Former Bauhaus and Love and Rockets bassist David J today shared a sparse — and starkly political — new song that he says he wrote this morning called “Thoughts and Prayers” in response to yesterday’s massacre of 17 students and teachers at a school in Parkland, Fla., and the litany of gun violence in this country.

Echo & The Bunnymen and The Jesus and Mary Chain are teaming up for a post-punk dream bill for what appears to be a one-off outdoor concert in the U.K. this summer — with Peter Hook, bassist for Joy Division and New Order, handling opening duties with his band The Light.

It was no secret that Mark E. Smith, the late frontman of post-punk icons The Fall, was in ill health leading up to his death last month at the age of 60. But his family today released a statement revealing what ultimately killed him: terminal lung and kidney cancer. Read the full statement here.

Having taken their name from a New Order video, The Killers have, not surprisingly, shown a predilection toward covering songs by classic alternative acts, including Joy Division, The Smiths, Morrissey and, of course, New Order. Now comes the band’s on-stage homage to The Cure. Watch the band’s cover of “Push” here.

Peter Hook & The Light will continue their march through New Order’s back catalog, moving on to full-album performances of the band’s 1989 album Technique and its 1993 follow-up Republic at a trio of just-announced U.K. concerts this September. Get the full details and tour dates right here,

Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. This week’s titles include a new EP from the reunited Ride, plus the latest studio album from indie legends Superchunk.

“Dark Wave,” hosted by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Matt Sebastian, airs 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EDT every Sunday on Sirius XM satellite radio’s 1st Wave (Channel 33). The most recent two episodes also are available via Sirius XM’s On Demand service for online subscribers. Check out the full playlist right here.

Depeche Mode announced today plans to follow up last fall’s lengthy stateside tour with a new run of nine North American dates in late May and early June, a series of concerts that will see the band play New York City, Chicago, Boston and more. Full dates and details right here.

Matt Johnson continues the slow roll-out of The The’s highly anticipated return to the concert state, announcing four more U.K. concerts this September around the newly resurrected band’s appearance at Festival No. 6. The band is now slated to play 14 shows this year. See the band’s full dates here.

After repeated reschedulings and scheduling gymnastics, Peter Murphy — still unable to get a visa to come to the U.S. from Turkey — has pulled the plug on this month’s 15-night San Francisco residency, pushing all of the dates to June and July. See the new dates, as announced by the venue, right here.

Robert Smith, founder and only constant of The Cure, has been tapped to hand-pick the lineup for the 25th installment of London’s prestigious Meltdown festival this June, following in the footsteps of past curators such as David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Morrissey, David Byrne, Nick Cave and more. Full lineup to be announced.

After a brief diversion, we’re back with the sixth installment in our ongoing artist poll series, this time asking you, the readers of Slicing Up Eyeballs, to help us rank every song released by legendary post-punks Siouxsie and the Banshees over the band’s 20-year career. Vote here for up to 25 of the Banshees’ 175 songs.

Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. This week’s titles include the ‘Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound of Liverpool 1976-1988’ box set and Ramones vinyl reissues.