The Conformists: Writing New Tunes, Playing at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center Tonight

The Conformists - who are playing a show at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center tonight, with Baltimore's Yukon and locals AXO - are working on new music.

The quartet's next CD, the follow-up to 2007's Three Hundred, will be a joint release between Chicago's Sickroom Records (which will put out the album on CD) and 54 40 or Fight (which will handle vinyl). In typical Conformists fashion, though, when this music will surface is unclear.

"We think the album will be out in early '10," says vocalist Mike Benker. "I say this because we probably won't finish writing until late summer (if we are lucky). and then [we] need time to record it and press it. I would pull a rough date of March of '10 directly out of my ass."

Benker's quite excited about the new music, however - not the least because of the presence of new drummer, Shawn O'Connor from Yowie.

"Shawn is being oppressed by us every day because he is the most energetic guy and we keep trying to hold him down," he says. "He made us very, very tight and has an enthusiasm that is a breath of fresh air. I think he helped bring some rock back into the tunnel of strange we were going down.

"The songs are crisp and different for us," Benker continues. "We are coming from different places and us 'traditionalists' have been the ones slowing the writing process. Shawn has so much ability that he can write a drum part to literally everything we come up with."

The band has a demo of a newer song called "Quality" posted on its MySpace. The show tonight starts at 8 p.m. and costs $5.