“Supercool”: the band who introduced Pearl Jam to the world
You’ve heard the story by now. The 1980s were glam metal; it was all hairspray, pyro and platform heels until ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ dropped and overnight, everything became real, authentic and all around better. Out went Extreme and Poison, in went real bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana, right? Well, kind of.
‘Teen Spirit’ was a cultural flashpoint, an era-defining banger, and most of the music that followed was edgy and honest and raw and all that good stuff. However, a lot of it was, to quote the great philosopher, Mani, “like a Leonard Cohen B-side, at a snooker tournament, in fucking SPACE. Shabba.”
If you don’t read Mancunian, he means boring, and yeah, at its worst, the grunge movement had all the fun and charisma of a fridge. Achingly earnest white boys who last saw the inside of a shower in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, mithering about nothing in particular over the same Seattle thrashing that every other bunch of no-hopers at Central Saloon were drooling their way through. As the novelty wore off, it became easy to miss the heyday of the 1980s. Sure, it was about as ‘real’ as those hamburger sweets are a ‘real’ source of protein, but it was at least fun and, in some cases, still influencing the acts of the day. Only one band were real enough to admit it, though.
For some, the poster boys for the grunge scene’s nigh-on wedgie-worthy swaglessness were Pearl Jam. This has always been a little bit unfair. Sure, they were po-faced to the point of rigor mortis, but their music had power, grace and passion that the cynical punks that made up the rest of the scene were lacking. They also kicked back against Ticketmaster decades before it was cool.
In 1991, they toured with a band who, even then, were seen as their antithesis, and in Mark Wilkerson’s book Pearl Jam Twenty, Mike McCready gave them their props. Saying, “They were supercool to us. It set a lot of our standards early on for how we wanted to treat bands that opened up for us.” What band were this? None other than the funky monks themselves, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s true, this bunch of clowning jocks slap bassing their way through Stevie Wonder covers could influence these quote unquote “real artistes”.
To this day, some people need proof that style and wit are just as important to rock music as earnestness. If you are one of those people, how about the fact that as the 1990s went on, alternative rock began to look a lot less like Pearl Jam and a lot more like the carefree Chilis! You had Beck sniggering about being a loser over slide guitar riffs. Green Day giving Buzzcocks and The Replacements a Ren and Stimpy-esque paint of day-glo colour and puerile humour. The Chilis themselves became one of the world’s biggest bands off the back of Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Am I saying that all bands should be gurning lunatics with nought on their sinful bodies but a solitary sock where socks don’t normally go? No, that would be insane. However, art comes in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Just because a band has a sense of humour about themselves, the world, or anything doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate them. Or even if you’re a band like Pearl Jam, learn from them.
