New York Dolls' third album, Knit news, plus...

While casually asking me about Alex Chilton lyrics, guitarist Steve Conte mentioned that he was also playing guitar in the New York Dolls now. After raving about great shows that I'd seen the band do last year at Little Steven's GarageFest and this March at SXSW (they're also playing at Irving Plaza at the end of this month), I told him to say hi to the boys for me. And then he dropped this bomb:

"Be seeing a lot of David & Syl as we're writing for a new album (we did one of my songs and one of sami's at sxsw - lyrics by david jo, of course!). Wanna hurry up and get the record done but there are all kinds of little speed bumps...we all live in nyc while syl lives in atlanta, sami & i have our own bands, david does his radio show at sirius satelitte, etc. seriously, we are just writing now. we've got 11 songs but need at least 25 to choose from to pick 10 or 12 for the record. it could be the fall by the time we get into a studio cuz hopefully we'll be touring this summer."

So yes, that means that we're talking about a 3rd New York Dolls studio album here, 30 years plus after the last one. And you thought Mission of Burma took a long time between their last two records? I'm sure that some people are going to sniff that without Johnny T or Jerry or Arthur, it won't be the same (and it wouldn't be if there were around anyway). But anyone who's seen the band recently can attest that David Jo's still got it so let's see what happens. Damn shame that there's no NYD website- someone should do something about that.

Though not quite as much of a miracle, following up on my complaints of the furnace-like temperatures in some New York clubs, I heard this bit of good news from a friend at the Knitting Factory: "we're planning to get enough money to fix the heating system and air conditioner in July." Now, you don't have to strip down to your undies there, even in the winter. Seriously though, this is a good move not just for the club but also something that's gonna make a big difference with music fans who show up there.

Totally unrelated note #1: Fannypack's "Seven One Eight" is easily one of the best dance singles I've heard this year. It's even more fun than their previous adorable single "Cameltoe," this time complete with a choppy reggae beat. Thankfully, they don't ham it up as rastas, celebrating instead their area code in true Brooklyn style.

Totally unrelated note #2: Avant-turntable wizard Yoshihide Otomo doing a brief performance on a Japanese kiddie site. I love this bit of explanation, saying that Otomo "used a turntable (record player) which is a device for playing records, in his performance. Think of records as old CDs. Place a needle over a record going around in circles, and all kinds of music can be heard." Don't you get the feeling that a lot of adults might need to hear that kind of explanation too? 'Turn-table? How do play MP3's on it...?'