POP EYE

SMALL FACES: Press-shy Eddie Vedder is doing very few interviews around the release of Pearl Jam’s “Yield” album, but the small New York-based CMJ New Music Monthly got him to do one by having comedian-actress Janeane Garofalo be the interviewer. The transcript of their conversation runs as the April cover story for the magazine, the consumer-oriented spin-off of the CMJ alternative music trade publication. . . .

Dwight Yoakam has finished his new album, titled “A Long Way Home,” featuring guest appearances by bluegrass great Ralph Stanley and singer Bonnie Bramlett. Yoakam, whose acting pursuits see him alongside Matthew McConaughey in “The Newton Boys,” opening March 27, and the HBO movie “When Trumpets Fade,” premiering in late April, has no plans to tour at this time. . . .

While negotiating a distribution deal, Michelle Shocked is selling a limited-edition version of a new album, “Good News,” at her concerts, including a March 24-27 stand at the Mint. She’s also donated the title track for “Communities in Crisis,” a documentary short about the area north of her New Orleans home that’s been dubbed Cancer Alley due to high incidents of cancer, attributed by some to PVC manufacturing nearby.