http://www.nme.com/news/pearl-jam/29384



Eddie Vedder to score Sean Penn film

Jul 3, 2007

Eddie Vedder has reportedly written several original songs for a film directed by Sean Penn that is due out this fall.

The Pearl Jam frontman wrote almost an entire album's worth of songs for 'Into The Wild', which also features contributions from Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel), reports the Playlist.

Vedder will also have a small role in the film, which stars actor Emile Hirsch and is based on the John Krakauer novel of the same name.

It is Vedder's first acting role since 1992's 'Singles'.

The film is due to be released in the US on September 21.

---

Taking a break from his day job fronting rock heavyweight Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder immerses himself into the big-screen story of a young man who gives all his money to charity and hitchhikes to a new life--and his eventual death--in the wilds of Alaska. Prompted by the film's creator, Sean Penn, to contribute to the musical score, the Seattle musician tackled the entire project, playing every instrument on the soundtrack's nine original and two cover songs. Vedder contemplates the traveler "setting forth in the universe" in the opener "Setting Forth," then tracks in the remaining songs the realizations and disillusionments that follow. A wish comes true in banjo-plucked "No Ceiling" to "up and disappear," while affluence is questioned on the hard-rocking "Far Behind," with Vedder singing, "Empty pockets will/Allow a greater sense of wealth." No song in the album's first half exceeds two-and-a-half minutes, remedied by Vedder's pertinent five-minute stamp on the remake of Indio's "Hard Sun," complete with eerie backing vocals by Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker. The songwriter puts wealth on the hot seat in "Society," questioning, "If less is more/How you keepin' score?" The darkly sung folk song bookends the reticent declaration "Guaranteed," wonderfully delivered and quietly strummed, in which the prodigal Vedder wraps the journey in one line: "Leave it to me as I find a way to be/Consider me a satellite forever orbiting." (The record is packaged like a hardcover book, with vivid photography and lyrics.)

1. Setting Forth
2. No Ceiling
3. Far Behind
4. Rise
5. Long Nights
6. Tuolumne
7. Hard Sun
8. The Wolf
9. End of the Road
10. Society
11. Guaranteed

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ULQV0W/?tag=imwan-20

I don't know about the movie or the soundtrack but I've seen the trailer for this movie about a dozen times and it never fails to raise goosebumps.

I have laid off Pearl Jam discs of late but this looks like a really good match between artist and subject matter.

Jon Krakauer's book is fantastic... and Eddie Vedder seems a good match for the intensity of the story.

I know it's early, but has anyone heard any of this material? If it's just Vedder and an acoustic, I'd be very curious to hear this.

Hi.
Someone above asked if anyone had heard this music. I heard it in a store..A CD STORE!...and had to get it! I love Pearl Jam...I hadn't been comfortable with Eddie Vedder's intensity and uh, personal style onstage.. in a while...and hadn't been listening to PJ that much as a result.
Well, his voice over the store system, recalled the emotion of PJ and re-awakened the interest bigtime...then the backing...well its mostly acoustic...far quieter than PJ...some of the tunes sound very introspective...some rock a bit...it reaches you. It reached me that day!
I can hear that EV cared and felt what he wrote, sang, and played. I forgave him for whatever excesses of his made me uncomfortable...try to listen to this quieter but no less heartfelt very musical work if you are in the mood for that rare connection. We all here..uh, know it when we hear it.
Thanks,
Gary
PS: Someone I met recently told me how Vedder personally made good to her on a contest prize awarding that went awry. She won a radio station or fan club or some trip to Seattle to see PJ and something promised went wrong. When she wrote about it to Vedder, he personally wrote back and also got her front row PJ tickets in her home town.
To me, these days....that says a LOT about EV I didn't know before! G.

That it cool of EV - I need to pick up this soundtrack (it sounds like we share a similar history toward Pearl Jam.)

Hi NoURider...

Well...now that I've piqued your interest...I gotta say...pls go to maybe the movie's own website, Amazon or bn.com and sample it first to be sure its to your taste! I would hate to have contributed an "unwanted purchase!"
At the same time...although it was years ago...I was lucky enough to work in a record store (Can you say 'High Fidelity?...It was WAY before that!) The most fun was recommending stuff to people, connecting with them, and having them come back and saying they LOVED the stuff I told them about!
(You like this quiet sincere music in 1972-whatever? What could be wrong with Bruce Cockburn's 'Sunwheel Dance?)
Bottom line...I hope you connect with and like the disc. For me it really made it!
G'nite.
Gary
NYC

You made me want to go out and get it. For me Eddie Vedder is in that catagory of musicians who are sometimes embarrassing, sometimes overly impressed with their own importance but whose sincerity and genuine interest in what they do I don't question. coughBONOcough As a result I will often buy Pearl Jam records that I suspect I won't love but I always want to cut them a break and give it a shot.

Thanks, GeeEff. I still haven't heard any of this, but you've prompted me to finally take a listen.