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Tour Dates
11/02 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/03 Washington, D.C. The Black Cat 11/04 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer 11/07 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club 11/08 New York, NY The Bowery Ballroom 11/09 Montreal, QC Théâtre Corona 11/10 Ottawa, ON Algonquin Theater 11/11 Toronto, ON Lee's Place 11/13 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall 11/14 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom 11/15 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue 11/16 Lawrence, KS The Bottleneck 11/18 Boulder, CO The Fox Theatre 11/21 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour 11/23 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall 11/25 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge 11/26 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret 11/27 Seattle, WA Showbox at the Market Read More Like Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam decides to create their own music festival, in celebration of their twenty years together as a band…
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The term “supergroup” in the world of music can be a very dangerous thing. What starts as an innocent collaboration between musicians can snowball into a bloated vanity project where there are too many egos in the kitchen. (I’m thinking recent groups like Velvet Revolver or, worse, Chickenfoot.) All one can hope for when encountering a band made up of players from other, often times more successful acts is that they use this new platform to explore and expand their sound, to utilize their new bandmates and create something different and unexpected. Or at least make music that doesn’t suck.
RNDM (pronounced simply “random”) features songwriter/artist Joseph Arthur, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, and drummer Richard Stuverud, who has performed with the Fastbacks and War Babies, and could be considered a supergroup simply because of the big names therein. But “supergroup” is just too flaky a word to be applied to these three creative, seasoned musicians. Their partnership began when the three men met at a gig over ten years ago; Ament and Stuverud were playing together in a band called Three Fish and Arthur opened for them. Arthur stayed in touch with Ament over the years and was even invited to play at Pearl Jam’s exclusive 20th anniversary concert in Alpine Valley, WI over Labor Day weekend last year.
The group’s debut “Acts” gets released on Monkeywrench Records October 30th. At first blush, the album has a fairly straightforward rock sound, absent of the loop pedals and spoken word that Arthur seems to favor on a lot of his solo recordings. Many of the tracks are upbeat and almost anthemic and actually reminds me quite a lot of those late-80s, early 90s Jeff Lynne-produced Tom Petty records. The insanely catchy “The Disappearing Ones” and some wilder tracks like “Look Out!” and “Throw You To the Pack” keep this record from getting too meandering. I really enjoyed the falsetto vocal harmonies and hand claps that snuck out from behind choruses like on the stand-out tracks “Hollow Girl” (my favorite) and “Williamsburg.” Arthur, himself, sounds relaxed; his strong, versatile voice fitting in comfortably with Ament’s clean, driving bass-lines and Stuverud’s solid, no-frills drumming.
The band starts their 18-date North American tour next month, even making a stop at the 7th Street Entry on November 15th! I (along with many others, probably) am really curious to see Jeff Ament perform original material outside his usual Pearl Jam stuff, something I’m sure he relishes seeing as how monolithic the 90s-era veterans have become. And I had the distinct pleasure of watching Joseph Arthur play a wonderful set (and paint onstage!) at the PJ20 event last year, so there is really no doubt that the RNDM show will be a unique and exciting one.
RNDM (pronounced simply “random”) features songwriter/artist Joseph Arthur, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, and drummer Richard Stuverud, who has performed with the Fastbacks and War Babies, and could be considered a supergroup simply because of the big names therein. But “supergroup” is just too flaky a word to be applied to these three creative, seasoned musicians. Their partnership began when the three men met at a gig over ten years ago; Ament and Stuverud were playing together in a band called Three Fish and Arthur opened for them. Arthur stayed in touch with Ament over the years and was even invited to play at Pearl Jam’s exclusive 20th anniversary concert in Alpine Valley, WI over Labor Day weekend last year.
The group’s debut “Acts” gets released on Monkeywrench Records October 30th. At first blush, the album has a fairly straightforward rock sound, absent of the loop pedals and spoken word that Arthur seems to favor on a lot of his solo recordings. Many of the tracks are upbeat and almost anthemic and actually reminds me quite a lot of those late-80s, early 90s Jeff Lynne-produced Tom Petty records. The insanely catchy “The Disappearing Ones” and some wilder tracks like “Look Out!” and “Throw You To the Pack” keep this record from getting too meandering. I really enjoyed the falsetto vocal harmonies and hand claps that snuck out from behind choruses like on the stand-out tracks “Hollow Girl” (my favorite) and “Williamsburg.” Arthur, himself, sounds relaxed; his strong, versatile voice fitting in comfortably with Ament’s clean, driving bass-lines and Stuverud’s solid, no-frills drumming.
The band starts their 18-date North American tour next month, even making a stop at the 7th Street Entry on November 15th! I (along with many others, probably) am really curious to see Jeff Ament perform original material outside his usual Pearl Jam stuff, something I’m sure he relishes seeing as how monolithic the 90s-era veterans have become. And I had the distinct pleasure of watching Joseph Arthur play a wonderful set (and paint onstage!) at the PJ20 event last year, so there is really no doubt that the RNDM show will be a unique and exciting one.
