The generally dour Mark E. Smith, mastermind of The Fall, brightens up a bit — cracks a smile, even — in this new video for ‘England’s Heartbeat,’ an unofficial World Cup single supporting England that’s due out next month.

New Jersey-based radio station WFMU is once again streaming full sets from the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain, today and Saturday, with performance on tap from Wire, Gary Numan, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera, among others.

With BP’s disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil leak now surpassing the Exxon Valdez as the worst oil spill in U.S. history, it’s only fitting that we mark Sunday’s 20th anniversary of the Midnight Oil ‘guerrilla action’ in front of the Exxon building in New York City.

Former Soft Cell singer Marc Almond this summer will release ‘Variete’ — his first new album of “self-written songs” in a decade and possibly his last — before embarking on the ’30 Year Celebration: My Hits and A Sides’ U.K. tour later this year, which are ‘likely to be his last British concerts for some time.’

Today we observe another dark-hued milestone, as goth queen Siouxsie Sioux — aka Susan Janet Ballion, erstwhile leader of The Banshees and The Creatures — turns 53.

Details are scarce, but Elvis Costello fans have two releases to look forward to in the coming months: a new compilation called ‘Pomp & Pout: The Universal Years,’ due out this summer, and a brand-new studio album, ‘American Ransom,’ expected in the fall.

Industrial mainstays My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult will revisit their late-’80s, early-90s tenure on Chicago’s trailblazing Wax Trax! Records with a new compilation this summer and tours with Psychotica and Lords of Acid.