SEATTLE — As one of the first big bands to suspend its tour plans, Pearl Jam's packed schedule abruptly cleared when the pandemic hit in 2020. Come May, the Seattle juggernauts will finally set off on a run of makeup shows after fans have been waiting two years to hear some of the daring new(er) tunes off "Gigaton," the band's 11th album, born just as the world was shutting down.
But on the plus side, the unexpected down time produced a rush of new side projects and archive-mining releases for fans to nibble until the next stadium singalong. Among them, Pearl Jam guitar slayer Mike McCready's old side band, The Rockfords, dusted off the WAV files last month to release its lone studio album in digital formats for the first time.
Hatched in the late '90s, the Seattle supergroup consisted of McCready and his childhood friends Danny Newcomb (lead guitar), and brothers Chris and Rick Friel (drums and bass), with singer Carrie Akre of Goodness and Hammerbox. Although The Rockfords only had a few years together, releasing their self-titled album with Epic Records, the tight-knit members had plenty of history together: McCready, Newcomb and the Friels played together in McCready's first band Shadow, while Newcomb and Chris Friel joined Akre in Goodness.
