While Ryan Adams & the Cardinals were busy trying to remember “Halloweenhead” over the Apollo Theatre on Friday night, several media outlets were publishing stories that either shed some light on the frontman’s future endeavors, or are setting fans up for more disappointment.

In a perfect world, we would have had that long rumored cover album of The Strokes’ Is This It for years now, while “a multi-disc boxed set of odds-and-end,” aka as the loads of b-sides and other material only available as internet bootlegs, would have served for a nice summer soundtrack. But between the blogging, death metal, and Cardinology, the 33-year-old North Carolina native only has time for so much, and as a result, the status of the aforementioned items along with the countless other projects that have one time or another crossed Adams’ mind only to ultimately added to the list of “To Do” items, still remain very much a fantasy.

However, depending on who you believe, several of these “To Do” items could be finally crossed off in the coming months. Take the recent profile of Adams done by Reuters for example. It’s not the details relating to Cardinology’s release challenge that’s most interesting. Neither is its quote by Adams forecasting what sound he might experiment with next - “S–t’s going to get weird and awesome,” he says. “Because we’re into bands like Oasis and Foo Fighters: big, monolithic rock bands who really explore all those areas. That’s what Cardinals is. That’s the work I want to do.” - though that is fascinating in itself. No, it’s one line hidden deep in the depths of second to last paragraph that will have fans most smiling:

(In 2009, Lost Highway will issue an Adams anthology featuring several new songs.)

Is this is a typo of some sort, or is Lost Highway finally ready to make that “fantasy” a reality? To offer a bit of background, last June, around the time Adams was gearing up for the release of Easy Tiger, Billboard published an article reporting that the singer/songwriter’s label had plans to release an extensive back catalog before the end of the year.

According to a label spokesperson, the set may include live tracks, the fabled unreleased albums “48 Hours” and “The Suicide Handbook,” the oft-bootlegged “Bedhead” series and leftover songs from the “Easy Tiger” sessions.

However, nine months later with no box set in hands, our friends over at The Rawking Refuses to Stop! took it upon themselves to investigate the status. And the answer?

I checked in with his publicist this morning regarding the delayed release of the long-awaited box set, a collection that could include such fan-loved rarities as the Suicide Handbook and 48 Hours sessions in addition to newer material like the tracks the alt-country songwriter recorded for the Elizabethtown soundtrack. Unfortunately, the status of the set, which was initially announced for a fall 2007 release, is “mostly fantasy, I’m afraid.”

Then there’s the case of that cover album of The Strokes’ Is This It. Rumors of its existence have been around for years - its origin is believed to date back to the time Adams was recording Rock n Roll in 2002. However, while the North Carolina native has publicly commented on the record in the past, the album has never surfaced, not even in the bootleg community.

“I covered the whole album on my fourtrack. I covered it as a blues record. My band has heard it, they all think it’s pretty funny. It isn’t making fun of, its because I really like them a lot.”

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to hear that Adams recently rerecorded his cover album, as per Contact Music:

Rocker RYAN ADAMS has recorded THE STROKES’ IS THIS IT? album on mandolin, pump organ and banjo but fears it’s too “weird” to get released.

Adams tells Rolling Stone magazine he experimented with the acclaimed LP during a bout of illness - and members of The Strokes have been keen to hear what he recorded.

He says, “Fab (Moretti) begged me for a copy of it. I declined - some of it’s bad, and some of it’s just weird.”

Of course, as of today, Adams, who is currently touring in Europe, has offered no public comment relating to either release. We’ll keep checking Foggy, but hopefully, the aforementioned isn’t just another case of unnecessary excitement.

Just in case the latter is the outcome, we figured it’d be nice to leave you with at least something somewhat unheard…

Check Out:
“Last Night” (The Strokes)
“Karina”

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals 2008 Tour Dates:
11/08 - Dublin, IE @ Ambassador Theatre
11/10 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
11/11 - Newcastle, UK @ Newcastle Academy
11/13 - Leeds, UK @ Leeds Academy
11/14 - Edinburgh, UK @ Picture House
11/16 - Cambridge, UK @ Corn Exchange
11/17 - Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham Academy
11/19 - Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome
11/20 - Brixton, UK @ Brixton Academy
11/22 - Southampton, UK @ Southampton Guildhall
12/03 - Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena *
12/04 - Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center *
12/06 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Pearl *
12/08 - Denver, CO @ Broomfield Events Ctr. *
12/10 - Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center *
12/12 - Chicago, IL @ Allstate Arena *
12/13 - Detroit, MI @ Palace of Auburn Hills *
12/15 - London, ON @ John LaBattCentre *
12/17 - New York, NY @ Madison Sq. Garden *
12/19 - Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Center *
12/20 - Washington, DC @ GMU Patriot Center *

* = w/ Oasis

Tickets can be found via ticketmaster.com.

Categories: News
Tags: Ryan Adams, The Cardinals