Pitchfork

They must've put something in the water earlier this month at Seattle's MusicTech 07 conference, as something's gotten into Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen. Ever since he returned from Seattle, Allen's blog has been full of musings on the state of the industry, plenty of talk regarding the In Rainbows model, and-- best of all-- chatter about a new Gang of Four project, complete with demos.

Allen seems to be mulling over just what form these new recordings will take; he spoke with us over a year ago about a new LP, but he seems to be coming around to the notion that the album-- or, at least, the compact disc format-- is kaput. For the moment, the Gang plan to put together a four-song digital EP in the spirit of their original release, 1978's Damaged Goods EP. Allen, meanwhile, has crafted an entertaining, astute list of eight criteria the project will hopefully adhere to, which you can read here.

Rule #5: "It's imperative that we give away MP3s." And so Allen has, with new jams-in-progress "Second Life", a couple different versions of "Password", and the promise of "Faking It", "American Man", and another version of "Second Life" (working titles, all) on the way next week.

Naturally, we'll let you know just where they're going with this once they figure it out. As for other plans, the Gang's website suggests a tour is in the works for next year, though those dates have yet to emerge.