BTW Rex, it took me a while to get on board, but I love the site. Hope the west coast is treating you well

Robert Pollard is opening in Pitt & Cincy as well.

and the major reason they went w/ J out of all the dozens of offers, is because Clive offered them the freedom they wanted, and they had a great relationship w/ one of the higher ups at J (who signed them to Epic back in the day).

and yeah, it is ironic, but they signed to J when it was still just part of RCA/BMG, before the Sony merger last year, i’m sure they were kind of annoyed that they’re back under the Sony umbrella so to speak now again, but such is life.

and you’re right, they are definitely promoting themselves more for this record than in the last 10+ years. i think before it was unless they could do things on their own terms, they’d rather not do them at all, thus the minimal promotion/interviews/late night tv, etc. now that they’re starting anew, they can dictate how much and how they promote themselves and are willing to let their new label give them fresh ideas for promotion.

it’s gonna be fabulous seeing them back on SNL, supposedly they’re gonna do 3 songs.

as for World Wide Suicide… definitely catchy and their best first single since Given To Fly in ‘98 (they end to pick odd first singles on purpose), but definitely not the best song on the record by any means thankfully. another song that will likely be released as a single imo is called Gone, which Ed debuted last year in Atlantic City, and the demo of it appeared on their Xmas single. his voice hasn’t sounded this great in years like it does on that track. really soaring chorus, somewhat reminiscent of GTF. i didn’t really care for the demo version much, but i’m impressed w/ the studio/ful band take.

Again, though, I’m basing my prediction for success on business factors. The album’s first single is the band’s biggest hit since “Last Kiss” (which was seven years ago and wasn’t exactly a typical PJ single) and their first modern rock radio No. 1 in a decade. And since its the band’s first album for a new label, it’s going to give hacks like me a new angle to write about. Don’t be surprised to see Eddie Vedder doing more interviews and all that, too.

All of that said, I think it’s kind of funny — a few years ago when the end of the band’s deal with Epic was nearing, they were making noise about how they were going to form their own label and release their own albums (similar talk is coming from Radiohead these days). That’s what makes the band’s decision to sign to such a hyper-commercial label so surprising. (Also, ironically enough, due to the Sony/BMG merger, they’re still under the same corporate umbrella they were at Epic.)

granted i’d be all for it happening, but i’ll be really surprised if it does, considering the last 2 both topped out around 500k