No Code: The Story of Pearl Jam Quiz

Answer: Andy Wood

Ament and Gossard first played together in Green River, one of many aspiring Seattle bands in the 1980s. After Green River split up they hooked up with Malfunkshun lead singer Andy Wood to form Mother Love Bone. This band seemed destined to make it big until Wood died of a heroin overdose on March 19, 1990, aged only 24. Less then a month after Wood's death Mother Love Bone's first full-length album "Apple" was released.

Although both were profoundly shocked by Wood's premature death they still wanted to continue to make rock music. Gossard got reacquainted with guitarist Mike McCready, whom he knew from high school. McCready had almost given up on playing in a rock band after his former band Shadow had split up. Ament, Gossard and McCready were the core of the newly founded band, which they provisionally named Mookie Blaylock, after a New Jersey Nets player. Now they still needed a drummer and a lead singer.

They asked Jack Irons, former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, to join them. Irons was already committed to touring with another band so he declined (he would be Pearl Jam's drummer from 1994 to 1998). However, he suggested a friend, Eddie Vedder, as a potential lead singer. Vedder was handed an instrumental demo to which he added his vocals. The band was so impressed by Vedder's vocals they immediately asked him to join. The songs on this demo would become some of Pearl Jam's most iconic songs: "Alive", "Once" and "Footsteps". When Dave Krusen joined as drummer Pearl Jam's first lineup was complete.

The three wrong answers are also musicians who died of drug overdose. Layne Staley was the lead singer of Alice in Chains, Shannon Hoon the lead singer of Blind Melon. Jonathan Melvoin, brother of Lisa Melvoin from Wendy & Lisa, toured with The Smashing Pumpkins, playing keyboards.

Answer: Temple of the Dog

Andy Wood was a roommate of Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell at the time of his death. Cornell wrote some songs about Wood that he thought weren't suitable for Soundgarden. Together with former Mother Love Bone members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron they formed Temple of the Dog. Eddie Vedder had only just been recruited as lead singer of Pearl Jam (then still called Mookie Blaylock). During the recording of "Hunger Strike", which would become the first single, Vedder helped Cornell out with the vocals. He also did backing vocals on other Temple of the Dog songs. Temple of the Dog would release one album in honor of Andy Wood and perform live only once, although Temple of the Dog songs are occasionally played during Pearl Jam concerts.

David Cameron would Join Pearl Jam as drummer in 1999. This means that all members of the band were part of Temple of the Dog, together with Chris Cornell. The album "Temple of the Dog" was released in spring 1991, shortly before the grunge scene exploded into mainstream. Although Temple of the Dog would benefit from the grunge wave, the band was pushed into the background by the success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

The three wrong answers are side projects of Pearl Jam members. Stone Gossard plays in Brad, Mike McCready has played together with Layne Staley in Alice in Chains spin off Mad Season, and Jeff Ament has played in Three Fish.

Answer: Release

For a long time Eddie Vedder thought his stepdad was his real dad. It wasn't until his late teens his mother told him who his real father was, and that this man had passed away. Until then Vedder thought this man was just a friend of the family.

In "Alive", the first single of Pearl Jam's debut album "Ten" Vedder refers to this:

"Son she said
Have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy
Was nothing but a ...

While you were sittin'
Home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin'
Sorry you didn't see him
But I'm glad we talked"

"Alive" is the first song of the so called Momma-Son trilogy, three songs that tell the story of the difficult relationship between a young man and his mother. Despite the similarities with Vedder's own experience the story is largely fictional. In the second song "Once" the young man loses control and becomes murderous:

"I got a bomb in my temple that is gonna explode
I got a .16 gauge buried
Under my clothes, I play
Once upon a time I could control myself"

In the third and final part "Footsteps" the young man is on death row lamenting his wasted life. Those three songs were the songs Vedder sang on the demo he sent to the band, what led to him being chosen as the lead singer (see qn. 1). "Alive" and "Once" made it onto Pearl Jam's debut album "Ten". "Footsteps" was a B-side of "Jeremy", the third single from "Ten". It can also be found on "Lost Dogs", a collection of B-sides and unreleased material.

Answer: Singles

"Singles" shows the life of a couple of people in their early twenties against the backdrop of the Seattle music scene. The movie stars Matt Dillon as Cliff Poncier, lead singer of grunge band Citizen Dick, Bridget Fonda as his girlfriend Janet, Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick. The script was written by Cameron Crowe, who also directed the movie.

The Pearl Jam boys play in a scene where they read a review about a Citizen Dick concert. The reviewer thrashes Cliff's performance but says the other band members made up for his lack of talent. The band members try to hide this fact from Cliff, but he is on to them. At the end of the scene Eddie Vedder's character says: "A compliment for us is a compliment for you". However, Cliff doesn't buy this.

The movie was made before the grunge explosion but only released a year later, when grunge mania was peaking. As a result the movie was more notable for its soundtrack then for the story itself. The soundtrack includes two Pearl Jam songs ("Breath" and "State of Love and Trust"), Mother Love Bone's signature song "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" and a host of other Seattle bands.

Pearl Jam music can also be heard on the soundtracks of "Dead Man Walking" and "Big Fish". Eddie Vedder wrote the soundtrack for "Into the Wild", a biographical survival film based on the life of Christopher McCandless.

Answer: Mirror Ball

In 1993 Pearl Jam first toured with Neil Young and his band Booker T. & the MG's during a three week tour through Europe. On this tour they played "Rockin' in the Free World" a couple of times as an encore of Young's set. Neil Young shared his experiences and taught the Pearl Jam boys how to cope with the downsides of stardom. Their mutual friendship culminated in the recording of "Mirror Ball". Neil Young did most of the vocals. Eddie Vedder only sang in "Peace and Love" and did some background vocals on other songs.

In August 1995 members of Pearl Jam (except Eddie Vedder) toured in Europe together with Neil Young to support the "Mirror Ball" album.

The three wrong answers are other Neil Young albums from the 1990s.

Answer: Ticketmaster

The conflict with Ticketmaster started when they charged a $3.75 service fee on an $18 ticket price for a concert in Chicago in spring 1994. For the two Chicago shows Ticketmaster agreed to separately identify the service charge on the ticket. However, this compromise only extended to the two Chicago gigs. During the following months the dispute would get out of hand and would lead to Pearl Jam organizing their concerts on independent locations without the support of Ticketmaster.

Pearl Jam cancelled their 1994 summer tour because they weren't able to find enough suitable venues that didn't have an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster.

The antitrust division of the US Justice Department launched an investigation into anticompetitive practices in the ticketing industry. On June 30, 1994 members of Pearl Jam were heard before the Information, Justice, Transportation an Agriculture subcommittee. They claimed Ticketmaster had, because of their exclusive contract with the major concert venues, a monopoly over the market, thereby denying bands an alternative to distribute tickets, which resulted in an excessive control over the price for service fees. Although some congressmen showed genuine interest in the matter, some made silly remarks like calling the band members "darling guys". Over a year after the hearing the US Justice Department announced that the investigations against Ticketmaster's antitrust violations were dropped.

For the 1995 North American summer tour Pearl Jam played only on non-Ticketmaster venues. Ticket distribution was handled by a new company, ETM, via automated phone lines. The service and handling fee was set at $2.50 per ticket. The total price per ticket was $18 for indoor, $21 for outdoor venues.

The organisation of Pearl Jam's independent tour would meet with great difficulties. Some concerts were cancelled because of security issues, and on top of that Eddie Vedder became seriously ill during a show in San Francisco. Luckily Neil Young was present to stand in for Eddie, but the band was still booed. After the San Francisco fiasco the band decided to cancel the remaining seven concerts of the summer tour, although later the cancelled concerts were rescheduled for the fall.

In 1996 and beyond the band continued playing at non-Ticketmaster venues, helped by alternative ticket distributors ETM and FT&T, but in the end lack of proper infrastructure and the energy needed to organize those concerts dragged the band's efforts down. In 1998 Pearl Jam started their first major-market tour in four years. The majority of those shows were ticketed by Ticketmaster.

Answer: Lukin

The title of the song refers to Matt Lukin, former bassist of Mudhoney, at whose place Eddie found refuge when he was stalked by a fan with mental problems. The fan accused Vedder of being the father of her children, and drove her car into his house at 50 mph. This and other incidents made it difficult for Vedder to lead a normal life.

In an attempt to deal with their sudden fame the band members had already decided to stop making videos and cut down on promotions for their albums. As a consequence sales dropped: "Vs." still sold seven million copies, but "No Code" only sold 1.75 million copies (in the USA), Pearl Jam's least successful album (at the time).

The three wrong answers are all singles from "No Code".

Answer: Roskilde

The accident happened on June 30, 2000 when the band was playing "Daughter", one of their calmer songs. The 50,000 strong audience pushed forward, some fans lost their footing in the mud and were trampled. Nine people died that day, 30 more were injured.

After an investigation the incident was declared an incident and the organizers of the festival wouldn't be held responsible for the nine deaths.

The band members were badly shaken up by the Roskilde incident. They didn't play in multi-act festivals any more until 2005. Stone Gossard has met a couple of family members of the victims and the band has stayed in contact with them ever since. The lyrics of "I Am Mine" and "Love Boat Captain" on the album "Riot Act" refer to the Roskilde incident.

Rock am Ring is a festival in Germany, Pinkpop is in Holland, Rock Werchter is in Belgium.

Answer: The Avocado Album

"Pearl Jam" was released in 2006, four years after "Riot Act". On the cover an avocado cut in half is depicted against a blue background (picture by Brad Klausen). Since the album bears the same name of the band it is often referred to as "The Avocado Album".

Three singles were taken from the album: "World Wide Suicide", "Life Wasted" and "Gone".

Answer: Monkeywrench

After Pearl Jam's seventh album "Riot Act" their contract with Epic Records expired. For "Pearl Jam/The Avocado Album" the band wasn't yet ready to release an album without a major label, so they signed a one album deal with J Records. In 2009 the band founded their own label "Monkeywrench" which released their albums "Backspacer" and "Lightning Bolt" (2013).