Pearl Jam had become one of the world’s biggest bands by the mid-90s but huge success did nothing to dampen the creativity of the Seattle giants. The group themselves had managed to release three classic albums in three years – 1991’s Ten, 1993’s Vs. and 1994’s Vitalogy – but the work of Pearl Jam’s members away from the band over that first half decade was even more staggering. Before they’d even recorded a note as Pearl Jam, there was Temple Of The Dog, the tribute to ex-Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood that saw the fledgling band hook up with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron for an album. As well as Vs., 1993 saw Stone Gossard’s offshoot Brad release their debut Shame, Eddie Vedder add guest vocals to the Bad Religion album Recipe For Hate, a collaboration with Cypress Hill for the Judgment Night soundtrack, another Pearl Jam/Soundgarden (under the handle M.A.C.C. team-up on the Jimi Hendrix tribute record Stone Free.
They were on the crest of an artistic wave, one that continued into 1995, the peak of Pearl Jam’s extra-curricular excellence. That was the year that the band went into the studio to work as Neil Young’s backing band on what became the rock icon’s 23rd album Mirror Ball, with a pair of Vedder-fronted tracks released on the accompanying Merkin Ball EP under Pearl Jam’s name, as well as an appearance from Vedder on the solo debut from highly-respected Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and a track with punk-poet Jim Carroll for inclusion in the film about his life, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starring Basketball Diaries.
