The legendary backing band has announced that no only will they drop a new album, & Then You Shoot Your Cousin, sometime this year (or next year), they have also collaborated with another legend, Elvis Costello, on a full-length project which they hope will see the light of day this year as well.
From a brief interview with Billboard:
The initial plan was to cut just a few tracks, but those sessions proved fruitful enough for the artists to keep going. Says Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “we had 13 or 14 songs, but then we said, ‘Ooh! Wait a minute! Let’s replace four of these songs with four better songs! And now we have the tightest 12-14 song collection out of about 20 songs that we made.”
In the near future, Costello and the Roots plan to mix and master the as-yet-untitled LP with assistance from Roots engineer Steven Mandel, who is co-producing the project with them. It is unclear at deadline which label will release the album. “We kind of have the freedom to take it around, whether it’s to Elvis’ people or Def Jam’s people,” says Thompson. “I can just say that it is brilliant.”
Alongside music, the crew will hold their annual Picnic Festival on June 1st, headlined by the likes of Gary Clark Jr., Naughty By Nature, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Trinidad James, DJ Premier, Joey Bada$$, Sonnymoon and many more. Head down bottom for the flyer to the whole shebang.
