Franz Ferdinand Announce September U.S. Tour, Already Making Plans for Next Full-Length
Band dons kevlar couture for upcoming Sarajevo date

Franz Ferdinand are taking their downstroking, gender-bending show on the road for a quick North American tour this fall, and are tentatively planning on releasing a brand new record in early 2005. Considering the kajillion records the lads have already sold (#35 on the Billboard chart!), these ain't no indie clubs they're rockin': They're packing the fuckin' theaters! So if you're planning on checking out the razor sharp new wave of the new Scottish gentry in the flesh, you'd better save up ballroom-sized sums of cash and scrawl these dates on your bathroom floor:

09-09 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom
09-10 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
09-15 Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theater
09-24 Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom 09-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
09-29 Minneapolis, MN - Quest Club
10-01 Toronto, Ontario - Docks

Among the pleasures these shows may yield (aside from scoring a full Hipster Bingo card within 10 minutes of entry) is the possibility that they may preview songs slated to appear on their next album. Franz have already begun making plans for the record, according to NME, which has reported that the boys are looking to bring Dan "The Automator" Nakawhateverthefuckhisnameis on board to produce.

But Franz Ferdinand vocalist Alex Kapranos told NME that it wasn't necessarily the Automator's impressive (if largely hip-hop oriented) resume that drew the band to him: "He was working from the spare room in his house, which is the way we started off. All the early recordings we did were in the kitchen of our flat so maybe we're going to go back in that direction."

Kapranos continued, "Sometimes you come up with the most original stuff if you're sitting in an environment that's most comfortable for you, rather than going into the £300,000 a day recording studio in the middle of the countryside." And we bet the band's label, Domino, will wholeheartedly agree. In the interests of comfort, Franz are also planning on doing some shows out of their basement, but seriously, you all have to take your shoes off and no one can drink any of Alex's dad's beer, okay?