The Eagles hope to take flight with a new album -- sooner rather than later, according to guitarist Joe Walsh. "I would say the first half of next year we should be able to put out a new Eagles album," he tells Billboard.com, adding with a laugh that "it'll be nice to have some new songs to play, 'cause we're sick of the old ones!"

The Eagles have been talking about a new studio album, their first since 1979's "The Long Run," since launching the tongue-in-cheek series of Farewell tours in 2003. The recording sessions so far, according to Walsh, have yielded "pretty much basic tracks for people to take and write words to. We've got a bunch of stuff floating around."

But after touring Europe earlier in the summer, Walsh says there's a new resolve to start turning those ideas into finished songs. "We decided we better get some new product out, some new songs," he says. "We could rest on our laurels and play our catalog forever, but we're not a nostalgia band. We've got another record in us. We don't have a mean ol' record company to tell us we're done anymore, so we're taking too long. We really need to just police ourselves and get in there and get it finished and put it out."

Two new songs, Walsh's "One Day at a Time" and Glenn Frey's "No More Cloudy Days," appeared on last year's live DVD "Farewell 1 Tour -- Live From Melbourne," which the band released via its own Eagles Recording Co. imprint.

First up for Walsh, however, is his first tour with the James Gang in 35 years. As previously reported, the outing begins Aug. 10 in Sturgis, N.D. Walsh won't rule out the possibility of recording new music with the trio too, but he quickly adds, "I really don't know what to expect. I just don't see a whole lot of improvising rock'n'roll bands out there now, so I think maybe there's a little window here for a spontaneous group like us. I'm excited to see where it goes."