http://in.integralinstitute.org/


"Pearl Jam: Restoring Idealism to Rock and Roll. Part 1. From the Birth of Grunge to the Death of an Industry.

With Stone Gossard and Ken Wilber

Few bands in recent history have done more to express idealism and authenticity in music than Pearl Jam. In this fascinating interview with guitarist Stone Gossard, we are offered an insider's view of the gritty origins of grunge music, the iconic rise of the "most popular band of the 90's," and the struggles of maintaining one's artistic ideals in the vertigo of sudden fame.


Who: Stone Gossard, guitarist and founding member of Pearl Jam, one of the most influential bands in recent decades, and often described as "the most popular American rock band of the 1990's."

Summary: Every now and again, pop culture is forced to reinvent itself. Like an epic drama among Hindu deities, our collective tastes are born, destroyed, and reborn again, swinging like a massive pendulum from one aesthetic extreme to the other. As a new cultural niche becomes more and more popularized, what typically begins as fierce artistic independence eventually devolves into reckless overindulgence, and creative novelty slowly bleeds away until all that is left is a formulaic husk used to manufacture tomorrow's next fads. It is usually at this point, when a particular scene becomes so over-saturated that it can no longer support the weight of its own excess, that the entire scene will die an often-humiliating death, bloated and alone on an unflushed toilet.

In the 1980's, the music scene in America was dominated by the glut and theatrics of "glam metal." For nearly 10 years, most of popular music was defined by sex, drugs, and machismo-in-drag, and an entire generation of youth nearly lost themselves within a cloud of hairspray. There was a void in the cultural heart of the musical mainstream that was dying to be filled—an utter lack of artistic interiority, emotional depth, and authenticity. Untold millions were craving artistic substance, and were only offered artificial decadence.

Then along came grunge, taking the entire world by storm in the early 90's. From the rain-soaked streets of Seattle emerged a new voice for American youth. In much the same way that punk music arrived just in time to offer salvation for our Disco-era sins, grunge music promised to completely cleanse our cultural palette, placing an aesthetic imperative upon more simplicity, more spontaneity, and more sincerity. And so bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam came into the mainstream, forever changing the landscape of American music. From behind a tsunami of massively distorted guitars, hallowed vocals, and countless acres of flannel, appeared an unmistakable return to introspection and idealism—even while cloaked by themes of angst and despair, the natural result of our collective interiors being ignored for almost a decade.

Few bands of the era embody this move toward introspection and idealism as strongly as Pearl Jam. As the grunge scene continued to explode, it was becoming apparent that the inherent iconoclasm of the scene was ill-suited to handle the immense pressures of fame, and many artists found themselves circling the drain of inevitable self-destruction—for many, Kurt Cobain's suicide was a morbid reminder of what can happen when artistic ideals are reduced to mere currency for the status-sphere. One by one the originators of grunge began to fall away, and an impossibly huge body of talent was forever lost to suicide and drug addiction.

Few bands survived as the industry began churning out the newest grunge-inspired fads, marketed (ironically) as "alternative rock." Pearl Jam was one of the few who did make it through this period of intense commodification. Unlike most others from the Seattle era, they were able to prevent themselves from being crushed by the enormous pressure that their celebrity brought to their personal and professional lives. While they did in a sense try to distance themselves from their own fame, they were also simultaneously using their celebrity as a platform for their idealism, soon finding themselves fighting "on all fronts" for initiating real change in the world. From their famed battle with the corruption of the Ticketmaster venue monopoly, to publicly berating the policies of George W. Bush, to expressing pro-choice sentiments in concert, to promoting awareness around Crohn's disease—Pearl Jam was helping to return rock and roll to its roots, in terms of both the profoundly personal and the deeply political. And they continue to do it to this day, over 18 years since the band first formed.

In this dialogue Stone Gossard leads us through the story of Pearl Jam's iconic rise, as well as his own experiences in the early grunge scene, long before any of us had ever known what "Teen Spirit" actually smelled like. Stone and Ken also discuss the current state of the music industry, some of the key problems it needs to come to terms with, and the role of record labels in the future of music. Stone's story is one that is truly aligned with the essence of Integral Art, which attempts to restore Beauty to it's rightful place within the human condition—emphasizing creativity instead of deconstruction, idealism instead of apathy, depth instead of sensationalism, authenticity instead of irony—and always reflecting the fullest expressions of both artist and audience alike. We hope you can join us in this fascinating exploration of artistic idealism and creative reverie....

transmission time: 38 minutes
keywords: Grunge, Green River, Mother Love Bone, Steve Turner, punk rock, Andrew Wood, Mudhoney, postmodernism, Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder, Ten, Citizen Dick, Singles, Ticketmaster, Rick Rubin, "What is Integral?", The Integral Vision.
most memorable moment: "We felt liberated by the idea of punk rock, by the idea of social movements that gave what you were doing a little bit more significance.... We had a general belief that art was important... and that there was a whole world to be discovered as you filter art through your unique perspective." "

_________________

Wow! No. Am reading now.

Thank you

.

Unbelievable.

If anyone signs up for this, let us know.

.

Ken Wilber is the shite

So Stone is doing interviews with sites where you have to pay to listen?
And on a monthly basis no less.

What's THAT all about?

Very odd. He may not have known. But it made me think. If this were a print magazine or a book, I wouldn't think twice about buying it. Of course I wouldn't be paying $10 either. But anyway, it's on the web. It's journalism, so it feels wrong. I'm not sure I want to reward that. I have to think about it. I'd be thinking if it were Eddie too. But if it were Ed, two things would be different.

1) it would have been ripped and distributed via back channel by now
2) people would be enraged. This place would have fucking exploded

but it's Stone so 1) it hasn't been ripped (or at least done so in the usual PJ fashion) and 2) No one is calling him a... whatever the fuck people would have decided to call Ed over this one. Maybe something from the article itself.

I don't like the social implications of any of this.

.

yeah, I was thinking just that..
all those people that jump on Ed at the smallest thing are saying nothing because it's Stone..

I like Stone but I'm getting fed up the way people jump on Ed's back all the time..

and it's the thing..even a print article gets mostly free online coverage..Rolling Stone article for example, I read it, from RS site, weeks before I was able to pick up the mag..
but a subscription online content..
maybe Stone didn't know...but he's supposed to be the tech-savy guy out of the lot..

It's business, not tech.

He could have given an interview and 1) it could have been sold as in, i'm a free lancer and i'm selling this interview or 2) he agreed and did the interview but never checked the site, has no idea it's for sale or 3) he supports the mission of the site and is encouraging people to subscribe or 4) the interviewer is a friend who needs money so he agreed to the selling 5) ...... he's getting a cut, which I doubt but hey, someone's going to write a biography sooner or later. Maybe he's starting his.

This is a really weird thread.

We're not discussing the content because we don't know it and no one has come forward to enlighten anyone.

.

Is it just me, or does the thread title make it sound like Stone did an interview sans clothes?

it's not just you

Naked and talking about calculus?

Is this the same Ken Wilber?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber

I KNOW I've read some of this guy's work, but I didn't recognize any of his titles from my library. He's a fucking genius, though, one of those people who REALLY gets it, and puts all the varied pieces together into one understanding of everything.

I was interested, until I saw I had to pay for it.

Wow.

http://integral-review.org/current_issue/index.asp

The journal is open access. This is very interesting. The web site struck me as being new age, which was a turn off. But it's not. I guess the site is a way to generate funds. It might be worth it.

.

a one off payement, maybe, but a subscription? no way!

I have no problem with websites charging to access content. It's that or sell adds, and the content fee probably bothers me less. I'm not paying for it cuz I don't care enough about a stone interview to shell out 10 bucks, but I have no issues with it in practice

I'll take the ads any time..I'm very good at ignoring them..don't even see them most of the time, selective eyesight

Ad blocking works wonders. I don't see a lot of stuff. : )

.

did some googling and found a way to download this for free!

http://in.integralinstitute.org/landing ... index.html

Just put your e-mail address and they'll send you a download link, 100% free

Listening now

.