Pitchfork

Power-pop-emo heroes the Promise Ring have inked a deal with Anti Records, a division of punk label Epitaph Records, and can now boast that they share a label with Tricky, Merle Haggard, and Tom Waits. The Promise Ring's fourth full-length album is set to be released under Anti's Foreign Leisure imprint in Spring 2002. Yes, a subsidiary of a division of a record label.

The Promise Ring spent this past summer recording, with help from such luminaries as Beastie Boys producer Mario Caldato Jr. and Air/Moog Cookbook keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr. The band is currently in England recording ten tracks with former Smiths/Morrissey producer Stephen Street. The boys has reportedly demoed forty potential tracks for their next already, so maybe they'll get it right this time. What? It could happen. Maybe.

According to an official Anti Records press release, the Promise Ring are "deftly messing with their traditional mix of two guitars, bass and drums" on the new tracks. No, it's not going to be a foray into speed metal, but "drum machines, keyboards, the occasional junky synth and lots of other left turns trafficked by Caldato and Street" will feature prominently.