Pearl Jam Bassist Jeff Ament Joins New Band RNDM

Pearl Jam are taking their time with the follow-up to 2009′s ‘Backspacer’ album, but the band members have been helping to tide fans over with various side projects, the latest being bassist Jeff Ament’s new band, RNDM.

A collaboration between Ament, drummer Richard Stuverud and vocalist Joseph Arthur, a recording artist in his own right, RNDM are set to release their debut album, ‘Acts,’ on Oct. 30 before embarking on a brief tour.

As Billboard reports, the three musicians have known each other for more than a decade, having first crossed paths at a 1999 show that found Arthur opening for Ament and Stuverud’s previous band, Three Fish. More recently, Ament explained, “Joe told me he’d never really been able to write up-tempo songs, and I said, ‘I have a slew of them. Let’s get together and make an up-tempo record.’”

Get a taste of ‘Acts’ by checking out RNDM’s recently premiered first single, ‘Modern Times,’ below. Oddly enough, there’s already at least one other band calling itself RNDM — a European techno act with more than 1,000 Facebook likes. How, uh, rndm is that?

Listen to RNDM, ‘Modern Times’