A Bit Cagey’s Melissa Shampine just alerted us to an awesome new Haitian relief project organized by Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro. Dubbed “Crafts For A Cause,” Shapiro has recruited quite the impressive roster of artists to contribute various decorated items to be auctioned off in support of writer/director Paul Haggis’ charity organization, Artists for Peace and Justice, which is mobilizing a significant relief effort in the disaster-stricken country.

Details about when and where the auction will take place have yet to be posted, but Shapiro is publishing some exciting updates about who is involved in the meantime here. A few examples: Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst is decorating a Fender Strat for the cause, Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala added a design to a skateboard, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold designed a t-shirt, Vampire Weekend a gym bag, and The Strokes took a studio break to sign a tote bag.

But that’s not all! Shapiro says that many more artists are contributing items to this epic charity auction, including Devendra Banhart, Spike Jonze, Sia, Le Tigre, Mark Ronson, M. Ward and The Black Keys.

Follow “Crafts For a Cause” on Tumblr here or on Twitter here.

The sad news of the day is that the Strokes might possibly hate dislike not feel like brothers to one another, but the good news? Frontman Julian Casablancas has stopped dancing and he’s now ready to stand still (sort of) while singing like the leather-clad, Manhattanite rocker he was born to be.

I’m not being facetious or snarky here, people: this is the J.C. that I and many of those “Best of the Decade” list-makers once dug and have since come to worship.

Watch him perform Phrazes For The Young’s opening track, “Out of the Blue,” here or below (via TAP).

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.

Julian Casablancas sure hasn’t been alleviating fears about the fate of the Strokes’ 4th LP in interviews of late, candidly admitting to “disagreement[s]” over “whether the songs are ready,” saying that “a band is actually a great way to ruin a friendship,” and that—like Noel and Liam Gallagher before Oasis split—”apart from when [they]’re rehearsing, [they] don’t see each other.”

Things got a bit more hopeful, however, when he told Pitchfork, “We’re supposed to get back together in January but don’t hold me to that. We’ve been trying to do it for years.” And now it looks like those January plans are actually coming to fruition:

The Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr. has taken a break from his alleged stint in rehab for a cameo performance on the Sonic Youth-approved teen drama “Gossip Girl.” Things have been pretty tense in Strokes land of late, what with all the disagreements over their 4th LP, Hammond’s rumored drug addiction, and Julian’s scandalous dance moves taking over the airwaves.

It’s no suprise then that Hammond went all Richie Tenenbaum on us by cutting off his trademark curly hair. He kinda looks like Miguel Ferrer without those locks.

Watch here or below as Albert Hammond Jr. performs his solo track “In Transit” for the “Gossip Girl” gang:

In a recent rumor post on Gawker, Chris Wilson reported that “serious buzz” was spreading that Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. had been checked into rehab at the urging of his bandmates. A request for confirmation was not returned by Hammond’s reps and the rumor stayed, well, a rumor. Consequence of Sound reports today, however, that the story was true, according to UK rag Mail Online.

“Agy [Agyness Deyn] and Albert had a big row before she came to London for Fashion Week,” a source said. “He’s really cut up and his bandmates checked him into rehab last week.” Also, the Strokes were allegedly forced to stop work on their 4th LP while Hammond seeks help for substance abuse.

I’ll leave that question mark in the headline for now, as I don’t really trust some sites with the whole “a source said” routine, but we’ll update as soon as we get official confirmation.

Paul Banks isn’t the only famous NYC-based frontman going solo of late: Strokes’ Julian Casablancas has announced a forthcoming solo tour and album. There’s a cryptic website of course, but for the handful of known facts, check out the press release below:

Julian Casablancas is wrapping up work on his debut solo recording scheduled for release this fall on Cult Records/RCA.

The eight songs were written and recorded over the last 12 months with studio work completed in Los Angeles, New York City and Nebraska. The project was produced by Jason Lader with additional production by Mike Mogis.

The album, entitled Phrazes for the Young, features all new material written by Casablancas.  Track titles include: “River of Brake Lights,” “Glass” and     “Ludlow St.”

Casablancas, a founding member of The Strokes, plans to announce a special series of U.S. dates shortly to be followed by a solo tour later in the year.

Producer Nigel Godrich has been doing some rare interviews of late promoting his From The Basement live sessions and lots of interesting bits are showing up about his work with Radiohead, Beck, and many more top artists. In a talk with Drowned In Sound’s Rob Webb, Godrich answered some questions from messageboard users, including his opinion on auto-tune, his favorite producers, and the story behind the aborted sessions for The Strokes’ second album.

The Strokes enlisted Godrich to work on the follow-up to their breakthrough debut Is This It back in 2002, but they parted ways very early in the process, with the band calling the sessions “soulless.” Godrich elaborated on the scrapped project with DIS, saying there were just too many cooks in the kitchen. “You know, the problem there was that me and Julian [Casablancas] are just too similar, we’re both control freaks,” he said. “He wanted to do it his way, I wanted to do it my way, and obviously that’s the point of me being there. And I’m saying ‘Well, why am I here if you’re not prepared to try and do it the way I want to do it?’” Godrich goes on to praise the band’s first two albums, adding, “my ambition was for them to change, so that they would remain that force, and I felt like if they didn’t then they’d have nowhere to go. I think it kind of happened, but not really.”

So he liked Room on Fire, but on their last album, First Impressions of Earth, Godrich sounds off: “I didn’t like it. Nobody liked it! It was a reaction, and that was exactly my point. The second record you could be bold and do what the fuck you want, you could do anything, and by the time it got to the third record it felt a little bit apologetic, like they were trying to make themselves into something they weren’t, trying to regain that ground.”