KEXP Documentaries: “Grunge” - Pearl Jam

In 1990, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard from Mother Love Bone, drummer Matt Cameron from Soundgarden and guitarist Mike McCready got together to make a demo. This cassette tape ended up in the hands of California surfer Eddie Vedder. Vedder recorded vocals and sent it back, and these recordings were the start of their most famous album, Ten.  Decades later, Pearl Jam is the one band that’s continued to play together since the original grunge scene. Vedder’s vocals are influenced by great rock bands like The Who, but also the great singers of Motown.

Pearl Jam gets a lot of flack for being an underground band who became successful.  But how could they have done it more admirably? They’ve done so many benefit concerts and made political stands.  They’ve defended rights for women, animals and contributed to foundations for Chrohn’s disease. They stood up to Ticketmaster when they felt it was cheating their fans.  They’ve protested systems that create war and hunger. Get an inside look at the skills that make this Seattle team one of the greatest rock bands of all time, on and off stage.

KEXP Documentaries are created by Michele Myers with assistance from John Felthous, Tiffany Grobelski, Mary Janisch and Executive Producer Kevin Cole. If you would like to follow along more closely in the creation of these radio stories, we post research materials, songs and videos on our Facebook page and on Twitter.