Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry today unveiled a 20-date solo tour of Europe this spring in support of his forthcoming album Ark — his release first in 11 years — and said his previously announced co-headlining tour with Peter Murphy will open in mid-April in South America.

Southern California punk legends Bad Religion are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, and will kick off the festivities with a springtime run of 12 West Coast club dates before hitting the studio to record their 15th studio album for release this fall.

Norwegian pop giants a-ha will bring their worldwide 2010 farewell tour to the United States for three concerts in New York and Los Angeles in May — a short trek that marks just the second time the trio will have performed on American soil since 1986.

Rock iconoclast Lou Reed next month will issue a digitally remastered edition of his oft-derided 1975 guitar-feedback opus Metal Machine Music on a trio of audiophile formats, and mark the occasion by taking his Metal Machine Trio to Europe for a brief tour billed as “A Night of Deep Noise.”

Crowded House this spring will release its second album since reuniting in 2007, an 11-track, as-yet-untitled disc that Neil Finn and Co. will support with a just-announced tour of the United Kingdom in May and June and a slot at the famed Isle of Wight Festival.

Reformed ska legends The Specials will make their first U.S. appearance in nearly 30 years with a performance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on April 12 before playing the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and three other stateside dates — all in advance of a full North American tour later in 2010, according to Billboard.com. So far, only an April 21 date at New York’s Terminal 5 has been announced, but two more shows are expected in April around the band’s previously announced California festival date, Billboard reports.

Three members of disbanded Aussie rock powerhouse Midnight Oil — drummer Rob Hirst and guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey — and ex-Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie this week announced the formation of The Break, a mostly instrumental surf-rock combo whose debut is due this spring.