Alt-country rocker Ryan Adams took to Twitter tonight to announce he’s producing — and playing drums on — a new album by The Lemonheads, with not only Juliana Hatfield returning to play bass, but with Evan Dando being joined by the band’s co-founder and original co-songwriter, Ben Deily of Varsity Drag, who left in 1989.

Bernard Sumner previously has hinted that New Order — which reunited last year without bassist Peter Hook — may write new music, but now he’s talking about it in detail for the first time, telling interviewers that the band will meet early next year to begin writing new material with an eye on making an ‘electronic synth album.’

Soundgarden tonight revealed the cover art and an 85-second teaser video for its forthcoming record ‘King Animal,’ the reunited group’s first new studio album in 16 years. The album arrives Nov. 13, and will be Soundgarden’s first since ‘Down on the Upside’ in 1996.

Their box set may be on hold, but Australian rockers Midnight Oil do have a new release up their sleeves: In November, the band will issue a new 2CD, 36-track best-of titled ‘Essential Oils,’ a truly career-spanning overview of the band’s catalog, sampling cuts from 1978’s self-titled debut through 2002 swan song ‘Capricornia.’

Sonic Youth today announced that it finally will release a long-in-the-works archival, 14-track live album that was recorded on 4-track cassette on Aug. 11, 1985, at Chicago’s Smart Bar while the band was touring the U.S. in support of the the release earlier that year of the group’s second studio album, ‘Bad Moon Rising.’

The all-too-brief early ’80s career of synthpop duo Yazoo — comprised of singer Alison Moyet and former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke — will be anthologized next month on a new 2CD set called ‘The Collection,’ which assembles singles, cuts from the band’s two albums and both vintage and recent remixes.