Now, while we're not allowed to write about everything we saw (and heard) just yet, we'd be remiss if we didn't share one bit of top-secret studio story with you: Paramore are pretty terrible at basketball.

See, the "studio" they're working in is actually attached to Cavallo's house, and right next to it is a regulation hoop, which means that after laying down a vocal track, Hayley Williams can wander outside and shoot some free throws. Josh Farro can record a guitar solo, then drain some threes. This is theraputic ... a break from the monotony and minutiae of making an album.

And since they've been doing this for more than a month now, you would think they'd be getting pretty good at basketball. Well, you'd be wrong. And we have photographic proof of this, which you can see after the jump.

After wrapping up our interview, 60 percent of the band -- guitarists Farro and Taylor York, plus drummer Zac Farro -- headed out to the court to shoot some hoops (Williams went to the bathroom, bassist Jeremy Davis took a phone call on a skateboard), and invited me to play with them. Luckily, I had my camera.

You can click on the picture to see what happened next ... After clanging about 15 layups off the backboard, York decided his time would be better spent scaling the hoop, then swatting away jump shots. He didn't get a ton of work, though, because the Farro brothers were busy tossing up an assortment of bricks and airballs, much to the delight of Paramore's manager and Cavallo's studio crew.

It was 15 minutes of the most technically unsound basketball we had ever witnessed ... one-handed jumpers, six-inch verticals, dribbles off the foot ... just ugly (kind of like the just-wrapped Nuggets/Hornets playoff series). Pretty soon, everyone just gave up and got soft-serve ice cream from Cavallo's garage.

And that was probably a wise choice. Because ... sometimes, practice doesn't make perfect. Paramore could spend the next year at Cavallo's crib, and it's probably not going to change the following sentence: As basketball players, Paramore are a pretty great band.

At first, it seemed like a rather odd place — a suburb in the middle of nowhere — for a platinum-plus rock act to be hammering away on their new album, but it seems like the surroundings have only brought out the best in the guys (and gal), judging from their sunny demeanors, lack of haggard studio beards, and, well the six brand-new songs we heard.

And while we can't say anything about the new tunes just yet (but know that they do, in fact, rock pretty hard), we do have one rather HUGE bit of news that we can break to you: a release date for the record!

When? Well, read on to find out!

Okay, so get out your calendars. Turns out, according to the band — and confirmed by their labels, Fueled By Ramen and Atlantic — the follow-up to Riot! will be hitting stores this September.

There's no word on a title, or a first single (though Hayley Williams did say that one of the songs we heard "sure sounds like" it's gonna be the first one out of the gate), but fans can look forward to hearing a couple of the new songs this summer, on Paramore's tour with No Doubt.

That's about all we can tell you right now. But trust us, there's going to be plenty more from our studio visit in the coming weeks, so, be on the lookout for a whole bunch of news about the new album, straight from Paramore themselves, over on MTVNews.com

Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got to get back to that soft-serve.

And while the NFG Snuggies are pretty great (we dig airbrushing in any form), we couldn't help but think that perhaps Hayley left a lot on the table with this one. After all, at this point, Snuggies are positively passé. YouTube is crawling with parodies of the low-budget "blanket with sleeves" commercial. Bill Maher did a "New Rules" spot on them. And last week, Jimmy Fallon swathed his entire audience (and Tracy Morgan) in Snuggies for a bit on "Late Night." Enough, we dare say, is enough.

See, there are plenty of other "as seen on TV" products Hayley could have gotten for her beloved instead of a Snuggie. So if she's looking for another gift idea (or if Gilbert would like to return the favor when Paramore finish their new album), we've compiled some of the best below.

The ShamWow: A bastardized version of the chamois your dad used to dry his Pontiac, as pitched by a skeezy guy named Vince. The ShamWow's biggest claim to fame is that it can hold "12 times its weight in liquid," which makes it the perfect gift for cleaning up the mess left behind by those boozy backstage blowouts, or whenever NFG drummer Cyrus Bolooki spontaneously combusts.

Hercules Hook Hanging Wall Innovation: A really long name for really strong hooks — a key to any successful rock album — made famous by bearded pitchman Billy Mays. Apparently, the Herc Hooks are so strong they can hold "up to 150 pounds" and are so easy "you can hang an entire family picture gallery in no time," the latter of which will certainly help people remember the other dudes in Williams' and Gilbert's respective bands.

The Showtime Rotisserie: The rotating grill hawked by the godfather of TV pitchmen, Ron Popeil, Showtime allows you to "set it and forget it," which means Williams can prep a slab of ribs in the dressing room before a big show and enjoy fall-off-the-bone BBQ the minute she steps off the stage. This is important — trust us.

The Peticure Grooming Tool: A high-tech sorta-roto-file thingy that claims to offer the painless and easy way to care for your pets' nails. This would be great, provided either Williams or Gilbert even have pets. If not, then perhaps Williams could use the Peticure to file her own nails, or maybe take on NFG frontman Jordan Pundik's toenails. Those things are out of hand at this point.

Giuseppe Franco's ProCede: If Williams or Gilbert is a Mets fan, well, then chances are they're already familiar with Giuseppe Franco's miracle treatment for thinning hair (since it aired roughly 3,897 times during games last season). But if they're not, well, then this is the perfect gift for either of them — or NFG guitarist Steve Klein, since he's gone a little short on top. Gary Busey swears by the product (honest), and as the majestically maned Giuseppe himself says in the ProCede spot: "Hey, I'm Giuseppe Franco. I'm not putting my name on the line for something that doesn't work." Good enough for us.

In honor of Britney Spears' return to the road, MTV takes you all the way back to 2004, when Brit last set out on her Onyx Hotel Tour.

The Jonas Brothers' road to pop-culture domination hit a rough patch this weekend. The boys' "3D Concert Experience" underperformed at the box office. Looks like Nick, Joe and Kevin will just have to settle for selling out arenas instead of theatres.

Paramore's leading lady is still on the market. Contrary to reports by a Canadian blogger, Hayley Williams is not engaged to Chad from New Found Glory.

Chris Brown was photographed on a jet ski just three weeks after the alleged altercation between him and Rih Rih. If this was before the domestic-violence case, no eyebrows would be raised; now, however, it creates concern and raises many questions.

Beyoncé, R&B's reigning diva, finally opens up about life with Jay-Z. While in the public eye, she is all put-together, but she reveals her messy side — a side that Jay-Z actually gets bothered by.

Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Years is what’s known as a “dead zone” around here, primarily because, well, the music industry usually takes that week off too. Still, we in the news business still need to generate content, so we tend to publish "evergreen" stories that might be light on actual news, but still feature artists that people care about in the headlines.

Anyway, here's a prime example of one: A light story about Paramore working on their new album, which we published early in the morning on December 29 and did not have big expectations for. But here's what's funny — sometime around New Year's Eve, this tiny Paramore story became a very big deal. Or, at least the picture associated with it did.

Seems that, to most Paramore fans, the picture gave them their first glimpse at frontwoman Hayley Williams' new two-tone hairdo. The 'do became a rather contentious subject on sites like AbsolutePunk and Oh No They Didn't!, with the overwhelming majority of commenters giving it a resounding thumbs down (though some went to great lengths to point out that, despite the fact they didn't like Williams' new hairstyle, they would, for the record, "still hit it"). And in the days since, the chatter has yet to die down, which means that: a) people have a lot of free time on their hands, b) this is clearly a big deal, and c) we needed to do a blog listing some of the most disastrous hairstyles in history.

So, after the jump, we've done just that — compiled a list of some of the hugest hair-tastrophes of all time. Does Williams' new skunk-do rank amongst the very worst? Read on.

1. Keri Russell's de-shearing on "Felicity" — You may not remember, but back in 2000, Russell and her hair were big news: When she cut her impossibly curly locks into a face-framing 'do, ratings on “Felicity” plummeted. Suits at the WB (which aired the show) went on record as saying, "When [she] cut the hair off ... you diluted the icon ... it turned some audience away, in particular men and some women." Show producer J.J. Abrams claimed that "Felicity" would be able to recover from the so-called "Hair-gate," but within two years, the show was off the air. Proof that hair is very serious business indeed.

2. Phil Spector's courtroom Afro — While on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2007 (a trial that, after jurors deadlocked on a verdict, continues to this day), Spector sported this impressive 'fro, which made the rounds on the Net and sparked a wave of "that has to be Photoshopped" comments. Incredibly, it wasn't. More incredibly, the hairdo was a bigger story than Spector beating a murder wrap. Well, either "incredible" or "depressing."

3. David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" mullet — Bowie's '72 'do was groundbreaking (and awful) for several reasons — the color, the feathering, the fact that it was the prototype for millions of Kentucky Waterfalls and/or NASCUTS that would follow — but we'd like to point out that it has somehow also become the go-to cut for weird aunts and women in oversized cat T-shirts the world over, proof that Bowie's popularity truly knows no bounds.

4. Amy Winehouse's beehive — We're willing to cut Winehouse a break, primarily because there is a 75 percent chance that she has no idea where she is, let alone what her hair looks like, but her towering beehive makes the list not just because it inspired thousands of stupid Halloween costumes, but because we shudder to think of just what's hiding inside it (squirrels? Drugs? Bla-a-ake?). Also, imagine the smell.

5. The Flock of Seagulls swoop — A 'do so bad, it became symbolic of an entire decade's worth of terrible hairstyles. An impossible amalgamation of Aqua Net and gravity-defying physics, it's also gone down in history as Seagulls frontman Mike Score's greatest contribution to popular culture. Well, either that or "I Ran (So Far Away)."

6. The Bill Kaulitz — Epically spiked. Environmentally unfriendly. Aerodynamically unsound. Bizarrely anime-esque. The greatest hair achievement of the '00s.

Find out how you can cast your vote for Woodie of the Year over at the mtvU Woodies Blog.

But lo! The end is near ... because on July 28, they'll embark on "The Final Riot!," a summer tour which, if you couldn't guess by the name, will be their final jaunt of 2008 and the last time you'll get to see them before they've got a brand-new album to promote (an album that firecracker-y frontwoman Hayley Williams talked to MTV News about earlier this month).

So if you haven't caught Paramore live yet (were you in jail or something?), well, you better get cracking. As an added bonus, Jack's Mannequin, Phantom Planet and Paper Route are all coming along for the ride too. Full dates after the jump.

7/28 Reno, NV @ Grand Sierra Theatre
7/30 Costa Mesa, CA @ Pacific Amphitheatre (OC Fair)
8/1 San Diego, CA @ Concerts On The Green
8/2 Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheatre
8/5 Little Rock, AR @ Riverfest Amphitheatre
8/6 New Orleans, LA @ The Sugarmill
8/7 Memphis, TN @ Mud Island Amphitheatre
8/10 Baltimore, MD @ Virgin Festival 2008 - Pimlico Race Course
8/12 Chicago, IL @ Congress Theatre
8/13 Sterling Hts, MI @ Freedom Hill
8/15 Philadelphia, PA @ Festival Pier, Penn's Landing
8/16 Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Park Convention Hall
8/17 Providence, RI @ Providence Piers
8/22 Montreal, QUE @ Metropolis
8/23 Toronto, ONT @ Kool Haus
8/24 Cleveland, OH @ Time Warner Cable Ampitheatre
8/26 St. Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
8/29 Portsmouth, VA @ nTelos Wireless Pavilion
8/30 Wallingford, CT @ Chevrolet Theatre