Ted Leo Preps New Album for October, Tours
May cause fever, excessive urination, painful erections

Political rocktivist Ted Leo and his Pharmacists have just finished recording the follow-up to last year's Hearts of Oak, that critically lauded platter of hotted-up Thin Lizzy guitars and polemical jibber-jabber delivered with Leo's typical operatic élan. Entitled Shake the Sheets, the album was recorded at James Iha's Stratosphere Studio in New York City. When reached for comment, the incredibly fine-boned Iha chirped like a canary and fired a toy raygun into his guitar's pickups for upwards of an hour.

Produced by Chris Shaw (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Weezer, Ween), The Pharmacists' latest will shake the streets on October 19th, courtesy once again of Lookout! Records. It includes a fleshed-out version of "Bleeding Powers", which we first heard on Leo's Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead EP, and a song called "Heart Problems" that seems to end with a long list of prescription drug names (e.g. "Bepridil [Vascor®]"). I don't know about you, but I'm curious to see how he's going to pull that off. Tracklist:

01 Me and Mia
02 The Angels' Share
03 The One Who Got Us Out
04 Counting Down the Hours
05 Little Dawn
06 Heart Problems
07 Criminal Piece
08 Better Dead Than Lead
09 Shake the Sheets
10 Walking to Do
11 Bleeding Powers

Additionally, Leo and the Pharmacists are striking out on tour this summer to build anticipation for the record, and to presumably debut many of these new songs. For those with ears with which to hear:

06-18 Silver Spring, MD - Silver Theater
06-19 Chicago, IL - Taste of Randolph Festival
06-21 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
06-22 Montreal, Quebec - El Salon
06-23 Portland, ME - SPACE
06-25 New York City, NY - Seaport Music Festival
06-26 Long Branch, NJ - Brighton Bar (w/ Tigers & Monkeys)
06-27 Philadelphia, PA - The Whiskey (w/ Mazarin, Capitol Years, South Congress)
07-03 Hoboken, New Jersey - Maxwell's (Solo show)
07-10 Pittsburgh, PA - The Brew House
07-11 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop (w/ The Reputation, Machine Goes Boom)
07-12 Covington, KY - Radio Down (w/ The Reputation)
07-13 Milwaukee, WI - The Cactus Club (w/ The Reputation, Just a Fire)
07-15 Iowa City, IA - Gabe's Oasis (w/ Just a Fire)
07-16 Manchester, IN - The Firehouse
07-17 London, Ontario - Call the Office
07-18 Buffalo, NY - Xtreme Wheels
07-19 Albany, NY - Valentine's (w/ Tigers & Monkeys)
07-21 Farmingdale, NY - Downtown (w/ Radio 4)
07-22 Washington, DC - The Black Cat (w/ Radio 4, Tigers & Monkeys)
07-23 Wilkes Barre, PA - Café Metropolis (w/ Radio 4)
07-24 New York City, NY - East River Amphitheater (w/ The Natural History, Sea Ray, Tigers & Monkeys)
07-25 New Haven, CT - Bar Night Club (w/ Tigers & Monkeys)

Ted Leo: http://www.tedleo.com
Lookout: http://www.lookoutrecords.com