Here's the deal, about 15 minutes prior to a show Eddie Vedder scans the audience, gets a vibe and goes back and writes a set list. I imagine it wasn't too difficult to work up a winning set for this show, after all it's a huge outdoor festival and people are there to RAWK, but what he gives the audience at Live at Lollapalooza 2007 puts on full display what the hardcore fans of the band already know. Pearl Jam is one of the greatest live bands ever. It's not just that they come out and jackhammer you into a sweet rock 'n roll frenzy by opening with “Why Go,” “Corduroy,” “Save You” and “Do the Evolution” (any two of which, when played consecutively, threaten to set the sky on fire), but they follow that spine-shifting onslaught with the largely acoustic “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town” and make ...

  The war for the music industry is as bitter and unfathomable as any civil war; consumers sued, labels rendered nothing more than marketing departments, and savvy artists taking control. With Radiohead’s independent release of its new, seventh studio album, In Rainbows, available in downloadable format from the band’s website for whatever price fans wish to pay, an imaginary but significant line has been crossed in the minds of the record-buying market, i.e., us. As the band’s website says of the price, “No, really. It’s up to you.” Recording industry palpitations grow more rapid as fans welcome a manifest recognition of the new world, and a number of major bands are making plans to follow suit in one form or another. Radiohead, whose deal with EMI expired last year, are one of the most successful and commercially credible bands in the world ...

  Into the Wild (Music from the Motion Picture) is like a peek into the beat-up notebook Eddie Vedder carries everywhere, and is almost everything that you’d want (and expect) from an EV solo project. It’s him at peace, immediate, and creating music that opens both his heart and intellect up to us as if we were being allowed to read things we weren’t intended to see. Like entries in a journal, the songs of Into the Wild sometimes sound like fully-formed concepts and at other times like exhilarating bursts of thought needing to be vocalized before they’re lost forever. Whether haunting and delicate, such as the finger-picked “Guaranteed,” or reminiscent of REM at their jangly best as in “Setting Forth,” Vedder clearly captures Into the Wild’s themes of personal alienation, individuality and the vast isolation of nature, while creating music that stands alone, and apart, from the film – a feat quite hard ...

  There’s an aphorism that says “with death comes experience.” I always believed that was just metaphysical bullshit put forth to convince people to look over the horizon for life beyond the veil. I was wrong. Now, with more sad experience, I understand that it’s not about individuals, but the death you confront throughout your life. Crowded House has confronted that experience and put out … not their best, but their most mature and beautiful work, Time on Earth. Except for a few misguided choices in production and a couple of songs that should have been held over for a future release, they prove how potent pop music can be, and how gracefully a group’s sound can age.

  Nick Drake is a musical puzzle who, if you exclude Robert Johnson, is unparalleled in his ability to evoke a sadness that can be both inviting and mystifying. Far beyond his obvious musical talents as a guitarist, singer and songwriter, his very life has moved beyond the obvious to take on the myth and/or classical tragedy of a tortured genius unrecognized during his lifetime (think Van Gogh). Family Tree, a release of his demos, home recordings and family tapes, is another piece of the puzzle. It fits easily, filling in large portions of the missing picture. I want to be clear from the start: Family Tree initially seems to be a collection primarily for Nick Drake aficionados or obsessive completists. Many of the cuts are very lo-fi, and the home recorder hiss on “They’re Leaving Me Behind” or the creak ...