The Walkmen Record 15 New Songs w/ Phil Ek

The Walkmen are way ahead of schedule with their follow-up to Lisbon, having just completed a round of productive recording sessions this month, long before their original plan to hit the studio in November. Working this time with producer Phil Ek — a man whose resumé includes breakthrough LPs by Built to Spill, Fleet Foxes, and Band of Horses — Hamilton Leithauser and co. have at least a couple dozen cuts ready for LP7 consideration: “15 songs survived his battle axe,” the band shared on Twitter. “We’ll be testing them live all September.”

In fact, they already began testing out new material on tour this spring, performing one particularly promising song along multiple stops. Check out a decent preview of the Walkmen unveiling that tune in Urbana, Illinois back in May below: