U2 today informed fans that it has begun shipping copies of ‘Artificial Horizon,’ the free remix album being sent to paying members of the band’s website.

Lloyd Cole this week released a new ‘souvenir’ CD recorded last month with his twangy Small Ensemble that features stripped-down, acoustic takes on Commotions favorites and solo tunes — plus two new songs likely earmarked for the next album, which he’s set to begin recording Monday.

Australia’s Hoodoo Gurus today announced a May 11 U.S. release date for their ninth studio album, ‘Purity of Essence,’ which the band is teasing with a six-part web mockumentary that pokes fun at Metallica’s self-help doc ‘Some Kind of Monster.’

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore today took to his new blog — Flowers & Cream, which he quietly launched earlier this month — to announce a pair of intriguing musical projects: a new solo album and book, plus a “trio” record with wife/bandmate Kim Gordon and Yoko Ono.

Black Francis has released his long-in-the-works project The Golem, a 4CD/1DVD set and 50-page book chronicling the score to the silent 1920 German expressionist film “Der Golem” that the Pixies frontman wrote for the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2008.

Brit punk jokesters The Toy Dolls have begun work on their 12th studio album — the follow-up to 2004’s no-longer-accurately titled Our Last Album? — and have plotted initial spring and summer dates in Europe and Russia for a planned 30th anniversary tour.

Postpunk juggernaut Killing Joke — its original lineup back in place for the first time since 1982’s Revelations — will release its 13th album, Feast of Fools, in April and embark on a 30th anniversary tour of Europe and North America beginning that same month.