Musical Smackdown: Kanye vs. Pearl Jam

(First off, I want to thank our beloved web guy James for actually posting this. He loves Pearl Jam more than his soon-to-arrive child, so I know this must be hard for him. In the words of Holden Caufield: “You’re aces Ackley kid.”)

Last night at the end of the show I said something that I want to correct… I said that I thought Kanye West is a more relevant musical artist in 2008 than the boys from Pearl Jam. What I meant to say was Kanye West is A WAY more relevant musical artist in 2008 than the boys from Pearl Jam. Phew, glad we got that straitened out.

Seriously though, I awoke this morning to a crapload of emails from people (of all ages) angry at me over my dissing of Their Beloved PJ. Obviously people like what they like, and if you are into PJ and not Kanye, there’s little I can do to convince you of my point. But here goes anyway.

There’s no arguing that PJ is a hugely successful band. They’ve sold a batrillion albums, made tons of dough, and are still a hot ticket when they headline a concert tour. You know who else fits that description? The Eagles.

Are the guys from PJ socially aware? Totally. They give all kinds of money and time to worthy causes. I bet they are awesome fellas to hang out with. I hear Eddie Vedder roams the streets of West Seattle at night rescuing kittens from trees. None of this makes them musically relevant in 2008. PJ’s place on the music landscape these days is right next to Springsteen and Neil Young, and The Who and Led Zeppelin (and maybe, on a good day The Rolling Stones). They are legends. Legends who play concerts during which most of the people in the audience are hoping for them to play songs written A Decade Ago.

Eddie Vedder really dislikes George W. Bush. He talks about this during every concert. He and Stone Gossard penned the subtly-titled “Bu$hleaguer” (see, they used a $ instead of an “S”… that’s satire) as an ode to how much they hate him. The song failed to garner much attention (except from Pitchfork who summed it up thusly: “Vedder’s intentions here are admirable, but it’s difficult to imagine the execution failing any more miserably.”) So then, what is the most famous dissing George W. Bush will ever receive in his life? The comment that people are still talking about? I’ll give you a hint:

“George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”
— Kanye West, September 2, 2005

Why was that such a big deal? Partly because it was delivered on national TV, but mostly because Kanye West is (and was then) probably the most influential musical act in America today.

Speaking of Kanye Omari West… I’m pretty sure the guy is emotionally unstable. He can’t go through a week without having some kind of meltdown either at an awards show, or at a concert, or on his website, where he often has a meltdown in reaction to a bad review concerning one of his concert meltdowns. He is vainglorious and super insecure, and probably roams the streets of West Seattle putting kittens in trees at night. He’s also writing some of the most hilarious/ biting/ self-deprecating/ self-aggrandizing music of anyone around these days.

I’ll try to keep my Kanye Love Puddle from getting all over your new shoes… but let me just say, “We Don’t Care” should go down as one of the best songs of all time, if only for the line “Sittin in the hood like community colleges”.

Add to that Kanye’s ability to draw from all the weird corners of the pop culture universe (be it playing Connect Four with Jonah Hill or casting Zach Galifinakis as the star of the video for the song “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” makes him pretty unique.

Look PearlJammers, my point last night wasn’t that you shouldn’t like PJ, or that they haven’t had a really impressive career, or that they’re not super-swell guys… it was that as of this very moment, Wednesday June 18th, 2008, Kanye West is a bigger influencer (based on album sales, concert tickets sold, TV face time, and people generally giving a s**t what he is up to) than Pearl Jam.

Sorry my flanneled friends. That’s just how it is.

Fire when ready. lburbank@710kiro.com

(Bonus! Here are songs off of both PJ and Kanye’s latest efforts)

Kanye West – Flashing Lights

Pearl Jam – Life Wasted

— Luke Burbank