"We are thinking a new album," Utley said "That’s partly why we're not touring enormously, because in 1998 we toured for a year and a bit and it just crashed us. None of us wanted to see each other for a while after that.

"We got together the other night discussing stuff and getting a bit of a plan together. We’re all gonna be doing stuff. We've finished our touring for this album for this year because of things that we want to do."

Barnes says "Beware Our Nubile Miscreants" is "the most wicked thing I've ever written," while opener "Nonpareil of Favor" "definitely goes somewhere musically that is totally unlike anything I've ever done before."

For Barnes, delving into deeply personal topics has become something of a therapeutic outlet. "I start to feel unbalanced if too much time passes without me being able to record," he says. "I need to shut out the world and disappear into the void. In a way it is like meditation. It definitely gives me a sense of value too. Even if other people hate what I create, as long as I like it, I'm fine. The new record doesn't deal with as many romantic or psychological issues. It is a very personal record still. It is more sexual and frisky than 'Hissing.'" [Read More]

"We basically [used to show] each other song ideas and then that day turn the record button on, having never rehearsed," drummer Greg Saunier tells Billboard.com. "This time we wrote the songs and rehearsed them, and actually played them at a few concerts where we could play them straight through as a band."

But Deerhoof's newfound methods have not made the band any less challenging. "Offend Maggie" extends Deerhoof's schizophrenic approach to melding rock, electronics and free jazz sounds, but also introduces new guitarist Ed Rodriguez, expanding the group to a full-time four-piece.

"Ed's music, in its way, is so flexible," Saunier explains. "He's working with combinations of notes in a sort of very academic way, which could be turned into anything. We turned his ideas into something completely unlike what we would have foreseen."

John Oates wants people to know that he is nothing like what he was when he had a mustache. The Hall & Oates principal is firm about the distinction, because if things go as planned, his mustachioed image could appear on TV in cartoon form kicking ass, rocking out and wearing tight pink pants.

Independent publisher Primary Wave Music Publishing, which owns a majority stake in most of the biggest hits in the Hall & Oates catalog, is shopping a cartoon titled "J-Stache" that further illustrates the dichotomy. As laid out in a two-minute trailer, Oates is portrayed as a modern-day family man and finds himself enticed back to the rock star life by his mustache, which is voiced by comedian Dave Attell. [Read More]