Canadian rock outfit the Arcade Fire has 15 songs recorded for the follow-up to its 2004 breakthrough, "Funeral," according to a post from Win Butler on the band's Web site. "We have maybe 15 songs with little bits left to record and a few more we want to get to tape," he wrote. "We are going to try and record a couple of songs in me and Regine [Chassagne]'s living room, because the drums sound so great in there."

The group is also incorporating new instrumentation in the mix, including "a huge f*cking pipe organ" that will appear on two songs. In early July, violinist Owen Pallet, who records under the name Final Fantasy, will join the band at its Montreal studio.

Butler adds, "There is talk of recording a few songs with a full orchestra in Budapest. The next couple of weeks we will be pulling our hair out." The group recently took time out from recording to attend one of Radiohead's shows in Montreal and hit the town with bassist Colin Greenwood and guitarist Ed O'Brien.

"Funeral" peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and has sold 291,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. According to a spokesperson, a tentative February or March release date is being eyed for the new album.