Pearl Jam is going to the World Series.
The veteran rock act has signed a major deal with Fox Sports, lending 48 of their songs to the network’s upcoming coverage of the MLB championship seres.
The partnership includes all 12 tracks from their brand new album “Lightning Bolt,” plus 36 catalog songs, culled from all of the Seattle band’s albums except for 2002’s “Riot Act,” reports Billboard.
The band’s songs will be an integral component of Fox’s coverage, and will be heard in opening teases, commercial bumpers, gameplay montages, and during other promotional spots.
Some of the older PJ tracks which will be heard during the series include such hits and fan favorites as “Even Flow,” “Animal,” “Better Man,” “Black,” “Blood,” “Corduroy,” and “Daughter.”
Before any die hard fans cry foul over the principled band selling out, Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis explains the move thusly: “There was a period of time when we didn’t license much music, but for the past many years, we consider licensing requests using the same criteria we do for everything else: Do we like it? Would the fans like it? Does it provide a different forum for fans to hear the music? Is it something we can get behind? The band loves baseball, so this one was a no-brainer.”
The World Series will air October 23-31 on Fox. “Lightning Bolt” will be released this Tuesday.