in the spirit of some of the recent threads i was thinking about this comparison, which people have been making since STP broke almost 30 years ago. they were seen as these johnny-come-latelys to grunge and kind of posers who were commercializing and capitalizing that scene. eddie vedder even made snide comments about them when the video for plush came out. however, i think time has shown that STP were the superior band. they had way more hits. take their 20 best songs and put them up against the 20 best pearl jam songs. no question its STP. id rather seen them in concert in their prime than pearl jam. in 2022 id rather listen to core than ten. STP were more "fun". their songs were more interesting and they went a lot of different directions with their music from grunge to bowie to psych to pop to glam rock. pearl jams sound has not evolved nearly as much. they kind of found their comfort zone and have been running with it for 25 years. plus, they kicked out that drummer from texas, dave abruzesse (?) b/c eddie didnt like that he was on the cover of modern drummer magazine or some b.s. id argue weiland was a better rock frontman than eddie. better singer and stage presence. one could argue that eddie is a better lyricist, but i personally prefer weiland. what say you???
I would say I "really liked" about 8 albums in total from both bands. Five of which were from Pearl Jam. I rank those albums in this order. 1. Ten 2. Vs. 3. Vitalogy 4. Purple 5. Core 6. No Code 7. Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop 8. Yield Pearl Jam also did some cool things with Neil Young, and I would say they were more original (mainly because they were first). So yeah, it's not really even a contest for me. However, I do love STP. It would be interested to do a song ranking list as well, but I still think Pearl Jam would come out on top. Core was up there with Ten as one of the first CDs I ever purchased. The amount of surface scratches on my copy of Core can testify to how well loved it was LOL EDIT: on second thought, I would put Tiny Music above No Code. That album is an underrated gem. Still, that doesn't change my opinion. Agree with with you on Weiland vs. Eddie Vedder. And yes, Pearl Jam hasn't really made a good album in 20 years, but neither did STP.
Interesting thread and question, jo but I like it just like I like anything music related that you post (that might have set a record for most use of the word "like" in one sentence). Pearl Jam, of course, has the larger discography but that is mainly due to the fact that they are still together and Weiland is no longer with us. I agree with you in that STP was the more varied band and was able to do a variety of different styles. Their debut album, though, is still the one album I listen to the most (I like Purple but not as much as I like Core). I should go through the rest of their albums and give them a listen. As for Pearl Jam, I have listened to Ten so many times that I have lost count; however, it really is a perfect debut and unfortunately for PJ, an album they could never top or attain no matter how hard they tried. Vs is one that I have listened to a couple of times and it has grown on me but their other albums are ones that just don't leave an impression with me. I guess Vitalogy is a decent album but outside of "Better Man", there isn't another PJ song I know that well that didn't appear on Ten. It really is a shame because PJ had so much potential and they really knocked it out of the park with their debut but then they decided to fight against Ticketmaster and sadly they sorta lost the plot, IMO. Ironically, as you mentioned, Weiland and the DeLeo brothers were looked upon as imitators and poseurs due to Weiland's vocals sounding somewhat like Vedders but as time went on, the Pilots showed that they could do other types of music and weren't limited to one style. So I would say that Ten is the better album than Core but not by a lot. However, Purple is a much stronger album than Vs and as a result, I would probably lean towards STP being the better band but still a tough choice.
I like both it’s kind of tough. I think Pearl Jam was more original. STP did come along after the fact. They changed their band name and style. So… Let’s compare first records which were both damn good. “Ten”was a total game changer. Love that record top to bottom. “Core” Also very good but did ride the coattails of the Grunge movement. I still like it quite a bit. Tons of hits. I got to see both bands right before they took off. Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza 2 as the 2nd act was freaking amazing. Blew me away. EV was a monster, he was so intense and all over the place. Saw STP open for Ministry and Sepultura. Good show but couldn’t touch what I saw at Lollapalooza. EV’s presence was light years better than SW’s. Still, disappointed in where Pearl Jam took their sound. So as far as albums go, for me, Ten tops them all. I think the bands themselves are a bit of a wash though.
No Code was also a really good album, and kind of weird. There wasn't really a hit, AND it was nothing close to the straight forward rock they would start to lean towards on Yield and then coast on for the last twenty years. I really wish they would have kept going down that path after No Code. Oh well.
I think Scott Weiland had the greatest voice in the history of rock so that's a pretty easy call for me.
I love both these bands but it’s not really close at all. Pearl Jam. Vs is just as good as Ten. Vitalogy is fantastic but the real sleeper is Yield.
Remember Eddie climbing the stage? Had to be what 4 stories? Jumping down I think on the back of a semi. They were amazing that day.
Yes, I do believe it was. That whole day was nuts, but that's definitely a stand-out highlight for me.
as a kid, i was team nirvana and with that came a natural dislike of pearl jam now a that im a little older i can admit that peal jam do be hitting was never a fan of stp
