The New Year - Recording and Touring

Recording and Touring

In 2000, The New Year recorded their first album, Newness Ends, in Chicago, with Steve Albini (who had previously recorded the final Bedhead album "Transaction De Novo"); it was released in February 2001 on Touch & Go Records. Because the lineup wasn't complete at the time of its recording, not everyone credited on the album (namely Schmidt) actually played on it. The album garnered much critical praise and comparison to the Kadanes' previous work. The Kadanes said in interviews at the time that they felt the only real difference between Bedhead and The New Year was the name and that if Bedhead had not disbanded, their next album would have sounded very similar to Newness Ends.

After a short tour to support Newness Ends the members separated again and almost everyone worked on other projects. The Kadanes recorded a score for the documentary film Hell House, the soundtrack of which wasn't released until 2004, though the film first appeared in 2001. Brokaw released solo recordings, played on recordings by Evan Dando and Consonant and collaborated on a project with playwright Rinde Eckert. Peter Schmidt played with the Legendary Crystal Chandelier, whose second and final album, Beyond Indifference, was released at about the same time as Newness Ends.

In 2003 the members regrouped as The New Year to record the material that would become the album The End Is Near. The album, released by Touch & Go Records in May 2004, was again recorded by Steve Albini. The band filmed a music video (a first for the Kadanes) for the song "Disease" to accompany the album.

A third The New Year record was released on September 9, 2008, after nearly four years of inactivity from the band. The new material is described by Touch and Go Records in a release stating,

Lyrically, these ten songs address the interlocked themes of lost time, frustrated desire, and the need for others. Although musically these may be the band's most varied songs — for a band that made innovative use of three guitars, almost half the songs here are built around the piano — it is the careful sequence of these songs that brings the story the lyrics tell together.

Will Johnson from the band Centro-matic accompanied the band on the US leg of its autumn 2008 tour.

Singer Bubba Kadane says 2008's The New Year is the first album he actually likes to listen to on his own time. "The difference with this record, for me personally, is that I want to listen to it more than the other records," he said.

In June 2012 drummer Chris Brokaw posted on his website that "THE NEW YEAR has begun work on a new lp in Chicago, again with Mr. Steve Albini at the controls."