In 1995, the band Pearl Jam launched a fight against ticketing giant Ticketmaster that many of us thought would finally help the escalating ticket prices. We were wrong, but we didn’t know that yet in 1995. It would have been hard to find a bigger band in the world in the mid-90s than Pearl Jam, and Pearl Jam were gonna do something about big bad Ticketmaster. So to tour in support of their latest album, Vitalogy, they only booked shows at venues that didn’t use Ticketmaster. Then at those venues, they broadcast on a low-frequency FM “Self-Pollution Radio.” While other rock FM stations around the country also aired it themselves.
Then, in 1998, after the release of their 5th album, Yield, they did it again. This time Pearl Jam launched “Monkey Wrench” radio. No, it’s not an ode to the Foo Fighters song that was released that same year, but to a side project band from another legendary Seattle group called Mudhoney.
Eventually Pearl Jam had to give up their fight against Ticketmaster after a judge officially through out the case, but those radio specials and broadcasts lived on, first in the form of bootlegs and now, thanks to the digital world, it took me three seconds to find those on YouTube.
