Pearl Jam reteams with producer O'Brien for new disc

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Pearl Jam has started recording its ninth studio album, guitarist Mike McCready told Seattle radio station KISW on Thursday (May 1).

Though only "four or five" songs are complete so far, McCready said the band hopes to release the record in 2008.

The new effort, a follow-up to the group's self-titled 2006 album, finds Pearl Jam reteaming with longtime producer Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine) for the first time since 1998's "Yield." O'Brien has also produced Pearl Jam's "Vs." (1993), "Vitalogy" (1994) and "No Code"

(1996).

"Brendan works really fast," bassist Jeff Ament has told Billboard.com. "He's a super pro. I've always felt, working with him, that he understood me as a bass player and that's not always easy. A lot of producers are there to please the singer. But I've always had a great rapport with him. I can tell him I want something to sound like the O'Jays or Led Zeppelin or PJ Harvey and he gets it."

Pearl Jam is about to embark on a 13-date East Coast tour that runs from June 11-30.

Reuters/Billboard