My Bloody Valentine Promise New Album in 2012

It may have taken them more than two decades, but My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields says the band is finally just about finished with the follow-up to 1991's 'Loveless' -- and that it'll be out before the end of the year.

Shields broke the news to NME, revealing that the new record would be released via the band's website and promising that there's another EP of new material in the pipeline. "I think with this record, people who like us will immediately connect with something," he reflected. "Based on the very, very few people who’ve heard stuff – some engineers, the band, and that’s about it – some people think it’s stranger than 'Loveless.' I don’t. I feel like it really frees us up, and in the bigger picture it’s 100 percent necessary."

Shields went on to discuss the band's plans to perform songs from the new record next May at the Tokyo Rocks festival. Explaining that bassist Debbie Googe played the festival last year with Primal Scream, Shields mused, "She said it was good so we were like ‘Cool, we’ll do it.'" Referring to the 60,000 seat venue, he added, "It’s in some baseball stadium, it’ll be the biggest semi-enclosed gig we’ve ever done."