Kevin Bronson on May 10th, 2019

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Questions, questions, questions: Is “The O.C.” in syndication? (Can’t find it anywhere.) Do we miss that opening piano riff of “California?” (Probably more than we want to admit.) Are those great “Music From the O.C.” compilations on Spotify? (Of course.) Has it really been 25 years since Phantom Planet formed at a local pizza joint? (Wow, we’re old.)

All these things crept into hour heads this week when Phantom Planet released the new single “Balisong” and announced that a new album is in the works. The band — singer-songwriter Alex Greenwald, bassist Sam Farrar, guitarist Darren Robinson and drummer Jeff Conrad (who replaced original drummer Jason Schwartzman in 2004) — thus ends a hiatus that began after the 2008 release of their fourth album, “Raise the Dead.”

“It’s exciting and it is a bit unexpected — especially just how quickly this snowballed,” Greenwald told Billboard, where the new song premiered. “It’s cool people remember us and want to hear more from us. I have friends who when I brought up that we were gonna make a record they were like, ‘Oh! F***in’ finally!’ They didn’t want to bring it up before, but obviously they were hoping for it.”

The vaguely edgy “Balisong” is a nice fit in the power-poppers’ catalog, a little less sanguine that most of their early-Aughts releases but still devoted to 1970s pop-rock. It’s thankfully not trying to be the Strokes.

The quartet is working with noted producer Tony Berg on the new album, so there’s more on the way.

||| Stream: “Balisong”

||| Live: Phantom Planet performs tonight at the Lodge Room in a show that was originally scheduled for Resident. (Tickets purchased for the original venue will be honored.) It’s sold out.