Soul Asylum finishing up first new album since 2006, tentatively titled 'Rough Air'

Photo by Steve Cohen

Dave Pirner singing at Tommy Stinson's solo show at First Avenue this past May

​Though Soul Asylum have continued to gig sporadically in the Twin Cities (and Dave Pirner has taken up a part-time job smashing guitars at his bass player's solo gigs), it's been five years since the band released a new record -- their last, The Silver Lining, was released in 2006 following founding bass player Karl Mueller's death. According to Billboard, Pirner and the rest of the current Soul Asylum lineup, which includes Danny Murphy, Tommy Stinson, and Michael Bland, are working in studios in both Minneapolis and New Orleans to finish up a new full-length that's tentatively titled Rough Air. "There's more personality than one would expect in this day and age because the personalities in this band are so strong," Pirner told the magazine, describing the sound of the record as something that can be "loosely categorized as rock... What I've learned, being in New Orleans and trying to see past the obvious influence of roots music on rock 'n' roll, you start to take really bizarre, subtle detours that are really trying to sneak something else into the language. It's not a box you have to think outside of; it's a box you have to be comfortable with."

Pirner says that Soul Asylum's management is still in talks with labels and distribution companies, so they don't have an official release date on the horizon quite yet, but it's something he hopes to have hammered out "within the next couple of weeks."

Billboard also notes that 2011 marks the 30-year anniversary of Soul Asylum's debut record, Made to be Broken, but the band doesn't have any plans to commemorate the occasion just yet. Perhaps a tribute night in the Mainroom is in order? Pirner could crash the stage and teach some of the young'uns how it's done.