Jack Irons solo album features the cream of the crop
 

Have a look at the musos involved in this album and tell me this is not very cool. You have Eddie Vedder, you have 3 of the best bassists of our generation in Flea, Les Claypool and Jeff Ament.



Former Pearl Jam/Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons gets a lift from a host of his ex-bandmates on his solo debut, "Attention Dimension," due in August. Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder takes the mic on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond," featuring Primus' Les Claypool on bass. Chili Peppers bassist Flea guests on "Suluhiana" and "Water Song," the latter boasting Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard on guitar.

Irons left Pearl Jam for health reasons in early 1998, following the release of the album "Yield" and an Australian tour. "I had to dedicate myself to living a life that would promote healing and a right way of life for me and my family," he says. "The music on these recordings [is] what was creatively inspired along the way. I could not tour at that point but I still needed to create."

"Making this music was a way for me to work through all the changes and growing I had to do to become healthy again," he continues. "This music also helped me reconnect with some old friends and former bandmates, who I am very happy and thankful to say have performed as guest artists."

Irons is abetted throughout "Attention Dimension" by his Eleven colleague Alain Johannes, who plays an array of instruments on seven tracks. Eleven's Natasha Shneider offers vocals on "Hearing It Doubled," while Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament augments the groove on "Dunes." The cut "Breaking Sea" includes a sample of Spectrasonics' "Heart of Africa."

Irons joined Pearl Jam for two songs during an all-star concert last October in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was just the second time he had played with the group since he left.

Here is the track list for "Attention Dimension":

"Jackie Groove" featuring Alain Johannes
"Suluhiana" featuring Flea, Johannes
"Ocean's Light"
"Hearing It Doubled" featuring Johannes, Natasha Shneider
"Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" featuring Eddie Vedder, Les Claypool, Johanne, Shneider
"Underwater Circus Music"
"Dunes" featuring Jeff Ament, Johannes
"Come Running" featuring Johannes
"Water Song" featuring Flea, Stone Gossard
"Breaking Sea" featuring Johannes
"Aquaman's Electric Band" featuring Johannes


-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

vedder on shine on you crazy diamond would be AMAZING.

if they could only recruit mccready to play guitar.... which is the most important part in that song.

yeah vedder will be nothing short of amazing and claypool on bass as well. mccready would be amazing there, they could have got gossard i guess.

WOW, that is sweet!!! Les Claypool is a wicked cool bass player. I saw him twice last year and both shows were amazing. He also played on a track or two for Jerry Cantrell's first solo album, Boggy Depot. This sounds like a very cool CD. Will have to pick that one up.

Claypool plays on Boggy? what tracks? this has a great line-up and i'll buy it simply because of the guest musos. jack was responsible for the cool grooves in the no code and yield stuff so this should be good. too bad about his health but matt cameron does a great job.

Agreed...On Boggy Depot Claypool plays on: Between and on Cold Piece, which has the coolest bass line on the whole album, IMO.