Pearl Jam Reteams With Brendan O'Brien For New Album

Pearl Jam has commenced recording of its ninth studio album with producer Brendan O'Brien, guitarist Mike McCready told Seattle radio station KISW last Thursday (May 1). Though only "four or five" songs are complete so far, McCready said the band is hoping to release the record in 2008.

The new effort, a follow-up to its self-titled 2006 album, finds Pearl Jam reteaming with longtime producer Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine) for the first time since 1998's "Yield." O'Brien has produced Pearl Jam's "Vs." (1993), "Vitalogy" (1994) and "No Code."

"Brendan works really fast," bassist Jeff Ament has told Billboard.com. "He's a super pro. I've always felt, working with him, that he understood me as a bass player and that's not always easy. A lot of producers are there to please the singer. But I've always had a great rapport with him. I can tell him I want something to sound like the O'Jays or Led Zeppelin or PJ Harvey and he gets it."

"We've always been friends," said O'Brien. "They were great to me when we were making records together [before], and we still remained very good friends.... I still think they're a great band. Eddie [Vedder] has one of the best, if not the best, voices out there. When he sings, people believe them."

Pearl Jam is also about to embark on a 13-date East Coast tour that runs from June 11-30.

In an effort to support Portland, Ore., U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick, the band has set aside special tickets to its sold-out shows in New York, Camden, N.J., and Washington, D.C., that include donations to Novick's campaign. Novick donation tickets to the Washington, D.C., show include access to a meet-and-greet with guitarist Stone Gossard.

Last month, Gossard was among a group of musicians that also included R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and Spoon's Britt Daniel who released a letter of support for the candidate.

Pearl Jam's eponymous 2006 album peaked at No 2 on the Billboard 200 and lead single "World Wide Suicide" reached No. 1 on the Modern Rock chart.

Thanks for the info to Billboard.com.

Comments

[Carlson-online]

wooooo

[Mithaearon]

Woot this is shaping up to be an amazing year for music wiht all my favourite bands releasing albums.

[dimebagsmygod]

I hope this album will be as good as ten Don't really like there other albums other than Pearl Jam.

[ninjaface]

Can't wait to hear more unlistenable crap!!! After "Ten", pearl jam sucks.

[jackjohnson69]

yes pearl jam is amazing and green day and offspring are coiming out with new stuff itsw gonna be great only if bands like nirvana sublime and alice in chains were still around it would be the 90's all over again!!!

[Bulls.On.Parade]

There's a reason why Pearl Jam is one of the best, if not the best, American band in recent history. Binaural, surprisingly, was my favourite album, but I understand the amount of popularity and creativity that went into Ten, vs., Vitalogy and so on. Hopefully this new album is better than their self-titled which definitely failed to achieve my expectations. I just didn't like it unfortunately. Though I did shell out over $30 for their Live at the Gorge CD, I was starting to worry that they were banking off the sales of those CDs to determine if they would be releasing a new CD in the near future.

[duncang]

Nice, can't wait.

[TBezza]

I bought ten bout a month ago, then bought Vs, vitalogy, yeild and pearl jam in pretty much the next week, fantastic stuff, and cant wait for new album.

[polaroidvision]

wooooo

can't wait!!!!!

sowhat360 wrote:
ok, this guys a moron

+1

[Pearl Peppers]

sweet !!!

[Gh.]

finally!

[str84ever]

???

I never knew there were this many Pearl Jam fans on UG, yet you never see them in the Pearl Jam thread...

I can't wait for this, gonna be good.

[-Ryan-]

Bulls.On.Parade wrote:

There's a reason why Pearl Jam is one of the best, if not the best, American band in recent history. Binaural, surprisingly, was my favourite album, but I understand the amount of popularity and creativity that went into Ten, vs., Vitalogy and so on

+1

In my opinion if you really love Pearl Jam every album has at least something you enjoy. There hasn't been a studio or live CD I haven't listened half a million times, by far my favorite band. This has got me excited, good to see O'Brien back!

[crush23]

niice, he produced all my favorite PJ albums. Hope PJ and o'Brian do it again.

[Neon D-von]

VS. FTW

Pearl Jam+Brendan O'Brien=Me crapping my pants

[cuige]

I love every single one of Pearl Jam's albums! If you only like Ten, get off this page. You're not a fan!

[Chinfrim]

Neon D-von wrote:

VS. FTW

Pearl Jam+Brendan O'Brien=Me crapping my pants

VS. is my fav album aswell..

Conflituous and "Self.Caring" enough.

[Kozworth]

Eddie Vedder is a legend.

[sg4eva]

Brendan did remixes of Alive & Black for the greatest hits album, and those new versions blow the originals out of the water. He totally stripped the over-production of them from Ten and gave it a really raw, live feel that just blows me away.

[dieloony2]

Pearl jam are great, they just need to make some more rock songs, with the acception of their last cd they been doin a lot of mellow stuff.

[metal@hart11]

PJ is one of the best bands ever. VS is my favourite cd followed by ten, and ya, they toned it down a bit since the first few albums, but i think its cuz their probably all almost in their 40s. they still know how to make amazing music! this cd will be promising, because i bet they will be going back to some earlier roots, and they wont be focussing on politics this time around either.

[Ferrarone]

hell yeaaaaah!! pearl jam=best band since led zep o´brien=great fcking producer

expecting some great stuff

[frankv]

I'm really excited for this (although it's not going to be released in quite a while I assume). Definitely my favourite band. I used to be disappointed in their later albums and say they had gone downhill. But after a few more listens I realised that's just bullcrap, I really can't pick a favourite album now (the same goes goes for worst albums, they don't have one). They blow you away live too.

[PearlFoo]

PEARL JAM PEARL JAM PEARL JAM

This made my day ...

WOOT WOOT , Im excited man

[Hazen Zero]

ninjaface wrote:

Can't wait to hear more unlistenable crap!!! After "Ten", pearl jam sucks.

Come back when you know what you're talking about.

[kennyvspenny]

obrien is teh shit.

[NOtrab]

WOOOT!!!! PEARL JAM!!!!!

[Neon D-von]

I don't know of anything that Brendan O'Brien has touched that isn't awesome.

[Y2A 66]

it's awesome to see all the PJ support around here. Definitely can't wait for the new album. Pairing up with O'brien again can only mean good things!!

[shwilly]

I friggin' loved Yield from day 1!

However, the article mentions the mixing of that album as his last work for PJ but he also did the mixing for Riot Act and a few remixes for Rearviewmirror if I'm not mistaken

[pete-c]

Can't wait

[mister bass guy]

ninjaface wrote:

Can't wait to hear more unlistenable crap!!! After "Ten", pearl jam sucks.

dude. what are u talking about? sure ten was a great album, but i enjoyed every album after just as much. stop being ignorant.

[allstar340]

WOOOOO
going to see them at madison square

[mitch311]

I hope they go back to VS style that album rocked

[deathbyawesome]

Vs. and Vitology were two of pearl jam's best album, and no code was certantly good, albeit a little different. I can't wait for there new album, nor can I wait to see them in Philly!

[mitchrushton182]

awesome news. im psyched.

[Repo]

I Dunno... Since Brenden O'Brien stepped in as producer for Audioslave's final album instead of the usual Rick Rubin, I'm guessing he f'd it up since no one liked it as much as the first two. So you can see how I've got my doubts..

[Thayil_Noise]

Uh, I would disagree Repo. I think it was easily the most diverse album(concerning Audioslave)it didnt sound like Chris singing over Rage. Plus he produced "Down on the Upside", a GREAT album, and worked on "Superunknown" which is easily the greatest album to come out of the "grunge" era. Glad to see PJ is still around, never really liked them, but they never made bad music.

[PianoBlackSP]

Pearl Jam is nowhere near what it used to be. But "Vs." was a great album so heres to all the best wishes.

[Thayil_Noise]

Check that, he didnt produce "Down on the upside" but still, the guy works with GREAT musicians, and evryone seems to love his work.

checked.

[FooCards]

jackjohnson69 wrote:

yes pearl jam is amazing and green day and offspring are coiming out with new stuff itsw gonna be great only if bands like nirvana sublime and alice in chains were still around it would be the 90's all over again!!!

You're an idiot. If Alice In Chains was really one of your favorite bands, you would know that they do have a new studio album coming out. Tard

[verona_bassist]

Hazen Zero wrote:

ninjaface wrote:

Can't wait to hear more unlistenable crap!!! After "Ten", pearl jam sucks.


Come back when you know what you're talking about.

i agree mr. hazen...

[Vermillion85]

sg4eva wrote:

Brendan did remixes of Alive & Black for the greatest hits album, and those new versions blow the originals out of the water. He totally stripped the over-production of them from Ten and gave it a really raw, live feel that just blows me away.

For the record, if you watch the Even flow video from way back (The live footage one) Its the version from there. Dave Abbruzese played drums on that version. But your right it owns the 'ten' version.

Oh and Fun Fact, The 'Alive' Video was the first video for a single on MTV that actually used the live music, not the studio version dubbed over.

I Love everything up to No Code, after that i found that (For my tastes anyway), the albums tended to have a few good songs, but not as solid. Still see them everytime they tour, and i'm a member of Ten Club.

Good news though

Chris

[Harry Krishner]

I like O'Brians work. I'm sure it will be a solid album.

[freedoms_stain]

I proclaim this news to be: good.

I wasn't overly impressed with "Pearl Jam" but it was a decent album none the less.

[slash_is_rock]

hi pearl jam is sweet