Maximo Park Finish New Album

Newcastle punk-funk tykes Maximo Park have reportedly finished their third album, with the band posting a blog on the social networking site Myspace to confirm the news.

Bursting out of Tyneside with a bag of tunes and whole heap of spiky guitars, Maximo Park combine sharp lyrics with a sharp look. Paul Smith's bowler cap might not have set the fashion world alight but we love them anyway.

The singer revealed all in a blog posting, saying "the album is 'in the can', as they used to say... perhaps it would be better to say it's 'on the hard-drive'. At any rate, we're all back in England going about our business."

The band are also set to unveil new material at some continental festival dates next summer. According to Smith, the band are "all dead excited to play these new songs live, and, in fact, that was mentioned in the writing process, as regards what kind of song to write."

"There were other songs that would've taken us in a different direction, which we've put aside for the time being because we wanted the album to sound cohesive and to sustain a specific mood (although it's difficult to pin down exactly what that mood is...). It's very upbeat and exuberant, but there's a dark thread running through it. Anyway, I want people to hear it before I bang on about it too much and Nick, our producer's taking a little break before starting to mix it, so there's still a little wait yet."