Pitchfork

This just in from Pitchfork's About Fucking Time desk: A recent fan club letter from manager/video diva Ryan Gentles has finally revealed some near-concrete details on the the Strokes' long-gestating third album. According to the email, the band are presently wrapping up production on 13 as-yet-untitled songs in contention for the disc, with a final tracklist to be finalized in the coming months.

"I can tell you that there are 13 songs that are nearly fully completed," Gentles explained. "This is NOT to say that there will be 13 songs on the album...maybe there will, maybe there won't...some could be b-sides...we'll decide that when the recording is 100% done."

And while that's just short of, "Um, thanks for nothing," it's the first real sign of completion we've been able to pass along since sessions for the project first got underway in a New York studio last year. As for a release date, Manager Stroke was similarly vague on that matter, but stated that the LP is tentatively slated for a January 2006 arrival, with the first single likely hitting radio this fall, "maybe October/November."

While it's nice to get some kind of realistic projection on the album's launch, this new date is a few months later than fans had originally expected, as a January 2005 email from Gentles once assured: "We're confident that it will come out sometime this year." If the 2006 date sticks, it will mark a gap of over two years since their previous release, the sophomore effort Room on Fire.

As previously reported, the Strokes' latest platter is being co-produced by David Kahne (Paul McCartney, Sugar Ray) and the group's longtime collaborator, Gordon Raphael. Gentle's latest email also goes on to confirm that recording veteran Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley) will be mixing the album once production wraps-- which is said to conclude this July. And for those skeptics out there, we'd like to remind you of singer Julian Casablancas' March 2005 assurance that the record "will be better than the last one." Bacdafucup!

Finally, Gentles also notes that some pre-release touring may possibly hit Europe, Japan, and Australia later this year, but as is his way, those details will be be confirmed at a later date, cautioning that if they do happen, "These venues would likely be VERY small club shows, and just a small handful of cities."

A handful of U.S. shows are also being considered before the album drops. Post-release, however, the band are expected to sport a much lengthier schedule than that in support of their previous offering. "After the album is released, we plan on doing much more extensive touring than we did on Room on Fire," Gentles assured. "Hang in there...much too soon to have detailed information on that, but we're setting up some pretty substantial touring."

Phew, now that that one's finally coming together, we've got our ever-obsessive sights set on you, Mr. Yorke.