Pitchfork

Like that popular girl in class who keeps stringing you along, the Strokes have been annoyingly tight-lipped about their long-in-the-works third album-- the follow-up to 2003's sophomore effort Room On Fire. After announcing in 2004 that they were shacked up in a New York studio with producer/engineer David Kahne, and a January 2005 e-mail from manager Ryan Gentles confirming the completion of at least five new tracks, precious little has surfaced about the release.

And while, no, we aren't writing to you today with news of an album title, release date, or tracklist, what we can report-- according to a one sentence update on the band's official website-- is that The Strokes "are almost done recording their third album." Oh, it smells like news to us, baby!

However, the New York garage quintet's latest fan club newsletter ups the ante a little bit (and allows us to expand this story to more than one paragraph). Says singer Julian Casablancas when asked about his expectations for the new disc, "It will be better than the last one. We'd like for it to sound a little more professional but still sound like us." So maybe no more identical vocal effect on every song? When pressed about a release date, drummer Fab Moretti joked, "We're overdubbing the sitars and strings in March, so what's that...two months?" Call the Maharishi!

Also, as previously reported, Ryan Gentles has promised significantly longer touring duties for the upcoming release than the schedule the Strokes followed in support of Room On Fire. A 2005 start date for the proposed trek was also alluded to by Gentles: "We'll be seeing you all later this year...and we'll be sure to get to a lot of countries/cities/places that we haven't been to before or that we haven't been to since Is This It touring." But, again, no actual details for you...slackers.

However, one thing that we can confirm is that celebrated guitar manufacturer Epiphone, in cooperation with Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi, has recently issued a mass-produced retail version of Valensi's long-prized custom 1960s Epiphone Riviera guitar. The Epiphone Elitist Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 is available now through your local Epiphone dealer, but vintage Coke shirt and ragged Chuck Taylors are sadly not offered as a package deal.