More news on the new Hippos album

with this post from www.thehippos.com:
"Hello friends,

Ariel here; I know it's been a long time since we've spoken and a lot has definitely changed. This letter should clear up any misconceptions and rumors. After five incredible years, hundreds of amazing shows, and thousands of the best fans and friends around, we've happily decided to move on.

After our last tour, Australia 2000, we came home to write songs for our third album. It had been about two and a half years since we had written the songs for "heads are gonna roll" and a lot had changed. At the beginning of the writing process, the songs sounded like the hippos naturally evolving, but by the end of the writing process it wasn't the hippos at all. All the members were writing their own songs, coming into their own, and in some cases going in different directions. I know that sounds like inner tension, but there was nothing of the sort. In fact; we were getting along better than ever. It was at this point that we decided to go our own separate ways. The only problem: we had all these great songs (enough to fill two albums and then some), so this brings us to our new record. We decided the first ten songs we wrote for this the new record would be most fitting. So there you have it, our new album, and we are truly proud of it. We are expecting the release date to be sometime in early 2003. We will keep you posted .

On behalf of myself, and the rest of the hippos, thank you so much for everything you've given us. We will never take that for granted.

P.S. whether you like it or not you'll be hearing from us in different incarnations, so keep a look out and we'll see you soon!"

In post-Hippos news - currently, Ariel, James and Louis are in a band called Dirty Little Secret, and Rich is in a band called Southbase. No word on the other members' current projects.