Stephen Malkmus Monitors New Album Readiness To The Fourth Decimal

Stephen Malkmus has finished more than two-thirds of his new album with The Jicks — 67.4685 per cent to be more precise.

The former Pavement frontman threw that number down in a post on his website on Friday, updating folks on the progress of the record and other new developments.

The basic tracks were recorded at Snowghost Studios in northern Montana, with TJ Doherty — "fresh from a Donald Fagen session in Kauai" — keeping "an eye on the meters."

Malkmus envisions the still-untitled album being finished in late June and Matador issuing it early next year, although a fall 2007 release is also a possibility.

The follow-up to 2005's Face The Truth, and the fourth Jicks album overall, will be the first featuring former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss. But since she's touring with Bright Eyes this summer, Malkmus will perform solo at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 15. Weiss will rejoin the band for their appearance at the Green Man Festival in Wales in mid-August.