Sparks Team Up With Franz Ferdinand for New Album and Tour

The legendary Sparks have been teasing fans for some time now about their next move. And it looks like the duo will be teaming up with Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand for a new album and tour. You can check out a teaser video for the collaboration above.

“This all started coming together when both our bands played Coachella two years ago,” Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos recently told the Los Angeles Times. “We were both in San Francisco at the same time, and we started talking, you know, ‘We should record a song together sometime.’ A lot of times people say that, and nothing ever happens, but they followed up, and we started exchanging ideas, and pretty quickly we had six songs worked up and realized, ‘This is going to be an album.’”

Kapranos recently joined Sparks' Ron and Russell Mael onstage in Los Angeles for a special concert centered on Sparks' 1974 album Kimono My House, which was played in its entirety with a 38-piece orchestra. The singer took the stage with the duo for the song "When Do I Get to Sing My Way?" from Sparks' 1994 album Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins. "To get to sing it with them is such an honor," Kapranos said.

The two bands will hit the road together in Europe starting in June, with U.S.dates promised to follow. You can see the dates below. Hopefully, this will be a win-win for everyone: turning younger fans on to Sparks' vast catalog and history while introducing older Sparks fans to one of rock's most interesting bands of the new millennium.

Franz Ferdinand / Sparks Tour Dates

June 16 -- Glasgow, U.K. - Arts School
June 22 -- Zagreb, Croatia - Inmusic Festival
June 24 -- Brussels, Belgium - AB
June 26 -- Paris, France - Bataclan
June 29 -- London, U.K. - Troxy
July 01 -- Cologne, Germany - Gloria
July 02 -- Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
July 05 -- Lyon, France - Transbordeur
July 10 -- Trencin, Slovakia - Pohoda Festival
July 19 -- Benicassim, Spain - Benicassim Festival
Sept. 12 -- Berlin, Germany - Lollapalooza

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Worst Snubs

See the Top 100 Albums of the '70s