Remembering when Seattle’s biggest band played a local record store. All Eddie Vedder needed to do was play some air guitar. Pearl Jam’s management was ambivalent about letting the band play a show at Easy Street Records in West Seattle, even though no one would have to travel. For some…

Pearl Jam’s second album, Vs., opens with 28 seconds of muted, jumbled noodling before the band pounces onto an angry, taut, loud riff. That opening track, “Go,” is like a Jack-in-the-box jumping into your ears: a sudden burst of pent-up, mechanized energy. …

The Musical Letters of Pinkie Promise “Not my President!” When Kaitlin Pelkey opened her set at Pete’s Candy Store with that call and response, it amounted to more than just candor. It was context for the audience, which was about to get hit with music outside its referential terms. Pelkey…