by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“It’s just better overall,” says the Walkmen’s Peter Bauer, promising “11 out of 11 pretty strong, listenable songs” on their next album. He goes on to explain why their upcoming tour will be heavy on new material and light on the old.

“There’s a lot of songs that we won’t play ’cause they’re just bad. We haven’t been the most consistent band.”

Honesty in self-promotion is almost as rare in music as it is in politics—few people will fess up to past blunders, let alone highlight them. But New York City’s Walkmen are no less guilty of padding their records than most bands, and both their 2002 debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, and its 2004 follow-up, Bows + Arrows, have more than their share of unique, enveloping, atmospheric rock songs.

The band’s third album, due in late April and tentatively titled All Hands and the Cook, was recorded in their hometown, Washington, D.C., at Inner Ear Studios with Don Zientara, both of Dischord Records fame. The Walkmen will retire their own studio, Marcata (now the property of Columbia University), when they complete their note-for-note remake of Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats, an album originally recorded with John Lennon in 1974. The quintet is also collaborating on an epic novel. The Mirror questioned Bauer about these projects and their piano.

Mirror: The old upright piano you guys use has such a distinctive sound—I read that you have a few of them stashed around the world so you’ll never be without one on tour.

Peter Bauer: We have two now. We had one in England that exploded. We were pushing it across the street and we hit a curb wrong and dropped it. Seeing a piano blow up is really something. The keys shot off and dust flew out the back. It was great.

M: Tell me about this Harry Nilsson remake.

PB: It’s a record that we all love, so we thought it’d be a fun project. We’re getting string players and a sax player to come in, and it sounds a lot better than we would have expected, so we’re very excited about it. It’ll be out later this year.

M: How about your book, John’s Journey? Is it done?

PB: That is not done. It’s more of a touring project, so once this tour starts we’re going to force ourselves to write in the van every day. But we’ve made some headway. We’ve got 30, 40 pages done, and it only takes so long, as fast as you can type.

M: Is it true that it’s going to be 400 pages long?

PB: That’s pretty much the point of the book. It’s less about the plot, more about the length. Everybody’s switching off, so it’s been pretty open-ended. What I do when I write my chapters is think back to what I did five hours ago, start typing and just remove any reference to rock music.

M: So it’s a semi-autobiographical travelogue?

PB: Basically, it’s about this depressing middle-aged guy named John who travels the I83, and the many, many different things he encounters along the way. He’s supposed to be running away from something that happened with his mother, who was a real sadistic crazy person. Actually, what we have so far is pretty strange.

With guests at la Tulipe on Friday, Jan. 27, 8 p.m., $18

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