I wasn’t too broken up about New Order’s acrimonious demise in 2007, since the last few records weren’t exactly up to par, but the split seems to be permanent this time. In fact, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris have started a new band with touring New Order guitarist Phil Cunningham (who replaced Morris’ wife Gillian Gilbert). The group is called Bad Lieutenant and features none other than Blur’s Alex James on bass. Trading Peter Hook’s ego for that of Alex James’ is a risky albeit interesting move. It’s a definite style transition, as James and Hook have significantly different approaches to the instrument. Regardless, Bad Lieutenant already has an album in the can set for release this coming October. Sumner recently told the BBC that he’s very proud of the record, adding, “it’s pretty guitary too because we’ve got three guitarists in the band.” Sumner performed an acoustic version of the track “Sink or Swim” off the the forthcoming record for Sky Arts back in March. The song sounds similar to another of Sumner’s bands with ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Electronic. [via word of mouth from About Today]