Pearl Jam celebrated their 20th anniversary last year, but band bassist Jeff Ament is ready to toast another project he's playing in these days called RNDM, who will issue their debut disc Acts October 30 via Monkeywrench Records/RED.
Joining Ament in the outfit are drummer Richard Stuverud and solo artist Joseph Arthur, the latter of which Ament met randomly (see what they did there?) at a party in the late '90s. According to a band bio, Arthur and Ament stayed in touch over email for years, and reconnected in the flesh at a gig Arthur played in Seattle, which led Ament to incite the singer-songwriter up to his Montana home to work on some material he had been prepping outside of Pearl Jam.
"As I was finishing up my last little group of solo songs, there was one called 'When the Fire Comes' that just wasn't working for me vocally," Ament said in a statement. "I kept hearing his voice instead of mine. I sent Joe an email gauging his interest, and two days later, I got the track back from him. At that point, I knew there was something there -- some sort of creative connection."
While "When the Fire Comes" popped up on Ament's last solo set, While My Heart Beats, the collaboration further sowed the seeds of RNDM, and the three musicians ended up writing and recording a full LP this past April.
"It felt like those first bands you're in, where the first few weeks you ate and slept and breathed the music that you were working on," Ament explained of Acts' birthing. "All you did was hum those songs until you got to the next practice. I was completely open to whatever was going to happen, and I know Joseph was too."
The record was recorded in four days at Ament's Horseback Court studio in Blue Mountain, MT, and had longtime Pearl Jam engineer Brett Eliason manning the mixing boards. The band had recorded 20 songs, but trimmed Acts' tracklisting down to a modest 12 tunes. The record apparently balances "concise blasts of rock'n'roll" with acoustic-guitar-and-harmonica-honkin' tracks like "Cherries in the Snow." You can see what made the cut down below.
You can also listen to album opener "Modern Times" here at Rolling Stone.
Acts:
1. Modern Times
2. Darkness
3. The Disappearing Ones
4. What You Can't Control
5. Hollow Girl
6. Walking Through New York
7. Look Out!
8. New Tracks
9. Throw You to the Pack
10. Williamsburg
11. Letting Go of Will
12. Cherries in the Snow
Joining Ament in the outfit are drummer Richard Stuverud and solo artist Joseph Arthur, the latter of which Ament met randomly (see what they did there?) at a party in the late '90s. According to a band bio, Arthur and Ament stayed in touch over email for years, and reconnected in the flesh at a gig Arthur played in Seattle, which led Ament to incite the singer-songwriter up to his Montana home to work on some material he had been prepping outside of Pearl Jam.
"As I was finishing up my last little group of solo songs, there was one called 'When the Fire Comes' that just wasn't working for me vocally," Ament said in a statement. "I kept hearing his voice instead of mine. I sent Joe an email gauging his interest, and two days later, I got the track back from him. At that point, I knew there was something there -- some sort of creative connection."
While "When the Fire Comes" popped up on Ament's last solo set, While My Heart Beats, the collaboration further sowed the seeds of RNDM, and the three musicians ended up writing and recording a full LP this past April.
"It felt like those first bands you're in, where the first few weeks you ate and slept and breathed the music that you were working on," Ament explained of Acts' birthing. "All you did was hum those songs until you got to the next practice. I was completely open to whatever was going to happen, and I know Joseph was too."
The record was recorded in four days at Ament's Horseback Court studio in Blue Mountain, MT, and had longtime Pearl Jam engineer Brett Eliason manning the mixing boards. The band had recorded 20 songs, but trimmed Acts' tracklisting down to a modest 12 tunes. The record apparently balances "concise blasts of rock'n'roll" with acoustic-guitar-and-harmonica-honkin' tracks like "Cherries in the Snow." You can see what made the cut down below.
You can also listen to album opener "Modern Times" here at Rolling Stone.
Acts:
1. Modern Times
2. Darkness
3. The Disappearing Ones
4. What You Can't Control
5. Hollow Girl
6. Walking Through New York
7. Look Out!
8. New Tracks
9. Throw You to the Pack
10. Williamsburg
11. Letting Go of Will
12. Cherries in the Snow
