AUSTIN, Texas--Unified Theory [ tickets ] has called off a March tour and has canceled an appearance at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music convention, "in order to start working on their second album," according to a statement issued by the group's publicist.

The band was to open its latest round of tour dates with a March 17 show at SXSW in Austin; dates had been scheduled through April 1.

"We want to send our sincerest apologies to our fans who were waiting to see us on tour," the band said in a collective statement. "We hope they'll understand that we're just too excited about our new songs and that we wanted to get started on recording them right away."

Unified Theory has been on the road for the past seven months in support of its self-titled debut album, which was released by 3:33/Universal last August. The band hopes to release a new album in early 2002.

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