Is a bit of Incubus seeping into Pearl Jam's new album?

That seems to be the case according to a tweet by Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger, which shows a photo of him, his girlfriend Ann Marie Calhoun, a violinist, and Eddie Vedder in Los Angeles, with the accompanying note "In the studio with my girl and Eddie Vedder, recording strings for Pearl Jam's new album. :o)" 

It's doubtful Einziger is playing guitar on the album, but his studies and work in the classical field indicate he could be arranging the string parts for the set. When will we hear it? Guitarist Mike McCready tells us that he, for one, is pushing for sooner rather than later:

"I hope so. I can be pretty cynical, too, but I don't want to be. I'm optimistic in terms of us finishing this record because...we all have a lot of songs and we're all pretty prolific in that way, and we have Brendan O'Brien working with us who is a good kind of visionary and taskmaster who will keep us on focus. I think we'll get something done; I just feel like it...We've been away from each other long enough that we'll be excited to get in a room together and start doing stuff. And I'm hoping that's the case. I'm pretty sure it will be."

The album will be Pearl Jam's first since "Backspacer" in 2009. Pearl Jam heads to South America at the end of the month for Lollapalooza shows in Brazil and Chile; it also has North American dates booked for London, Ont., on July 16 and Chicago's Wrigley Field on July 19.

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