Alien Ant Farm back with album, DVD

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Alien Ant Farm will return this summer with its first album since a 2003 European bus crash that killed the band's driver and nearly paralyzed lead singer Dryden Mitchell.

"Up in the Attic," the band's third major-label effort, will be released July 25 via Universal Music's New Door Records imprint.

"We've been through so much, both triumph and defeat," says Mitchell. "But it's been cool that we've kept our fans. I'd do this forever. We're having fun."

Alien Ant Farm shot to fame with 2001's "ANThology," which reached No. 11 on The Billboard 200. The Geffen release spawned the band's hit cover of

Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal," which reached No. 1 on Billboard's airplay-based Modern Rock chart. Its 2003 release, "truANT," was released via the now-defunct DreamWorks Records label.

The new set was produced by Jim Wert, who helmed the band's 1999 independent debut "Greatest Hits."

Also July 25, AAF will release "BUSted," a DVD chronicling life on the road as well rounding up music videos, interviews and concert footage. The band is also plotting a summer tour in support of "Up in the Attic."

Reuters/Billboard