Lost Pearl Jam tracks surface: Jeff Ament goes solo

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Bassist releases 10 tracks that never made it onto a Pearl jam record

Jeff's the one with the hat
Jeff's the one with the hat

Although Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament made some impressive songwriting contributions to the band - Nothing As It Seems, Jeremy etc - it turns out Ament didn't solicit all his creations to Eddie Vedder and co. Jeff has taken 10 years worth of potential Pearl Jam tunes, chosen 10 of the best and is releasing his first solo record: Tone.

Jeff explained that sometimes creative minds need a clear-out: "It just got to a point where I had to clean off the shelf a little bit," he told Billboard.com.

"One Tone track, The Forest, was actually put to tape by Pearl Jam but Ed [Vedder] never got around to recording vocals for it. So I just wound up using the original version with a drum machine".

The project follows news of Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron's 'jazz inspired' band Harrybu McCage. The rest of Pearl Jam seem to be taking their sweet time to get back in the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien, so Tone might fill the void in the meantime.

Tone will be released on 16 September but don't hang about - it's limited to 3000 CD copies. Ament's collaborator Richard Stuverud plays drums on six tracks while King's X frontman Doug Pinnick sings lead on Doubting Thomasina. Everything else is Ament.

The tracklisting…

Just Like That
Give Me a Reason
Bulldozer
Relapse
Say Goodbye
The Forest
Life of a Salesman
Doubting Thomasina
Hi-Line
The Only Cloud in the Sky

Tom Porter

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).