them in
front of an audience. With The
Tombstones, we'd come up with a lot of
songs in practice. Nowadays, I still
have iome songs that wnte them
selves, but generally I try to write with
a purpose."
What's it like going from fronting a
popular band to being the sole guy?
"For one, I have a lot more freedom
and to some extent, total control over
what songs I perform and how the
songs are formed. The band thing, if
the chemistry's there, it's worth all the
headaches. That chemistry is rare,
though. Seems to me a lot of people
form bands just to be in a band. The chemistry
makes it worth it and it's a beautiful thing when
it happens."
How has the Scorchers connection helped or
hindered your solo excursions?
"I think for the most part it helped cut not as
far as public point of view, but as far as those
guys allowing me to go out and do my songs for
people who wouldn't have heard them in the
first place. I was around those guys a lot, and
when you're around a group of people that
much, you learn different things. It was good
schooling."
After all your travels, trials and tribulations,
what have you learned about the music busi
ness?
"Well, I've learned life is not always what you
make it [laughs]. There's not any given rule to
success in this business and sometimes, there are
no happy endings. But 1 love dcing it, so I keep
doing it. It you don't really love it, you have no
business in this business."
Stevie T plays Tasty World Friday, August A.
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