Pitchfork

So Mike Skinner (aka the Streets) has a new song called "The Escapist". He wrote it for a film with the same name, presumably Rupert Wyatt's The Escapist, due this summer. But according to Mike, the director didn't like the song, so now it's going on the next Streets album, which Skinner has been busy working on for a while now. (But a new Coldplay song, also called "The Escapist", DID make it into the movie. Ooh, diss!)

Undaunted, Mike's come up with his own "Escapist" film project: a music video that documents his walk from England to the south of France, with a few buddies trailing behind in a Citroen C5. The journey is currently being documented on the website for Skinner's video blog/TV program "Beat Stevie". This just in! Mike's t-shirt is dirty!

But wait... how's dude supposed to walk all the way to the south of France when he's got shows scheduled this week in Austria and next week in Switzerland and-- gasp!-- England? Something tells me we may have been had, but then again, something tells me not to put anything past Mike Skinner. Still, now seems like a good time to mention another recent, suspect Skinner update: a post suggested that Hollywood rang and offered Mike a cool $20 mil to adapt 2004's concept set A Grand Don't Come For Free into a feature film. It's a fantastic idea, but alas, the post was dated April first.

A tracklist for the new Streets album has been posted on the "Beat Stevie" website, but who knows how close to reality it actually is. According to the posted tracklist, "The Escapist" closes the disc; you can hear the end of the song here.

On the Streets' MySpace page, Mike writes, "The biggest song on it, so far, is called 'Everything Is Borrowed'. I know the title sounds like a Kaiser Chiefs song but I promise it will be better than that."

As for the overall tone of the record, he adds, "This album started off life as parables but then I realised that it might get a bit cheesy so I got rid of the alien song and the devil song and replaced them with more straight up songs. I've pretty much kept my promise that I made to myself not to reference modern life on any of them though which is hard to do and keep things personal at the same time. I am working very very hard."

Man, no wonder it's taking him so long.

According to the "Beat Stevie" site, the album is due in August.

And hey, while we're talking about the Streets, can we just ask what happened with Coachella? Wasn't he supposed to play?

Tracklist:

01 Everything Is Borrowed
02 Heaven for the Weather
03 I Love You More (Than You Like Me)
04 Just Thought of Something
05 On the Flip of a Coin
06 The Sherry End
07 Alleged Legends
08 What Are Chances of That Like?
09 When That Day Will Be
10 Further Away
11 Strongest Person I Know
12 The Escapist

The Streets:

05-21 Graz, Austria - Electronic Beats Festival Graz
05-26 Newcastle Upon Tyne, England - Newcastle Evolution Festival
05-31 Neuchatel, Switzerland - Openair Festival
06-07 Nuremberg, Germany - Rock Am Ring
06-29 Oxford, England - Wakestock Festival
07-02 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
07-04 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-06 Abersoch, Wales - Wakestock Festival
07-12 Liege, Belgium - Les Ardentes Festival
08-29 Paris, France - Rock En Seine