Pearl Jam battles bootlegs with 25 new CDs
By DAVID BAUDER
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Pearl Jam fans
will have their loyalty tested on
Tuesday. The rock band isn’t just
releasing a new album — it’s put
ting out 25 of them.
In an unprecedented attempt to
beat bootleggers at their own game,
the Seattle-based band is selling
live two-CD sets recorded at more
than two dozen concerts during a
European tour earlier this summer.
“We just thought it was pretty
cool,” said guitar player Mike Me
Cready. “If fans have to buy
bootlegs, it can cost them $50. We
wanted to do something that was
cheaper.”
Each album carries a suggested
retail price of $16.98.
No one can remember one act
flooding the marketplace with so
much music at the same time. Even
Pearl Jam admits it’s not for every
one.
Most musical acts don’t vary
their set lists much from city to city,
making such a project redundant.
But like Phish or Bruce Spring
steen, Pearl Jam prides itself on be
ing unpredictable in concert. Each
show contains about two dozen
songs; Pearl Jam played more than
80 different songs during the Euro
pean tour.
Virtually every Pearl Jam concert
is made available on disc by boot
leggers, he said. Curtis knows this
is true because the band has collect
ed most of them.
The musicians rather wickedly
considered releasing a compilation
of the best live recordings from
those discs. After all, what could
the bootleggers do — sue Pearl Jam
for stealing their unauthorized
recordings of the band’s music?
But Curtis said Pearl Jam took its
own approach when they realized
they didn’t have enough well
recorded material to produce a full
album.
“We’re not trying to talk people
who usually don’t buy this stuff
into buying it,” he said. “It’s more
for the people who buy it already.
We really didn’t have any idea of
how many people that is. We still
don’t.”
For a few weeks, the discs have
been available through the band’s
Web site, selling at $10.98 each for
fan club members and $12.98 for
others. More than 50,000 discs
have been sold that way, he said.
For fans who aren’t able to buy
all 25, does McCready have any
recommendations of shows he re
members going particularly well?
He mentions disc No. 16, from
Poland, disc No. 10 from Paris, and
either of the two shows from Lon
don (Nos. 4 and 5).
“There are some really fantastic
shows and some OK ones,” the gui
tarist said. “But there aren’t any real
bad ones.”
McCready himself doesn’t worry
much about the Pearl Jam bootleg
gers. His music collection contains
about 100 bootlegs of favorite bands
like the Rolling Stones and Led
Zeppelin.
“I think people that buy the
bootlegs buy the records anyway,”
he said. “I was that way. It’s just an
other thing about the band, so I
don’t really care if they’re making
money.”
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Voters
continued from page 1
turnout rates.
Besides the presidential and state
office elections, the outcome of
many of this year’s ballot measures
will affect how higher education is
funded and the access to affordable
health care in the coming years.
University President Dave
Frohnmayer echoed the impor
tance of students voting and said
the outcomes of this year’s elec
tions and ballot measures will have
a more direct impact on students
than any he has seen as president of
the University.
“This year is very important,”
Frohnmayer said.
So important that state Sen. Su
san Castillo, D-Lane County, state
Rep. Vicki Walker, D-Lane County,
and Executive Assistant to the Uni
versity President Dave Hubin also
will speak about how students can
.register to vote and the importance
of taking the necessary steps to do
so.
“This election in itself is crucial
to the whole program, including
the University,” Hubin said. “But
much broader than that, this Uni
versity has traditionally been active
in participating in the electoral
process. On other campuses, voter
registration is separate effort from
the students. Here, students take
the lead. That’s why I’m participat
ing and I assume that’s why [Castil
lo and Walker] are as well.”
Kitzhaber’s speech kicks off the
formal commencement of a voter
registration drive by the ASUO Ex
ecutive office. Through sidewalk
registration of voters and the lure of
submitting votes to the world’s
largest ballot box — a 20-foot-7
inches tall, 9-foot-2-inches wide
box approved by the Lane County
Elections Department — ASUO
hopes to register 6,000 student vot
ers.
ASUO President Jay Breslow
said he talked to students in the
School of Architecture and Allied
Arts and off-campus lumber sup
pliers and contractors about con
struction of the giant box, but noth
ing is finalized. If the box is
completed, students will need to
stand at a height of two stories to
deposit their ballots in it. The
ASUO would like to see the box
recorded in the Guinness Book of
World Records, Breslow said.
Oregon’s November election is
by mail-in ballot, and students will
have access to boxes across campus
to drop off their ballots, which
must be mailed by Oct. 20.
As of last Friday, ASUO had reg
istered 1,430 students to vote, said
Melissa Unger, the legislative or
ganizer for ASUO.
Breslow believes a speech by the
governor, in addition to speeches
by Castillo and Walker, can only
further that cause.
“It definitely helps,” he said.
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