Having been the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon since its launch in 2009 has meant that live hip-hop crew The Roots have been fairly tied down when it comes to touring. And although they’ve abstained from hitting the road extensively for their last two records, it now looks like the band are set to break their long abstinence, with Australia set to enjoy the benefits.

Drumming ringleader ?uestlove has leaked the news that The Roots will be headed down under for a tour before the year is out, as FasterLouder reports, the news arriving via ?uestlove, real name Ahmir Thompson, answering a fan’s query via twitter.


A post-Christmas tour from the band would mark the funk/rap/soul collective’s first visit since the 2007 Blues and Roots Festival, also playing sideshows, and despite a scheduled appearance on the 2009 bill for Good Vibrations, they had cancel due to scheduling problems (presumably to do with filming for Jimmy Fallon) and replaced by A Tribe Called Quest ringleader Q-Tip. Before becoming the Late Night house band, The Roots also visited Australia in 2005 and first in 2003 for the Vivid Festival.

Playing the week after Christmas Day potentially puts The Roots in line for a possible festival appearance, whether that’s a slot at the Falls Festival, Pyramid, Field Day, Southbound, or any other of the New Year’s events.

The tour news follows on from ?uestlove revealing the tracklist for the new album they’re working on with Elvis Costello, Wise Up Ghost, as FactMag points out. Originally intended as an EP with the British singer-songwriter, The Roots eventually recorded up to 20 songs with the 58-year-old veteran.

“It was really love at first sight,” the drummer told Billboard of their latest collaborator, the two parties meeting over three Late Night appearances; “The second time he came on, we surpassed the first one,” says ?uestlove, “so by the third time, he was like, ‘Let’s stop messing around and do something together.'”

The Roots have also begun work on the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated 2011 album, the hip-hop concept record Undun. Curiously titled & Then You Shoot Your Cousin, The Roots’ 11th studio album is due for release late 2013/early 2014 – possibly in time for the band’s Australian visit.

Watch The Roots cover Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ as ‘Black Simon & Garfunkel’ and lead MC Black Thought freestyling over the Super Mario Bros. theme on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon below while you stoke your excitement for the band’s December tour.

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