• on air
• artists
• music news
• gigs & tickets
• breakfast
• o2 academy

X-clusive: Strokes To Release A New Album Before 2005

added 02 August 2004 at 14.42

Following the new material no-show at T In The Park, Xfm can exclusively reveal that The Strokes will be releasing a new album in time for Christmas. The record’s release was announced informally on the band’s fanclub newsletter and will be a live album recorded late last year at London’s Alexandra Palace.

"The band hopes to release a live album by the end of the year," reads the newsletter statement. "The first of the two shows at Alexandra Palace in London, December 2003 was recorded by the BBC. This would be the first official live release by The Strokes."

While an official release date is still to be confirmed, it would seem the band hope to have the record on the shelves before 2005.

Assuming the tracklisting runs unaltered from the setlist of the evening, tracks likely to appear would be as follows:

'Reptilia', 'Under Control', 'What Ever Happened?', 'Alone Together', 'The Modern Age', '12:51', 'New York City Cops', 'You Talk Way Too Much', 'Someday', 'Hard to Explain', 'The End Has No End', 'Automatic Stop', 'Soma', 'Take It or Leave It' and 'I Can't Win'.  

In other Strokes related news, it seems likely that the band’s third single release from ‘Room On Fire’ will be live favourite ‘The End Has No End’ and will feature a video directed by Sophie Muller. The band are currently spending the summer working on new material in their studio/rehearsal space with producer Gordon Raphael ready for a rumoured mid-2005 release date for their third album.

The band have also recently sent out a two-track CD to members of their fanclub containing two unreleased tracks: A live version of 'When It Started' recorded in Iceland and demo track 'Elephant Song', recorded by Albert Hammond Jr. and Julian Casablancas in 1999 for an NYU school project.

"Albert was taking a class called Sound 101 in his freshman year at NYU and was required to turn in a recorded tape made using the school's special recording equipment," writes Matt Romano, head of The Strokes fanclub. "The song was later reformatted by the band and played at a few shows before being retired in the year 2000. The 'Elephant Song' recording has never been played for anyone outside of the band (with the exception of Albert's professor at NYU, and a small handful of other people)."

To discuss this story on the Xfm News Messageboard click here.

Back to Music News

Have you got a music news story? E-mail the Xfm News Desk below.

Jon Ford

• send to a friend