my song of the next two weeks might initially come off as a young teenager emulating a nirvana deconstruction, but it's actually closer to pearl jam's punk rock underbelly. the best pearl jam tracks were always the punk tracks, and this record is the better of the early ones when it comes to that. looking back, i point to yield as their high point, but it wasn't out yet in 1996.

(relevant tracks: my very first impression specifically, but the lead guitar style in the early demos is drawn partially from mccready as a minor but noticeable influence (as well as some of mccready's influences, most obviously hendrix, and maybe a touch of page, although i was never much of a zeppelin fan) and this continues moving forwards quite a ways. there's also the flowing bass style, that i'll actually draw a primary influence from jim creeggan (who?) in relation to but that drew me to ament by similarity and is noticeable in the early demos and for years afterwards.)