Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament keeps busy while he’s not doing his day job. In the past few years, he’s released two solo albums, reunited with his pre-fame hardcore punk rock band Deranged Diction, and started a new group Tres Mtns (with King’s X’s Dug Pinnick).  And now he’s got a new side project: RNDM. 

The group features Ament on bass, with singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur as the frontman. Arthur, a solo artist, is also a member of of Fistful Of Mercy, a group that features Dhani Harrison (son of George). On drums is Richard Stuverud, who played with Ament in Tres Mtns, as well as a previous band, Three Fish. 

In fact, it was at a Three Fish show in 1999 that the seeds of the band were sown; Joseph Arthur opened for the band, and he and Ament struck a friendship; they kept in touch via email over the years. Last summer, at Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary concert, Arthur performed as one of the support acts, and he and Ament played together at that show. 

The group’s first album, Acts, is due out October 30, and they kick off a U.S. tour in November. Meanwhile, Ament and Pearl Jam will headline Jay-Z’s Made in America festival in Philadelphia this weekend, the DeLuna Festival in Pensacola Beach, Florida September 21 and the Midtown Music Festival in Atlanta September 22. 

– Brian Ives, CBS Local