This is the 135th installment of The Labyrinthian, a series dedicated to exploring random fields of knowledge in order to give you unordinary theoretical, philosophical, strategic, and/or often rambling guidance on daily fantasy sports. Consult the introductory piece to the series for further explanation.
A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece (sort of) about Pearl Jam. That was 97 Labyrinthians ago, in case you keep track of time in units of ‘Freedman articles.’ And then about two weeks ago I mentioned Pearl Jam in passing in another article. I hadn’t really planned on writing another piece about the band — and this time the piece really is about Pearl Jam — but thoughts arrive like butterflies.
Ultimately, this piece is about the importance of origins in daily fantasy sports. But most of it is about Pearl Jam. If you don’t care about Pearl Jam, skip the next 2,000 words or so. Seriously. You’ve been warned.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit”
No one except the most diehard of Nirvana fans knows how the band started. In general, a lot of people probably know that they’re from Seattle, and some people even know that they spent only $606.17 recording their first album, Bleach. But how and precisely when the band started isn’t something a lot of rock fans know or care about knowing.
For them, the Nirvana narrative begins at a pivotal moment: The first time they heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” That‘s when Nirvana started. Before that moment, Nirvana didn’t exist. After that moment, Nirvana was omnipresent, like God.
I should say that I just posted a poll on Twitter:
Do you remember the first time you heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit?”
— Matthew Freedman (@MattFtheOracle) April 27, 2017
With my luck, this poll will probably tell me that lots of people don’t remember the first time they heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I’ll look like a moron. Then again . . .
- That’s nothing new.
- It’s possible that many of the people responding to this poll aren’t big fans of the genre. It might be an unrepresentative sample.
Regardless, this Nirvana narrative is the one I’m going to use: Their seminal moment was in January 1992, when in the same week Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and they played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on Saturday Night Live.
Nirvana’s most important moment as a band was when the world discovered them.
In this regard, they are totally unlike Pearl Jam.
Pearl Jam vs. Nirvana
In 1992, Pearl Jam was basically the Seattle antithesis of Nirvana. Pearl Jam was an arena rock band while Nirvana was a punk group. Pearl Jam had a frontman who took everything seriously. Nirvana’s frontman took nothing seriously. I could go on, but you get the idea. They were different then, and they’re different now. Nirvana wasn’t a band built to last. Pearl Jam, constructed on the foundation of previous bands, was built to last forever.
Green River, Malfunkshun, and Mother Love Bone
In 1985, a band called Green River released Come on Down, which people now tend to think of as the first grunge record. By 1987, Green River was one of the biggest bands in Seattle with Mark Arm on vocals, Stone Gossard and Bruce Fairweather on guitar, Jeff Ament on bass, and some random guy on drums. (The concept of “some random guy on drums” is important.)
Of course, there was just one problem. Arm was a punk musician who wanted the band to stay true to its underground roots, and Ament, Gossard, and Fairweather were rockers who wanted the band to sign with a major label. By 1988, the band was no more. Very quickly, Arm reunited with Green River’s original guitarist Steve Turner, who years earlier had quit the band because of Ament and Gossard’s rock tendencies. The new band Arm and Turner formed was called “Mudhoney.” They’re still around, and even though they’ve done their best not to be commercially successful they’ve still had a little mainstream success . . . just not in comparison to some other Seattle bands.
After Green River’s demise, Ament, Gossard, and Fairweather took up with Andrew Wood of the band Malfunkshun, which never formally broke up but just kind of went on an indefinite hiatus. A beloved veteran of the Seattle scene, Andy was exactly the makeup-wearing crowd-working persona-yielding frontman for whom Ament, Gossard, and Fairweather had been searching. They added some random guy on drums and named their new group Mother Love Bone. Almost immediately they were the most popular band in Seattle. By the end of the year, they had signed with a major label.
In March 1989 they released a popular four-song record called Shine, and in the second half of the year they recorded their debut album, Apple, which was set to be released in March 1990. PolyGram was gearing up to promote the album, which almost everyone in the industry expected to be a massive hit. Mother Love Bone was about to become one of the biggest bands in the world.
And then, on March 16, 1990, Andy overdosed on heroin and went into a coma. Three days later he was removed from life support, and Mother Love Bone was dead.
Temple of the Dog
After Andy died, his former roommate Chris Cornell — the lead singer for Soundgarden — wrote two songs in his memory: “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and “Reach Down.” Eventually, Cornell invited Ament and Gossard to record the songs with him and release them as a single in honor of Andy. Cornell brought into the fold Matt Cameron, Soundgarden’s drummer — who’s definitely not some random guy on drums — and Ament and Gossard recruited Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, who was one of the best natural soloists in the scene. This group they named “Temple of the Dog.”
While rehearsing and jamming, the group realized quickly that it had the material and desire to record not just a single but a full album. They were able to pull songs together with amazing rapidity. They were creating collaboratively, and all of them — especially Ament and Gossard, who had been mourning the death of Mother Love Bone for months — were invigorated. What was happening with Temple of the Dog was magical, and they wanted it to continue.
But, of course, the band couldn’t continue. It was a side project for Cornell and Cameron, who had their own ongoing commitments with Soundgarden, and so as Temple of the Dog continued to rehearse for its eventual album Ament and Gossard decided to form another band — a successor to Mother Love Bone — and this time they would find a singer with a distinctive voice and a big presence but no drug addiction. They were purposefully going to seek out a vocalist who handled himself professionally.
By the end of October 1990, while still rehearsing with Temple of the Dog, the stringed threesome of Ament, Gossard, and McCready had a collection of songs for their new band — and they also had two new members: Vocalist Eddie Vedder and drummer Dave Krusen.
Mookie Blaylock & Pearl Jam
Recommended by ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons — whom Ament and Gossard unsuccessfully attempted to recruit — Vedder flew from San Diego to Seattle in October 1990. He met the guys, jammed with them almost nonstop for a week, wrote lyrics to songs, played a show, and went back to San Diego before moving to Seattle shortly afterward. During that period, they called themselves “Mookie Blaylock” in honor of the second-year NBA player. (Most of the guys in the band were basketball fans.)
With Vedder and Krusen in the group, they rehearsed constantly and started playing shows, often opening for Alice in Chains, which shared management with Mookie. When Temple of the Dog recorded their album in late 1990, Vedder sang a (now famous) duet with Cornell, “Hunger Strike.” When Mookie opened for Alice at the Moore Theatre on December 22, the band entered the stage with Cornell carrying Vedder on his shoulders. After Ament and Gossard got out of their original Mother Love Bone contract with PolyGram, the band signed with Epic and changed its name to “Pearl Jam.”
In March 1991, the band went into London Bridge Studios in Seattle and recorded what would become their debut album, Ten, in less than a month. Years later, it’s probably the definitive record of the era. When people listen to Nevermind now, they generally think something like this: “I can understand why people really liked this then.” When people listen to Ten now, it’s still good.
2017: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
This year, Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Vedder, Ament, Gossard, and McCready were easy for the HOF selection committee to include: They’ve been with the band since the beginning.
But which drummers would be included?
- Krusen (October 1990 – May 1991): Left the band to enter rehab
- Matt Chamberlain (May 1991 – August 1991): Had played previously with Edie Brickell, toured with the band for two months, appeared on the band’s first music video (Alive), left to join the Saturday Night Live house band, later played for Tori Amos and Fiona Apple
- Dave Abbruzzese (August 1991 – August 1994): Recommended to the band by Chamberlain, toured in support of Ten and Vs., appeared on Vs. and Vitalogy
- Irons (August 1994 – March 1998): Founded the Chili Peppers, introduced Vedder to the band, toured in support of Vitalogy and No Code, appeared on No Code and Yield, left the band on good terms but didn’t want to tour anymore
- Cameron (March 1998 – present): Has toured and recorded with the band ever since joining
In 2012, Irons was inducted into the HOF because of his role in founding the Chili Peppers, so he was covered. Out of the remaining drummers, the HOF chose Krusen and Cameron.
Of course, Abbruzzese (who’s basically just some random guy on drums) flipped out about this on Facebook — which is a very Abbruzzese thing to do — and said that because he was with the band on its early tours and recorded on the important second and third albums he should be inducted. He might be right.
But he’s probably wrong.
What’s special about Pearl Jam — or what makes Pearl Jam who they are — is how they started. Their origin story is strong, and everything that has happened to them in the years since they formed is a direct result of how and why they formed. I guess what I’m talking about is chaos theory and the butterfly effect. If Pearl Jam had been formed in a different fashion, they wouldn’t be Pearl Jam.
When the HOF chose to induct Krusen and Cameron, it decided to honor the band’s origins.
Krusen was with the band for less than a year, but he was there when the band recorded the album of the era. Everything Pearl Jam is — and everything it aspired to be — is contained in Ten. And Cameron played with Vedder, Ament, Gossard, and McCready in Temple of the Dog, when the phoenix of Pearl Jam rose from the ashes of Mother Love Bone. When Ament and Gossard gave an instrumental demo of their new songs to Irons, who in turn gave it to Vedder, it was Cameron playing the drums.
It’s not a coincidence that these are the first lyrics Vedder wrote for the band:
Son, she said,
Have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy
Was nothin’ but a . . .
For Pearl Jam, origin is everything.
Son, You Write for a DFS Website, She Said
I think of DFS as primarily a game of origins or contextual starting points. Success is often determined by where, how, and why DFS players start. I don’t want to take too much time to explore all these points — because I’ve already spent a ton of time talking about a ’90s band that most of our readers don’t care about — but origin matters in many ways for DFS.
- Assumptions: If you’re not using FantasyLabs Tools — specifically the Trends tool — to test your assumptions, then you’re starting from a place of total randomness.
- Strategies: Before you even enter a contest, you’ve already won or lost based on the strategies you plan to employ.
- Motivations: Your reasons for playing might be more important than your cognitive abilities. If your motivations are wrong — if they drive you to tilt — you will have long-term negative expected value even if you have the greatest brain in the industry.
- Slates: Each one is different. You can’t think of today’s slate as if it’s yesterday’s slate.
- Contests: Contest type is a basic piece of DFS information. It’s simple to know but hard to appreciate fully. Lineups should be made with particular contests in mind. Too many people think of contests as ending points: They’re actually starting points.
- Models: The ratings in the Player Models are dependent on the factors weighted by the Models. And the Model you use determines almost everything.
- Lineups: When you use the Lineup Builder to create rosters, who do you lock in first? Is it always one position? Does it vary slate to slate? Contest to contest? How you start building lineups impacts how they look when they’re completed.
- Players: How players enter the league, start their careers, and begin each season influences the way we think about them thereafter. At the same time, those factors also impact the opportunities players receive.
- Salaries: For the Plus/Minus metric, salary matters just as much as production. In comparison to production, salary is an oft-ignored starting point.
- Platforms: Rostering players where they offer the most value (per our Bargain Rating metric) is paramount to long-term DFS success. The site at which you roster a player — be it DraftKings, FanDuel, or Yahoo — is the most fundamental DFS starting point.
If you’re not on the right side of your metaphorical batting splits when it comes to these starting points, you’re not competing at an optimal level: “The dead lay in pools of maroon below.”
Mookie Blaylock’s Number
It wasn’t intentional — but how many DFS starting points is that?
Ten.
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The Labyrinthian: 2017.40, 135
Previous installments can be accessed via my author page or the series archive.
