Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Queens of the Stone Age Vets Collaborating as Ten Commandos

A new supergroup called Ten Commandos will include members of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age and others. In the works for almost two years, the band is set to issue a debut single titled "Staring Down the Dust" on Oct. 9, with a full-length album reportedly to follow in November.

Featured are Soundgarden's Ben Shepherd, Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam (and, since long before that, also of Soundgarden), Queens of the Stone Age's Alain Johannes, Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees (and also of Queens of the Stone Age) and Off's Dimitri Coats.

Johannes, whose collaborations with Lanegan predate the Ten Commandos, described their working relationship as "quite easy. First of all, I don’t think we’ve spent more than four to five hours from beginning to end on any song," Johannes told Alternative Nation, with a chuckle. "Basically Mark arrives, he’s got the song, he plays it for me [and] we lay down a quick sketch of it ... and then we just go and start layering stuff and adding stuff. He would sing it a couple of times and comp the vocal and it’s done."

Cameron and Shepherd have worked together in Soundgarden since 1986; Cameron became a member of Pearl Jam in 1998. Lanegan and Johannes were in Queens of the Stone Age together in the mid-'00s. Off, a punk group featuring Black Flag's Keith Morris,  formed in Los Angeles back in 2009.

See Soundgarden and Other Rockers in Our Top 100 Albums of the '90s

This Day in Rock History: October 7