Van Halen: new single coming any day now?

David Lee Roth says "Get Ready..." For some new VH? One would think. © Sean Masterson/epa/Corbis

Van Halen could be dropping a new single any day now. Or at any moment now. Over the past few days, rumours have been swirling that the group would release their first all-new recording since 1998 (and the first to feature Eddie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang, on bass) sometime over the July 4th weekend.

So far, it hasn't happened. But that doesn't mean it won't. Van Halen's publicist, when asked to confirm a single was imminent, was silent on the matter. But over the weekend, lead singer David Lee Roth posted this simple yet cryptic message on his website: "Get Ready..."

Ready for what? Something, obviously.

Apparently, the upcoming Van Halen album is in the finishing stages. Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti, who has struck up a friendship with Wolfgang, recently told Ross Ford, a morning radio show host on Colorado's 94.3 KILO, that the bassist took him to the 5150 studio to hear the band rehearse. What he got was a proper rundown of the entire album, which he described as "old school" in sound.

"What makes it so great is that they took what they could from all their old demos back in the '80s and pretty much did what they could to create songs out of old ideas, so it sounds like vintage Van Halen," said Tremonti. "I didn't hear any vocals - David was not there. It was just the three of them. The music sounded like very authentic, old-school Van Halen."

So what to make of all of this? Well, as Roth says, "Get Ready..."