This week’s installment of The AV Club’s Undercover 2012 series — in which bands that show up at the site’s Chicago offices pick a song off a pre-chosen list to cover — finds Bay Area punk act Ceremony taking a stab at the Violent Femmes’ “Kiss Off,” off that band’s classic self-titled debut.

Wednesday was Thurston Moore’s birthday, and the Sonic Youth frontman saw fit to give fans another gift: ‘Frank O’Hara Hit,’ the third free track from his new band Chelsea Light Moving — which you can stream and/or download below, via Matador Records, which will put out the group’s debut album at some point in the future.

For our latest installment of Vintage Video we turn back to 1987 with this 38-minute reel of rare behind-the-scenes footage of The Cure during the making of its classic video for ‘Just Like Heaven.’ As the indispensable Chain of Flowers points out, this French-produced footage was posted to Vimeo by director Tim Pope.

The ongoing 25th anniversary reunion of goth-rock legends The Mission will lead to new music after all as frontman Wayne Hussey this week announced that he and his bandmates plan to write and record a new album over the next year with an eye toward a fall 2013 release.

The Sex Pistols this week revealed the full tracklist to this fall’s super-deluxe ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ box set, a 3CD/1DVD collection that will mark the classic punk album’s 35th anniversary with demos, B-sides, live cuts and a remastered edition of the record using newly re-discovered original master tapes.

Epitaph Records this week announced that punk legends Bad Religion have checked into Joe Barresi’s JHOC Studio in Los Angeles to begin work on the band’s as-yet-untitled 16th studio album — and released the photo posted above as visual evidence.

Rumors have circulated that Killing Joke, displeased with the change in venues, has quit the September tour with The Cult and The Mission. The band hasn’t made an official statement, although a scathing note about the tour, purportedly written by Jaz Coleman, was posted then removed from the band’s Facebook page.

After several years of touring in support of various classic albums, the reunited Sebadoh this week dropped a surprise on fans: a new five-song EP called Secret, which is both Lou Barlow & Co.’s first new music in 13 years and a teaser to a full-length album that should arrive sometime in 2013.

They Might Be Giants is planning a three-night New Year’s bash in New York City this December at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, a run that will find the band spotlighting 1988’s Lincoln and 1990’s Flood, plus playing new songs — and there’ll be horns.

After suffering a heart attack last year and seeing the ‘implosion’ of the American Music Club reunion after two mid-to-late 2000s albums, former frontman Mark Eitzel this fall will release a brand-new solo album called Don’t Be a Stranger that his label, Merge Records, is pitching as his ‘finest solo album in over a decade.’

As promised, the reactivated New Order — Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, 2000s-era guitarist Phil Cunningham and Bad Lieutenant bassist Tom Chapman — will return to North America this fall for the first time since 2005, performing at least seven dates in October.

The Cure’s now a few day into a month-long break in its summer festival tour, and frontman Robert Smith says the band will use the time to record with new guitarist Reeves Gabrels for the first time — plus, he claims, the long-promised ‘Mixed Up 2’ will come out before Christmas with new remixes by the likes of Mogwai and Cranes.

Earlier this year, Martin Gore promised the next Depeche Mode album will be out ‘no later than early 2013,’ and now we’ve got a better idea of what that means: DM manager Jonathan Kessler tells Rolling Stone that the band’s 13th studio album is due out in April 2013 and will be followed by a ‘full world tour.’