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Though "Hunger Strike" is the best-known song off Temple of the Dog's self-titled record, "Say Hello 2 Heaven" was always the album's centerpiece. Recorded in 1991, after the overdose of the charismatic front man of Mother Love Bone, Andy Wood, the song is a devastating tribute to a star who never got to see his potential fulfilled. Nearly 25 years later, the song's singer/writer Chris Cornell performed it at his Melbourne show as a tribute to Scott Weiland, who died this past weekend after also struggling with addiction. Though their careers played out differently, there's something powerful about uniting Wood and Weiland's narratives here. And you can hear it in Cornell's arresting performance, with his tremendous voice breaking at times.

August 30, 2013

CBS Radio Workshop Volume 4 The CBS Radio Workshop debuted at the end of the Age of Classic Radio, which was a time of innovation and experimentation, especially in terms of radio drama. The ten-hour Volume 4 includes “All Is Bright”, a history of the famous Christmas song; “1489 Words”, which featured the debut of later film composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Thunder of Imperial Names”, which was written for a concert band and was based on a text piece by Thomas Wolfe; a two-part adaptation of Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Cornbluth’s The Space Merchants, which offers a satirical look at rampant consumerism from the viewpoint of an advertising executive; Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”, the series’ only re-broadcast, which had first been written for the 1938 Columbia Workshop. Aired during the Cold War era, it took on a sinister new meaning; Henry Fritch’s “The Endless Road”, about a road...

Free Comic Book Day, a day for celebrating comic books and the quirky shops that sell them, is officially one month away (Saturday May 4th). Here at Sound On Sight we decided to jump the gun and celebrate our love for local comic book shops by sharing what’s great about our own geeky haunts.

In a world where digital is overtaking print, there’s something to be said about the tangible experience of visiting your local comic shop. Browsing opens up a world of new experiences and titles that you aren’t really afforded with the online experience. Don’t get me wrong, sites like Comixology are fantastic, and those guys do an incredible job recommending and exposing titles, but the digital buying experience still lacks the explorative, almost ritualistic tendencies of a comic fans visit to their shop. Where else can you have your own mailbox filled each...

Speakers include Col Needham, founder and head of IMDb.com, who grew up in Denton and worked in Curry's at Stockport

"Build it and they will come". That was very much the philosophy that led to the creation of Screen Stockport Film Festival around two years ago. What started out as making a short film with my friends, turned into a desire to create a film festival in Stockport to give fellow young filmmakers an opportunity to share their films with an audience.

Screen Stockport was then born, with the ambition of it becoming an inclusive, grassroots film festival for filmmakers of all ages and experiences. I wanted to give young people who aspired to have a career in the media an environment to share their passion and enthusiasm with other creatives and connect with industry professionals from the North West.

This year we're at the Plaza Super Cinema in...

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of enduring five-piece rock band Pearl Jam, and Almost Famous filmmaker Cameron Crowe’s documentary Pearl Jam Twenty is a thorough tribute to their undeniable part of rock ‘n’ roll history.

Crowe’s treasure trove of ephemera and archival footage is a Pj fan’s dream, chronicling the street-level beginnings of the passionate garage band and their meteoric ascent to sold out arenas, all accompanied by their heartfelt lyrics, which take new meaning throughout the film’s compelling context.

Born in the Seattle “grunge movement” from the ashes of an earlier incarnation, Pearl Jam arose after the tragic overdose of Mother Love Bone lead singer and driving force Andy Wood. Members of the band fight back tears two decades later, but Wood’s untimely death was an early lesson about drugs that shocked them into avoiding the music industry’s all-too familiar fate. By fortunate circumstance,...

Chicago – Some of the best documentaries ever made happen to be about music and the creative expression behind it. Whether it be an acknowledged masterpiece like Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” or Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” or the more-recent and smaller films like “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” or “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.” One of the best ever made recently played at the Siskel Film Center and was on PBS about ten days ago before a DVD release last week — Cameron Crowe’s “Pearl Jam Twenty.” See it.

The writer/director of “Jerry Maguire” and the upcoming “We Bought a Zoo” has been following Pearl Jam for the entirety of their existence. He moved to Seattle at just the right time, as the scene there was about to internationally explode with the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and much more. With an amazing amount of archival footage,...

Chicago – Very few music documentaries in the history of the form have more successfully conveyed the inner workings and outer artistic expression of a band than Cameron Crowe’s brilliant “Pearl Jam Twenty,” a joyful, inspirational examination of the importance of creative integrity and great rock ‘n’ roll. Pearl Jam has survived for two decades as so many of their peers have come and gone by staying true to their music and their fans. And one of our best filmmakers was there for most of the journey, resulting in a documentary that plays well to hardcore fans and those who haven’t bought anything related to Eddie Vedder since “Ten.” Like all great music docs, it works for both.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Crowe (“Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous,” the upcoming “We Bought a Zoo”) moved to Seattle at just the right time, just as the music scene there was about to explode. He...

With Cameron Crowe and his music sense, we could think of no better creative mind to tackle the documentary Pearl Jam 20. The Seattle rock band is marking 20 years in the music business with a doc that chronicles their beginnings out of the tragedy that was Mother Love Bone through their triumphs over the next two decades.

Pearl Jam grew out of Mother Love Bone, a Seattle band on the cusp of superstardom when their lead singer, Andy Wood, overdosed and died. From those ashes, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard began playing together again a few months after Wood’s passing. When an acoustic tape of the group landed in the hands of San Diego singer Eddie Vedder, history was made.

Crowe turns his camera on the band as well as pulling visuals from over 1,200 hours of tape from the band’s history. His music sense, displayed in films such as...

Popular opinion on Pearl Jam has fluctuated wildly over the 20 years of the band's existence. Its second album, "Vs.," set a record for most copies sold in its first week of release; but a pervasive fear of the spotlight, coupled with the band's tendency to take itself too seriously, turned some people off, and the huge proliferation of hunger dunger dang imitators that came up in Pearl Jam's wake led others to deem Eddie Vedder and crew guilty by association.

Still, through it all, Pearl Jam persevered, and now the band's taking a much-deserved, season-long victory lap. At the forefront is the Cameron Crowe-helmed documentary "Pearl Jam Twenty," which gives us a chance to reflect, to celebrate, and to enjoy what has made Pearl Jam such a lasting part of the rock landscape: the music.

To that end, we have the "Pearl Jam Twenty" soundtrack, stocked with material spanning the band's entire career.

Christmas gives plenty of people a number of reasons to celebrate, but Eddie Vedder has one extra thing to raise a glass to today, as it is his birthday. The Pearl Jam frontman is now 46 years old, and though he has been an integral component of the rock world for most of two decades, in many respects it seems like he's just getting warmed up.

(Click here for a look at Eddie Vedder's career in photos!)

Of course, Vedder is best known as the singer for Pearl Jam, the band he joined following the end of about-to-break Seattle band Mother Love Bone. Vedder was something of an outsider in the beginning, as he was living in San Diego and not really considering a music career (he was content to surf). But a friend sent him a tape of some demos put together by guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament,...

This Saturday night (March 13), Pearl Jam will take the stage at 30 Rockefeller Center's Studio 8H and rock out on "Saturday Night Live" for the fourth time in their two decades as a band (Jude Law will cover hosting duties). From their humble origins as a band called Mookie Blaylock who formed in the wake of the tragic death of Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood to their world-conquering dominance on albums like Ten and Vs. to their battles with Ticketmaster and George W. Bush to their current incarnation as one of the most consistent and beloved touring acts in the world, Pearl Jam have held onto their core members (save for some shuffling in the drummer's stool) and delivered their rugged mix of classic rock, punk, garage and everything in between.

In 20 years, frontman Eddie Vedder doesn't appear to have aged very much. He still has that youthful glow and a hunger in his eyes,...