Ted Leo and the Pharmacists cover Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the debut of the A.V. Club’s new ‘Undercover’ series, which will feature bands covering tunes by The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, R.E.M. and more.

Spin magazine recently dropped a goldmine into Google Books: scans of nearly every issue of the music mag, from its May 1985 debut up through October 2009. We’ve flipped through the ’85 to ’90 issues, creating links to stories about The Cure, R.E.M., The Replacements, Morrissey, New Order and many, many more.

Drummer Martin Atkins — who manned the kit in Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface and Killing Joke, among other groups — today posted this absolutely brilliant video in which he uses one of the replica film canisters that housed PiL’s ‘Metal Box’ to bake fudge brownies.

This week’s new releases include ‘Purity of Essence,’ a new studio album from the Hoodoo Gurus (out in Australia, anyway); ‘Sunflower Stories,’ a four-track EP from the Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie; and an Audio Fidelity gold-disc reissue of The B-52s’ ‘Cosmic Thing.’

The highlights of tonight’s ‘Dark Wave’ on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave include The Swans’ cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ a dash of German synthpop from Cetu Javu, The March Violets’ classic ‘Snake Dance’ and a nice Bauhaus/David J/Love and Rockets run toward the end of the show.

Despite proclaiming Swords a ‘meek disaster’ last December, Morrissey has gone ahead and made a music video to promote one of the (best) tracks off his late-2009 b-sides album: ‘Ganglord,’ the flip side to 2006’s ‘The Youngest Was the Most Loved.’

Reconstituted postpunk act Killing Joke this week announced it will push back the release of its forthcoming album ‘XIII: Feast of Fools’ from April until September, and delay its 30th anniversary tour of Europe and North America until later this year.

John Lydon hopes to use the proceeds from Public Image Ltd.’s upcoming U.S. tour to fund the recording of the reconstituted band’s first new album since 1992’s ‘That What Is Not.’

Holed up in a mobile recording trailer in EMI’s London parking lot, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure this week began offering fans short glimpses into the recording of their 14th studio album, posting a pair of videos in which they discuss their writing sessions — and Clarke’s plans to only use analog synths on the record.

Depeche Mode’s live double album ‘101,’ recorded at the band’s massive Rose Bowl concert in 1988, was released 21 years ago this week. To mark the occasion, we look back, and offer up clips from the accompanying ‘101’ film.

Elvis Costello is poised to tap his 1978 U.S. tour for a second live album in six months, at least in Japan, where the 16-track ‘Live at Winterland, San Francisco’ — recorded just three days after ‘Live at Hollywood High’ — is due for release this summer.

The reunited Faith No More continue to eke out U.S. tour dates, today announcing a New York City concert in July — the band’s first East Coast show in more than a decade — to follow its three sold-out San Francisco gigs in April in advance of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Former Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell will embark on a 14-date North American tour later this month — hitting the West Coast and Midwest of the U.S., plus a lone Canadian stop in Vancouver — before venturing to South America for three concerts and returning to the U.K. for eight more dates.