Pitchfork

Looks like that photo there of the men of Franz Ferdinand loitering idly-- the one that's also adorned their website for what feels like ages now-- was but a clever ploy. As it turns out, the Ferds have been scheming behind the scenes the whole while! Cunning little angular post-punkers, those guys.

First and foremost, the gents are hard at work on the follow-up to 2006's You Could Have It So Much Better. An NME.com report from yesterday notes they're putting the "finishing touches" on the disc, and song titles bandied about on Franz's MySpace blog in recent weeks include "Lucid Dreams" "Ulysses", "Dream Again", "Turn It On", "A Severed Head", and "Katharine Kiss Me".

As noted in a Guardian.co.uk report, Franz worked on the new disc with producer Brian Higgins of British pop powerhouse Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Sugababes) before scrapping those sessions and instead linking with Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Lily Allen). Frontman Alex Kapranos shares some thoughts on working with "Mr Dan" here.

The scheming doesn't stop there, though. Franz Ferdinand have also lined up at least two "secret" shows in advance of a spate of summer festival appearances. The first, according to a Rough Trade email, goes down June 9 at London's Macbeth, while the second, according to a writeup on blog this is hull and east riding.co.uk, hits Hull's Adelphi club on June 22. Better start lining up now.

What's more, Mr. Kapranos apparently appears in some capacity on the forthcoming sophomore album from Annie, while the band recently broke out the Crayolas to work up some one-of-a-kind 7" artwork for fellow Scot Edwyn Collins.

Franz:

06-09 London, England - The Macbeth
06-22 Hull, England - The Adelphi
07-04 Tallinn, Estonia - Ollesummer Festival
07-12 Ferrara, Italy - Piazza Castello
07-18 Southwold, England - Henham Park (Latitude Festival)
07-19 Gräfenhainichen, Germany - Ferropolis (Melt! Festival)
08-07 Skanderborg, Denmark - Skanderborg Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08-30 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic
08-31 Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival