Pearl Jam reveals new dates, special guests

Pearl Jam has announced the next set of dates for its 2006 world tour, and the list includes four special nights that will find the band sharing the bill with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The Seattle grunge rockers have also scored an impressive pair of opening acts for the tour's new leg, with ex-Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard opening the leg's first date, June 23 in Pittsburgh.

Pollard--whose eighth solo album, "From a Compound Eye," was released in January--will also open for the band the next night in Cincinnati. Pearl Jam's four nights with Petty follow, consisting of two shows in St. Paul, MN, and two Denver dates.

Starting July 6 in Las Vegas, Pearl Jam will receive support from Sonic Youth, whose new album, "Rather Ripped," is set to drop June 13. The Youth will be along for the rest of the ride as currently scheduled, aside from the last date on the outing, a July 17 show in George, WA, that is billed as "An Evening With Pearl Jam."

In addition to the new second leg of its tour, the band has added several dates to the first leg, with second nights added for its stops in Chicago, Boston and Camden, NJ. The band's full itinerary is listed below.

Pearl Jam is supporting its upcoming, self-titled album, which due to hit stores May 2, shortly before the band sets out on the first leg of its tour, kicking off May 10 in Toronto.

The new disc marks Pearl Jam's eighth studio release, and is the band's first new album since 2002's "Riot Act." The new album is also the group's first for its new label, J Records.

"We've got all the instruments going full force, yet coexisting," the band said in a Q&A session posted on its website. "It's like we took our aggressions and shaped something positive from them in a very direct manner."

Pearl Jam co-produced the album with Adam Kaspar at Studio X in Seattle. Kaspar also co-produced "Riot Act."

The album's first single, "World Wide Suicide," has spent three weeks at the No. 1 position on Billboard's Modern Rock charts.