First Bits First: Pearl Jam, Sunny Day, & Counting Crows

After thirteen years without a number one debut on the charts, Pearl Jam “put a bit of fixin’ on it” and landed the number one spot on the Billboard 200 this week with Backspacer. I’m not normally one to following the charts, but it’s no small feat to steal the crown from Jay-Z these days and Pearl Jam’s last time as the king of the charts goes way back to 1996’s No Code.

Jimmy Fallon is finally starting to tear a page out of Conan’s book by having lots of great musical guests. Check out the reformed Sunny Day Real Estate perform classic Diary track “Seven” here. Also, I’m actually starting to enjoy the awkward onscreen audience of Fallon’s show, especially when they’re trying to find a good head-bopping beat to The Dirty Projectors.

Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz will be producing and making a cameo in the upcoming film Freeloaders, a comedy from the team (Broken Lizard) behind Super Troopers and Beerfest. Get more info over at Spinner.

We’ve got lots of cool posts on the way for later today, but if you missed our late night item on Thom Yorke’s new percussionist, you may want to go thataway for a few more deets on the upcoming LA shows.