Blondie Promise New Disc Before November Tour

Blondie will release Panic of Girls, their first new album since 2003's The Curse of Blondie, before they begin touring Australia in November, drummer Clem Burke has told Billboard . The exact release date of the disc, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' third since they reunited in 1997, has yet to be decided.

Look back at Blondie's previous releases in their complete RS discography.

Blondie previewed some new songs on their recent tour with the Pretenders, including "What I Heard," "Mother" and "The End." "We've been getting a great reception with the new material," Burke said. The band, who have recorded every album since 1980's Autoamerican in New York City, cut Panic, in Woodstock, New York last November. The sessions yielded 35 tracks, roughly 14 of which will appear on Panic of Girls. "Everyone in the band contributed songs," Burke said, while also referencing to the departure of keyboardist Jimmy Destri: "We've switched out a few people in the band so the creative dynamic has changed a little bit." Destri, who wrote Blondie tracks like "Picture This," "Atomic" and the 1999 comeback single "Maria," retired from touring in 2003, and while he'd planned on rejoining Blondie in the studio, sat these last sessions out.

Photos: Debbie Harry, the Beatles, Elvis and more rockers hit the beach.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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