Pearl Jam Debuts New Song On The Tonight Show

russell hall

Pearl Jam offered a preview last night of their forthcoming album, Backspacer, by performing a song from the new disc on the Tonight Show.

Making his debut as host, Conan O’Brien introduced the band by saying, “Launching a show like this takes a lot of hard work and one of the things that has sustained me over the past three months was knowing that at the end of our first show I’d get to watch a performance by one of the greatest rock bands in the world.”

The song, titled “Get Some,” featured an aggressive tempo, heavy guitar work, and fiery vocals from frontman Eddie Vedder. Prior to the performance, O’Brien held up cover art that featured a painting of a human head and torso with the insides exposed. On his website, comic strip artist Tom Tomorrow, who’s been working on the cover design, revealed that the artwork is “part of a greater whole.”

In other Pearl Jam news, Billboard.biz reports that the group performed a private concert late last week at the Showbox in Seattle. According to band manager Kelly Curtis, the secret concert served as the setting for a Target commercial being directed by Almost Famous filmmaker Cameron Crowe.

Speculation has been rampant regarding who will release the new disc, now that the group is no longer under contract to Sony. Curtis told Billboard that Backspacer will in fact come without a U.S. label, but rather will involve a consortium of partners that includes Target as the “big box” retailer.

“Target ended up allowing us to have other partners,” Curtis said. “We’ll be able to take care of all levels of the Pearl Jam fan …. We wish we could tell the whole story right now, but all the deals aren’t done. Target was cool enough to realize that little independent record stores are not their competition.”

Curtis also noted that the album would be for sale via Pearl Jam’s fan club, Ten Club. He went on to say that the Showbox session served multiple purposes. In addition to providing material for the Target commercial, some of the footage may be used in a film project Crowe is undertaking for release in 2011, in conjunction with Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary.

The manager also confirmed that the band will tour in support of the new album, and that, internationally, the disc will be distributed via Universal Music Group.

Check out last night’s Tonight Show performance below.