One by one, all of our 2010 speculative posts are coming true. It wasn’t long ago that we began laying out the evidence that a new Arcade Fire album is on the way for next year, and now—if Billboard’s anonymous sources are to be believed—we can finally chop that pesky question mark from the headline.
According to Billboard’s David J. Prince, the band will be releasing the first single off their follow-up to Neon Bible in early ‘10, followed by the full new LP in May. The planned spring release lines up the band perfectly for a run on the summer festival circuit, which Prince says Win Butler and company have already begun negotiating.
Meanwhile, you’ve probably heard by now that, regardless of whether their 4th LP gets completed, the Strokes will make their live return next summer at the Isle of Wight festival in the UK. Well, now the boys have decided to bang out another festival date while they’re on that side of the pond for the weekend (Jun. 11-13). Scotland’s RockNess fest announced today that they too will host the Strokes as festival headliners.
At the very least, this should bring some hope after tonight’s epic fail that was the Grammy nominations announcement.