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.

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.

SoCal punk legends Bad Religion will record a live album during the upcoming spring leg of their 30th anniversary tour — and then give it away ‘as a free ‘thank you’ to the loyal fans who’ve been with us through all the sweat and mayhem.’

With Simple Minds still active after 30 years, frontman Jim Kerr will release his first-ever solo album this May under the name Lostboy! AKA, and is set to debut his new material — and dig into Simple Minds’ back catalog — with a trio of intimate U.K. club dates this spring before embarking on a full tour.

The irascible Mark E. Smith — who turns 53 today — next month will release his 28th studio album under the banner of The Fall, the ragged, love-’em-or-hate-’em postpunk act that has churned through dozens of members since debuting in 1976.

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.

With Social Distortion at work on its follow-up to 2004’s Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll, drummer Adam “Atom” Willard (ex-Rocket From the Crypt) has posted a two-minute clip of footage he filmed of the L.A. punk vets doing a bit of pre-studio rehearsal.