The upcoming reunion of The Call — featuring the band’s original members plus Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club filling in for his late father Michael Been — will be filmed and recorded for a live DVD, CD and vinyl release, and the band has just launched a Pledge Music campaign to help fund the project.

It’s been less than two years since Al Jourgensen reunited his iconic industrial/metal act Ministry, but after a mid-tour health scare and the loss of sideman and best friend Mike Scaccia late last year, Uncle Al his putting an end to the band once and for all with a final album, ‘From Beer to Eternity,’ and an autobiography.

After working on solo projects for the last couple years, Echo & The Bunnymen braintrust Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant will reconvene in the studio this summer to record the band’s 12th album, McCulloch tells The Quietus in a new interview, saying the record will be called The Garden of Meedin.'”

Simple Minds fans living in North America have been a patient lot, as the band hasn’t toured here in more than a decade. But there is renewed hope today, thanks to a message that reveals the group plans to record music this summer and “hopefully” will tour the U.S. and Canada this fall.

The Stranglers — singer-bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, drummer Jet Black and keyboard player Dave Greenfield, plus former Toy Dolls guitarist Baz Warne — this week announced a belated U.S. release for the band’s 2012 album Giants, plus initial dates in late May and June for a planned North American tour.

Having just released their 11th album ‘Elysium’ six months ago, the Pet Shop Boys surprised fans this morning by announcing they already have another new studio album ready to go, and that they’ll release the record — titled ‘Electric’ — this June via Kobalt Label Services.

Ian McCulloch next month will release a new 2CD set called ‘Holy Ghosts’ that combines the fan-funded studio album ‘Pro Patria Mori’ he released in limited quantities last year with an unreleased 15-track live set of “orchestral reworkings” of solo tracks and Bunnymen classics recorded last May.

Gang of Four today premiered a brand-new song and a brand-new lineup, with vocalist John “Gaoler” taking the place of founding member Jon King, who had participated in the group’s mid-2000s reunion and 2011 studio album Content. Stream the new song “Broken Talk,” which premiered today on Pitchfork.

Dead Can Dance will commemorate its ongoing reunion with a new live CD called ‘In Concert’ that also will be released in expanded digital and triple-vinyl formats, capturing performances from the band’s 2012 U.S. tour. You can preview the set through a free download of the live version of “Children of the Sun.”

Sparks — aka brothers Ron and Russell Mael — this month will release their first-ever live album, a 2CD set called Two Hands One Mouth recorded on their European tour last year that found the duo performing for the first time without a full band or computers — a show they’re bringing to Los Angeles and San Francisco this spring.

The double-disc, 26-track best-of set from Australian rockers Midnight Oil that was released Down Under last fall will receive a belated American release April 30 via Columbia/Legacy, the label announced today. Essential Oils offers a career-spanning overview of the band’s catalog.

Ultravox frontman and solo artist Midge Ure will be the subject of a new 2CD, 32-track best-of dubbed ‘The Works’ this spring as he puts the finishing touches on a new live album that was recorded in Chicago earlier this year during his rare North American solo tour.

While neither side has officially announced anything, it appears that Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli may have begun work in Australia on the new musical project that Kilbey first hinted at last July after he jumped on stage with the reunited Whigs in Sydney to help perform “One Day.”