The Cribs put finishing touches to new album

The Cribs have nearly finished recording their fourth studio album, and are aiming to release it in September.

The band spent several weeks recording in Los Angeles this spring with producer Nick Launay (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave) at his home studio in Laurel Canyon.

"We were in LA quite a long time," bassist/vocalist Gary Jarman told NME.COM. "We recorded our first album in a week, but we spent the best part of three months doing this album.

"We recorded everything live and we'd finish working around 1:00 or 2:00am when all the bars in LA were closed, so there was no reason to go out. It was sort of like a social experiment," he said.

The band have finished recording all 12 tracks set to appear on the album, Jarman said, and have mixed all but two of them, which his brothers and fourth band member Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, are planning to mix in London next week.

Track titles include 'Last Year's Snow', 'Cheat On Me', 'Serve Your Secrets', 'Stick To Your Guns', 'Ignore The Ignorant', 'We Were Aborted' and 'We Share The Same Skies'.

He added they are still trying to decide how to order the tracks on the album, a process the bassist said has been challenging.

"I have so many napkins from bars with different tracklistings on them," he laughed.

"We have different opinions," he said, explaining their difficulties deciding on an album title. "This record's gonna follow us around for the rest of our lives so we're labouring over the title."

Jarman also revealed that the band enjoyed their time working with producer Launay.

"Nick's worked on some really good records and dealt with intense bands," he said. "He's up for different ideas and got the best out of us. I've had some self-confidence issues in the studio with my voice since I had surgery. He got us to work harder and have belief [in ourselves] and got the best and most natural performances."

The Cribs intend to embark on a UK tour in September before they perform in Japan, and they are hoping to tour the US before the end of 2009.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
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