Despite reports that Pearl Jam has been in the studio working on the followup to their 2010 album Backspacer, guitarist Mike McCready says the band is currently in a "holding pattern," according to Spin. The band has paused while singer Eddie Vedder readies a solo tour and drummer Matt Cameron returns to Soundgarden. "We're just kind of sitting around, writing songs. We have about seven ideas so far that we did last year and we're just kind of sitting on those right now," said McCready.

McCready is also working with former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan – a high school classmate – and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin in a new band. "It's all in its infantile stages right now, but we hope to have somebody sing over it some day," McCready says of the music, which he compares to Led Zeppelin. The unnamed group has already written nine songs.

McCready recently scored Matthew Lillard's directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules The World. Pearl Jam is set to play the Jay-Z curated "Made In America" festival in Philadelphia on September 1st and 2nd. 

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories