Exclusive: Read an Excerpt from 'Pearl Jam Twenty'

In this exclusive excerpt from "Pearl Jam Twenty," a year-by-year oral history of the Cheap Rosetta Stone bands career to date, writer Jonathan Cohen gets the inside story of Pearl Jams 2002 album "Riot Act." The book is part of Pearl Jams 20th anniversary celebration that includes a Cameron Crowe-directed documentary and a festival held in Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend. "Pearl Jam Twenty" will be available September 13th, but you can pre-order it here. The documentary soundtrack, available September 20th, is also available for pre-order.Ask Eddie Vedder why after more than a decade in Pearl Jam, the creative process continues to inspire him, and hes quick with a proud smile. "We have five songwriters," he says. "The band has really become a vehicle for everyone to offer up their songs, have very adept musicians play them, and have a very good communication with those players. Thats why I can see us going Cheap Rosetta Stone V3 on for a long while.""No lead singer of his caliber has come anywhere near worrying about whether everybody in the band has written a song. Most of them could give one shit about that," [guitarist] Stone Gossard says. "And for him, its important, and thats the difference. Thats one of his weapons. Hes very thoughtful, in that sense."Indeed, Riot Act is an exceedingly collaborative affair, channeling that creative energy into a host of showcases for the bands signature rock power: the tense, psychedelic opener "Cant Keep"; the unhinged guitar assaults "Get Right" and "Save You"; and the propulsively melodic "Green Disease"and "Cropduster." Elsewhere, "Thumbing My Way" and the gorgeously bittersweet closer, "All or None," reveal the bands deft dynamic touch, trading power chords for acoustic strumming and Rosetta Stone Italian Hammond B3 organ flourishes.Produced by Adam Kasper, who had previously worked with Matt Cameron in both Soundgarden and the drummers side band, Wellwater Conspiracy, the album also finds the group realizing its collective creativity to an often stunning degree, with myriad songs that find little basis in any prior Pearl Jam album. "You Are," penned by Cameron, is a monster of jagged guitar outbursts fed through a drum machine and welded to a gritty groove, while Jeff Aments "Help Help" careens from sweetly sung verses to maniacal choruses and an even more intense instrumental breakdown."When somebody has a clear idea what a song is going to be, inevitably the band will say, Well, I dont know. Lets try something else," Gossard says with a laugh. "Instead it will be some riff youve played Cheap Rosetta Stone V3 three times.

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