Pearl Jam Twenty

I’m not sure how many people know about this, but Pearl Jam recently(?) announced that they’ll be coming out with a book to commemorate their 20th Anniversary as a band. The book won’t be released until September 13, 2011, but you can start getting excited about it now.

Courtesy of a friend in the publishing business, check out the press release:

Published in celebration of Pearl Jam’s twentieth anniversary and in conjunction with Cameron Crowe’s definitive film, Pearl Jam Twenty is an intimate, unprecedented, and lavishly illustrated portrait of one of the world’s most influential and successful bands – by the band itself.

Pearl Jam on Pearl Jam: While heralded as rock music icons, Pearl Jam is also known for being notoriously media-adverse. After the epic success of Ten. the band shunned the spotlight, refusing to shoot videos or do interviews. Even as their studio albums continued to be critically acclaimed and commercially successful, the interworkings of the band remained unknown to even their die-hard fans, until now. Pearl Jam Twenty is an intimate narrative of the band told from their perspective. This ascetically stunning, definitive chronicle of their two decades as a band is a treasure trove of little-known anecdotes, rare archival memorabilia, and the band’s personal photos, tour notes, and drawings.

A twenty-year anniversary event: Academy Award-winning director Cameron Crowe will write the book’s Foreword and his major film about the band will be released to coincide with Pearl Jam Twenty”s publication. The band will promote the book alongside the film’s premiere at fall 2011 film festivals and a series of special events will be arranged to celebrate the band’s two-decade anniversary.

One of the world’s greatest bands: Pearl Jam exploded onto the music scene in 1991 with their debut album Ten, which has sold 13 million copies. in 2009, the bands most recent (and self-released) studio album, Backspacer, debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart and #1 on iTunes, was certified gold in three months, and earned a 2010 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song (“The Fixer”).

Continued relevance: Instrumental in popularizing alternative rock in the mainstream, twenty year (sic) in, Pearl Jam refuses to slow down, building their already enormous fan base. Their official fan club, Ten Club, is one of the music industry’s largest, and they have more than 2.3 million Facebook friends. Known for their relentless touring and intense live performance, the band is still considered an A-list festival headliner and regularly sells out arenas worldwide. Pearl Jam is also recognized as one of the foremost proponents of social causes in the music business.

Well, it seems that Eddie Vedder, once again, has little story for you.

Pearl Jam – Alive