Pitchfork

Photo by Aliya Naumoff

"One thing the city don't have that the country got is SPACE," the Yeah Yeah Yeahs write in a MySpace blog in a post titled "Smells Like Record 3", "and there has been plenty of spacing out in the studio as of late."

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are currently in the studio, crafting a follow-up to 2006's Show Your Bones LP. They write of "hopscotching down the road less traveled- from a barn in the Northeast to a ranch in the Southwest on our journey for the next sound," and, well, guess we can all expect to hear that 'next sound' soon enough. All right!

Here's something else you might not know about this particular bunch of punk lifers: they love itty bitty kitty cats. "Fuzzy soft muses aka kittens have played a major role in the writing process of YYYs current and past records," they write, adding that "nothing turns a frown upside down (there are many frowns in the record writing process) as a purring kitten in your lap. Alas our favorite kitten of all beloved SQUEAKER arrived just in time for record three! Abandoned by his mother, we've watched him grow before our very eyes from a blind and helpless little thing into a frisky and fierce little beauty- much like the tunes we're writing. Go figure."

Then, there's this rebus puzzle, featuring the aforementioned desert, Squeaker (presumably), and the sum total:


Yeah Yeah Yeahs have no live plans at the moment, though Karen's got some more studio output to look forward to: that soundtrack to Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are she crafted with Bradford Cox and others. Nick Zinner showed up on the Scarlett Johansson record and on stage with the Raconteurs recently, while drummer Brian Chase has been doing some experimental jazz performances.