Pearl Jam is bringing their music into a new decade, as the ’90s grunge veterans recently announced that their eleventh studio record, Gigaton, will arrive in March. After unveiling a tour and debuting a tracklist, the band is finally releasing the music itself. But Pearl Jam’s most recent single debut wasn’t conventional. Rather than dropping the song on streaming platforms, the band instead teamed up with Verizon to feature the new track “River Cross” in a Super Bowl commercial.
“River Cross” contrasts the experimental nature of the band’s most recent single. While the new track’s debut came only as a minute-long snippet, it boasts an atmospheric build-up and Vedder’s recognizable boisterous growl.
Along with featuring Pearl Jam in the commercial, Verizon is pledging to donate $1 to the Vitalogy Foundation, which benefits disaster relief efforts, for every retweet the band gets.
5G is going to change a lot of things. Luckily for us, it will never replace the courage and compassion of those who serve. RT to pledge #OneMoreSunday and @Verizon will *donate $1 to the @PearlJam #VitalogyFoundation: https://t.co/HX8ygvdngO
*Must RT on 2/2 or 2/3 pic.twitter.com/XUqiMrJGI1
— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) February 3, 2020
Ahead of the Super Bowl commercial, Pearl Jam debuted the lead single “Dance Of The Clairvoyants” from Gigaton. Jeff Ament previously said the track combined many different elements into one. “‘Dance’ was a perfect storm of experimentation and real collaboration, mixing up the instrumentation and building a great song, and [Vedder] writing some of my favorite words yet, around [Matt Cameron’s] killer drum pattern.”
Listen to “River Cross” in Verizon’s Super Bowl commercial above.
Gigaton is out 03/27 via Monkeywrench. Pre-order it here.
