SMAP concert and new album news

Didn't think I was going to update again tonight, but when news happens it happens.

It's been announced that SMAP will be releasing a new album at the end of the month and will have a dome concert tour. For SMAP fans I know this is long awaited news, especially the concerts. Yahoo!Japan News has the article that talks about both, in Japanese only though. And it sounds like SMAP is making sure the wait was worth it for their fans.

The album titled, [super. modern.artistic.performance], after the groups initials, will have 19 tracks. It will be released on September 24th, so once it's up for pre-order on cdjapan I'll put up a link to it.

The concerts will all take place in four domes, Tokyo (6 concerts), Fukuoka (3 concerts), Nagoya (2 concerts) and Sapporo (2 concerts). (I will be surprised if they all don't sell out.)

I'm not really a SMAP fan but I do realize that they really did a lot to make JE what it is today. Pretty much all the younger groups can thank SMAP for paving the way for them. Not to mention it's just amazing that they have been around for so long and are still around together.

Their release schedule is rather erratic, probably because nowadays they're more focused on their shows and other aspects of their careers other than the music, so I'm sure this is incredibly exciting news for their fans.

EDIT: Tokyograph has their article out about the news in English.