With little fanfare, Matt Johnson today released the first new The The since 2000’s ‘NakedSelf’: a 24-song soundtrack to the indie serial-killer film ‘Tony.’

R.E.M. will mark the 25th anniversary of their third album, ‘Fables of the Reconstruction,’ this summer with the third installment in the band’s ongoing reissue series, a double-disc re-release featuring 14 previously unreleased demos — including one never-before-heard song.

This week’s new CD releases include the new solo album from Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, ‘Lostboy! AKA’; an eight-disc box set from The Church’s Steve Kilbey; and reissues from The Charlatans (‘Some Friendly’) and Modern English (‘Stop Start’).

Last week’s goldmine of ‘Disintegration’-era demos and live tracks wasn’t the first time Robert Smith opened up The Cure’s archives online; in 2001, to mark the release of ‘Greatest Hits,’ he also posted 20 demos, live tracks and remixes, spanning the band’s entire career.

The lastest in French music site La Blogotheque’s impromptu “A Take Away Show” series — in which bands or artists throw together spontaneous performances, wherever they may be — features Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch offering up a stark, solo-acoustic take on the band’s classic “The Killing Moon.”

The previously announced reissue of The Dream Syndicate’s long-out-of-print second album, ‘Medicine Show,’ will be released June 15 — and will be fleshed out with the full ‘This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album… Live!’ EP.

Former Talking Heads leader David Byrne turns 58 today, and we mark his birthday with one of his quirkier solo projects: ‘Music for the Knee Plays,’ a 1985 brass-band-and-vocals album Byrne composed for Robert Wilson’s opera ‘the CIVIL warS.’

In what should come as no surprise by this point, the next two titles in Duran Duran’s series of expanded reissues — 1986’s ‘Notorious’ and 1988’s ‘Big Thing’ — apparently have been delayed a second time and are now due out Sept. 7.

The Cure today launched a special standalone website dedicated to the upcoming ‘Disintegration: Deluxe Edition’ that features videos, liner notes and photos — plus streaming audio of 20 additional demos and live tracks that won’t be on the 3CD set when it arrives June 8.

With that joint Peter Murphy tour now off the table, Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry yesterday announced the second leg of his 2010 tour: 17 dates in the U.K. and Europe spread across May, June, July, August and into September — with ‘more concerts to follow.’

Last Friday, drummer Anton Fier reactivated the Golden Palominos for the experimental folk-rock collective’s first concert in more than 20 years, playing a headlining set at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City with the band’s Syd Straw-fronted 1985-’87 lineup.

Next month’s deluxe 3CD reissue of The Cure’s 1989 classic ‘Disintegration’ is now available for pre-order from Rhino.com — and the first 500 people to order will receive a free nine-track promo sampler that’ll be mailed out before the reissue’s June 8 release date.

Synthpop act Heaven 17 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its debut album ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ by performing the record in its entirety during an eight-date U.K. tour this fall that’s being billed as ‘part art installation and part concert.’