Artist Pearl Jam

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Pearl Jam

After nearly 20 years together, grunge-era stalwarts Pearl Jam could be forgiven for taking the upcoming Backspacer's release as an opportunity to rest on their laurels. Instead, all signs point to them intentionally shaking things up: Although they've returned to producer Brendan O'Brien, they've gone out of their way to record Backspacer outside of Seattle, which they haven't done since 1996's No Code; they've written songs with performing them in mind (frontman Eddie Vedder confessed single "The Fixer" was chopped from a 7-minute running time to a mere 3-minute one for that very reason); and it's the first record they've made a point of rehearsing the whole way through since their 1991 debut, Ten.

Updated 08/13/2009