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Mickey Mouse ears provide light-hearted relief in any situation

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back in the studio recording album number three. They're "damn close" to finishing it so expect it to drop in early 2009. It will mark the band's first since 2006's Show Your Bones and the first new material since last year's Is Is EP.

The New Yorkers broke the news with an excited note, explaining – not what the record would sound like – but what it wouldn't…

"Will it sound kind of like Show Your Bones? No, been there done that. What about Is Is? Is that more of the direction it's going in? Absolutely not, it sounds VERY different from last year's EP. Did we go back to our roots and write something closer to Fever to Tell? No looking back now silly, just full speed ahead."

So, what will it sound like? "Does it sound like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? You bet your sweet ass it does." Cheers guys, very helpful.

Fancy dress

At least the studio picture gives a little more away. Leading-lady Karen O is well-known for her 'out there' dress sense, but skeleton cat-suit and Mickey Mouse ears alongside guitarist Nick Zinner's leopard skin coat and face-paint? Let's presume it was a Halloween special. Or dress down Friday, perhaps…