Led by singer Bert McCracken, the band has put together five songs for the album so far. "When we first started writing we never had any idea about the type of songs we wanted," McCracken says. "We just concentrated on the emotion behind the song and let it come out however it did."

A year on the road with the Warped Tour and Ozzfest helped McCracken and the rest of the band -- all natives of Orem, Utah -- mature, and provided fodder for the new record. "I think we're a little more sophisticated," says McCracken. "We grew up a lot in the last year. We know ourselves better and we know more about music, more about playing live and the songs we're writing now are a reflection of that."

McCracken, who missed shows and was hospitalized this spring with pancreatitis, had surgery recently to repair a broken foot he suffered on the Used's fall tour. He broke it while jumping off a drum riser onstage in San Francisco September 24th, but played gigs in Denver and Salt Lake City before discovering the fracture.

"I didn't think it was broken -- I just tied up my shoe tighter and finished the set," McCracken says. "I decided to wait until I got back to Salt Lake, but it was too fucked up to cast. They re-fragmented the bone and put it together with wire, pinned it up and screwed it."

McCracken and the Used will take to the stage again for an outing with Jane's Addiction this winter.