This week Eddie Vedder postponed his U.S. tour; The Jackson 5 announced that they would be reuniting onstage this summer; Green Day was added to the roster of speakers for the upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony; and Beyonce took over the internet. Catch up on this week’s news below.
Good news from the Land of Pearl Jam: Eddie Vedder’s new solo album, Ukulele Songs, will arrive on May 31, along with a live solo DVD titled Water On The Road.
Ukulele Songs will be Vedder’s first solo effort since the 2007 soundtrack to Into The Wild; Billboard notes that the disc features some songs that Vedder wrote and first played live, but never released, nearly a decade ago, plus a version of Pearl Jam’s 2002 track “Can’t Keep” and various covers performed by Vedder on, that’s right, a ukulele. Checkout the track-list below!
R.E.M. have dialed up a nice list of guest artists for their upcoming album, Collapse Into Now, due out in early 2011. The band’s 15th studio album, following 2008′s Accelerate, will feature (what should be awesome) collaborations with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith and Peaches.
“With ‘Accelerate’ we were trying to make a point by making the songs as short and as fast as possible,” Mike Mills told Spin.com. “So we wanted this new one to be more expansive.”
Summer’s just around the corner and there’s a ton of new music coming our way to accompany those road trips.
Brandon Flowers of The Killers has gone solo for now. Interpol has come back from their hiatus and even after some drama that shook them up, they’re definitely back with a tour and some new tracks. Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder has unveiled a new solo song and Jenny and Johnny drop their first track. Details on all these artists and more after the jump!
According to Billboard, it turns out that even Pearl Jam has joined the ever-growing army of Team Conan. Last night in Seattle, members of the Seattle jumped onstage to offer tribute to their favorite ginger late night television host, dedicating three tunes to Conan O’Brien. Frontman Eddie Vedder played two songs solo—“Rise,” from his Into The Wild solo work in 2007, and a cover of John Lennon’s “Oh Yoko” goofily recast as “Oh Coco” for the hometown audience. Vedder was then joined onstage by Mike McCready for a horn-laden cover of the Who’s “Baba O’Riley.”
That Eddie Vedder cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins” is available now as a digital download through Pearl Jam’s Ten Club and iTunes for $.99. Proceeds from the sale of the track will go to benefit Artists for Peace and Justice Haiti Relief.
Vedder’s version finds him playing the song on acoustic guitar with the help of a gospel choir.
For late English singer/songwriter Nick Drake, the stars have aligned. At least, the music stars have.
Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Norah Jones, Jack Johnson and late actor Heath Ledger have all been confirmed as contributors to a Drake tribute album. The album will be released later this year on Johnson’s Brushfire Records.
