Ronen Givony

There has never been a band like Pearl Jam. The Seattle quintet has recorded eleven studio albums; sold some 85 million records; played over a thousand shows, in fifty countries; and had five different albums reach number one. But Pearl Jam's story is about much more than music. Through resilience, integrity, and sheer force of will, they transcended several eras, and shaped the way a whole generation thought about art, entertainment, and commerce. Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense is the first full-length biography of America's preeminent band, from Ten to Gigaton. A study of their role in history – from Operation Desert Storm to the Dixie Chicks; "Jeremy" to Columbine; Kurt Cobain to Chris Cornell; Ticketmaster to Trump – Not for You explores the band's origins and evolution over thirty years of American culture. It starts with their founding, and the eruption of grunge, in 1991; continues through their golden age (Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield); their middle period (Binaural, Riot Act); and the more divisive recent catalog. Along the way, it considers the band's activism, idealism, and impact, from “W.M.A.” to the Battle of Seattle and Body of War. More than the first critical study, Not for You is a tribute to a famously obsessive fan base, in the spirit of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. It's an old-fashioned – if, at times, ambivalent – appreciation; a reflection on pleasure, fandom, and guilt; and an essay on the nature of adolescence, nostalgia, and adulthood. Partly social history, partly autobiography, and entirely outspoken, discursive, and droll, Not for You is the first full-length treatment of Pearl Jam's odyssey and importance in the culture, from the '90s to the present.

Pearl Jam and the Present Tense

Not for You

Two and a half decades on, Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1993-94) is the rare album to have lost none of its original loyalty, affection, and reverence. If anything, today, the cult of Jawbreaker-in their own words, "the little band that could but would probably rather not"-is now many times greater than it was when they broke up in 1996. Like the best work of Fugazi, The Clash, and Operation Ivy, the album is now is a rite of passage and a beloved classic among partisans of intelligent, committed, literary punk music and poetry. Why, when a thousand other artists came and went in that confounding decade of the 90s, did Jawbreaker somehow come to seem like more than just another band? Why do they persist, today, in meaning so much to so many people? And how did it happen that, two years after releasing their masterpiece, the band that was somehow more than just a band to its fans-closer to equipment for living-was no longer? Ronen Givony's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy is an extended tribute in the spirit of Nicholson Baker's U & I: a passionate, highly personal, and occasionally obsessive study of one of the great confessional rock albums of the 90s. At the same time, it offers a quizzical look back to the toxic authenticity battles of the decade, ponders what happened to the question of "selling out," and asks whether we today are enriched or impoverished by that debate becoming obsolete.

Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy

Not For You. Pearl Jam, vivir en presente es la primera biografía completa de una de las bandas más importantes de las últimas décadas, surgida en Seatle en los años 90. Polémica y divertida al mismo tiempo, Not for You explora los orígenes y la evolución de Perl Jam a lo largo de treinta años, desde su fundación (Ten), en plena irrupción del grunge, en 1991; a través de su época dorada (Vs., Vitalogy, No Code y Yield); para desembocar en su período de madurez (Binaural, Riot Act) y sus últimas propuestas; sin olvidar la relación de la banda con Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, el punk de Washington... Pero la historia de Pearl Jam y Eddie Vedder es mucho más que música. A través de la resistencia, la integridad y la pura fuerza de voluntad, el quinteto de Seatle ha estado presente con su voz en momentos clave de la historia reciente de Estados Unidos: desde la Operación Tormenta del Desierto hasta la defensa del derecho a decidir de las mujeres; desde «Jeremy» a la matanza de Columbine; desde el activismo antiracista al Black Live Matters; desde el enfrentamiento con Ticketmaster a la aparición de Trump. Ronen Givony, un fan sin paliativos ni complejos, ofrece mucho más que un estudio crítico o una biografía musical al uso; Not For You. Pearl Jam, vivir en presente es, además, una reflexión sobre el arrebato de la adolescencia, la locura de los fans y la responsabilidad de los artistas; y también un ensayo sobre el placer, la nostalgia y el paso a la madurez. En parte historia social, en parte historia de la música popular, narrada en tono autobiográfico, Not for you rememora uno de los momentos más interesantes y creativos del rock.

Not For You. Pearl Jam, vivir en presente

The first critical and comprehensive overview of Pearl Jam from 1990 to the present.

Ronen Givony

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