SotD: "Do the Evolution" - Pearl Jam (1998)

I think I would have been a bigger Pearl Jam fan if I had actually grown up with them. You know, picked up Ten a couple months before Nevermind came out, and called the Nirvana the knock off band. Followed them on their never-ending tours, like a grunge Dead-head, telling my friends about the night Eddie Vedder's eyes rolled up into his head just as he got to the chorus of "Even Flow." But I didn't. I grew up with Pearl Jam's unfortunate legacy, bands like Nickelback (is it one word or two? I'd rather type this aside then look it up) and Creed. Those alt-rock crooners made me sick, and subsequently I avoided going into Pearl Jam's back pages. Then I heard Yield. It's Pearl Jam sounding only very slightly like Pearl Jam, and it still sticks out as their most creative and diverse record.

On "Evolution" Vedder is at his wildest, barking and howling like Johnny Rotten, atop a buzzsaw riff that wouldn't be out of place in a Metallica record or James Bond movie. All the while he's menacingly asking the listener to "do the evolution" as if its a hot new dance. 11 years later, Pearl Jam has never given Yield a proper follow-up, instead they've fulfilled the mainstream corporate prophecy Kurt Cobain bestowed upon them all those years ago. You can catch them on Target and V-cast commercials, they've got their own Rock Band game coming, and Fox's tighty-whitey sports commentator Joe Buck called their newest release album "awesome" during the World Series. Do the evomition.

I am ahead, I am advanced

I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah