society, you're crazy indeed, hope you're not lonely without me

dissonant_dream talked today about having watched one of my favorite films from two years ago, Into the Wild, so I thought I'd talk about the music from that film tonight.

One of my favorite things that happened after the movie came out a few years ago was that people would come up to me while I was working behind the music counter at GRoots and say "I really love Eddie Vedder's work on the Into the Wild soundtrack; he's done other stuff right? Can you point me towards that?" My gut reaction was to say something along the lines of "Sure, c'mon, lemme play you 'Satan's Bed' or 'Do the Evolution.' You'll love it." These were not Pearl Jam listeners but most would not be dissuaded, so I'd special order them Ten or Vs or Yield and send them on their way.

No, Vedder's work on the soundtrack is not really anything like Pearl Jam, but that doesn't mean I love it any less. I think this was an inspired choice by Sean Penn as Vedder really tapped into the story and created a soundtrack that so easily captured the feel of both Krakauer's book and Penn's film. It was Vedder's music that brought me to tears during teh final sequences of the film and without it, the visual interpretation of the story wouldn't have been as powerful as it was.

I'm posting two of my favorite Vedder songs from the soundtrack because I love the theme of "Society" and the raw intensity of "The Wolf."

The thing that bums me out a little bit about the soundtrack is that they don't include any of the other great songs that appear in the film, so I'm also going to include Kaki King's "Doing the Wrong Thing", because I love that one, too.

"Society" by Eddie Vedder
(yousendit (sendspace)

"The Wolf" by Eddie Vedder
(yousendit) (sendspace)

"Doing the Wrong Thing" by Kaki King
(yousendit) (sendspace)