The first full-length biography of the ‘90s preeminent band, Pearl Jam follows the band’s origins, evolution, personalities, politics, failures, triumphs, and impacts. It starts with their serendipitous founding, and the birth of grunge, in late 1991—its achievements, and myths—and continues through their golden age (Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, Yield), their divisive middle period (Binaural, Riot Act), and their more dubious recent catalog.
A story about Pearl Jam and their role in a formative decade, this is also a book about the band’s obsessive-compulsive following through the author’s personal accounts: a tale of neurotic fandom, in the spirit of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and a reflection, on the nature of love for a band—or anything—in our adolescence, and in middle age. Opinionated, discursive, and droll, Pearl Jam is, incredibly, the first book to survey Pearl Jam’s three-decade career; the first, to present them in their cultural moment; and the first to make use of the 800-plus recordings, videos, and bootlegs in the public domain. It’s an appreciation; an inquiry, on the nature of guilty pleasures; an ambivalent love letter; and a biography, twice over—the author’s in parallel with the band.
