I don't mind if there are love songs on #11, as long as they are about unrequited love.

Like "From Backspacer with Love"?

no thank you

It's funny that you point to Rick Rubin. It seems that it's because he's the only producer this board isn't unhappy with at this point, which speaks volumes about our negativity. More to the point though, we have no idea how well he'd produce PJ now. It's like the new Star Wars. Will it respect Lucas' new trilogy's legacy? I bloody hope not. But any producer, no matter how well you respected them, might want to continue on a similar path to O'Brien, especially if that's what PJ wanted.

I've always felt that the louder the band, the poorer a producer Rick becomes. He does fantastic work with hushed and subtle, and it just gets drier and more boring the heavier the songs get.

Not to say that the songs are always boring...just that he never seems to have much to do with those types of songs other than keep the mix entirely too dry.

get brian eno involved i say.

You guys are really over-thinking my original intention here... I just wanted Rubin involved to set up the whole haunted mansion ala RHCP's Blood Sugar Sex Magik

That and Vs. happened a long time ago. So did a lot of awesome BO'B albums, though. Everyone's an old man now.

BoB was "young people" back then.

Exactly. So was Rick Rubin.

Danger Mouse. I mean, if you want Pearl Jam to really play with their sound, that's it. Look at what he did for Beck and the Black Keys. You may not like either or both of them, but Danger Mouse definitely tweeked their sound and made each of these albums sound very fresh.

I don't think most people want PJ's sound tweeked in any way, that's the problem with BO'B.

does kurtleon have any scoops on this?

Daniel Lanois

Some quotes after working with Neil Young a few years ago:

Without a doubt,” said Daniel Lanois, “I like things more stripped down these days. As long as the music is good enough for a skinny display, I’m OK with that. I came up during a time when I was very excited about ambient music, and that’s what I made for a while. As things have evolved I now really have a great admiration for records that have good riffs. And one could safely say that the Neil Young record has good riffs, and that the Black Dub record has some really great bass lines. Finally, I got it right!”


“Thank you for noticing the qualities of grit and freedom in these new albums,” replies Lanois. “I like the broad brush-stroke analogy. It’s a very painterly way of looking at things, and I love for music to have pictures. That part of my work has never changed: I like things to be cinematic. I also think that the detail is always there in my work. The first impression of the Neil Young record is perhaps that it is raw, with not much done to it, but on close inspection some beautiful work has been done to details. Also, trying to recreate the excitement that one felt in one’s youth is always there with every record that I work on, and I think it’s safe to say that Black Dub is a wonderful arena for me to apply my sonic skills to. I apply whatever I want, whatever I bump into, whatever I’m excited about. It’s very encouraging to work with this entourage.”

does anyone remember when everyone here was dying for pj to work w/ b'ob again?

Yes, it about a month after Avocado. I was one of those people, I will admit it, but then again I have never had too much of an issue with him until I learned he's pushing certain songs for album sales purposes (assuming that is to keep his reputation up)

I was one of those people too. In terms of my complaints about BO'B, his actual production skills are quite far down the list.

I was one of them, too. To be fair, I didn't know that Devils and Dust was intended to be a sparser affair before he jumped in with all his commercial concerns, and he hadn't fucked up the sound on Magic yet.

I said something before to the effect that he seems like a great producer to have in the room with an artist who is driven and has a very defined goal in mind...and a terrible one to have in the room with someone who isn't 100% sure what they want. So maybe my complaints about BoB are really just additional complaints about Pearl Jam.