New York, NY's Sonic Youth are gearing up to write a new album that will hopefully be due out in early 2009. The band was recently seen playing songs for the Marc Jacobs runway show during Fashion Week. Band leader Thurston Moore had this to say afterwards:

"We haven't gotten together in about four months, we've been taking a nice sort of break, which is good. I've been actually able to escape into the basement. We're going to Australia next week for about two weeks then we'll come back and start writing."

Moore will also appear at SXSW along with a showcase for his label, Ecstatic Peace. The new album will be a follow up to 2006's Rather Ripped.