A five-date U.K. arena tour planned for this September featuring The Cult with support from a pair of freshly reunited contemporaries — The Mission and the original lineup of Killing Joke — has been downsized to smaller venues in what is almost certainly a sign of shockingly poor ticket sales.

Bob Mould will release a new album called ‘Silver Age’ that Merge Records likens to the ‘punishingly loud, melodically sparkling pop/rock vein of the Sugar catlalog’ — a fitting comparison, since Mould will tour the album in the U.S. this fall by playing that band’s ‘Copper Blue’ front-to-back.

Last weekend’s Cure-headlined Primavera Sound 2012 festival in Barcelona also saw an appearance by ChameleonsVox — the band featuring frontman Mark Burgess and drummer John Lever of post-punk favorites The Chameleons — and we can now bring you a capture of the full webcast of the band’s 50-minute set.

Seattle radio station KEXP has been uploading video of some of its past in-studio sessions to YouTube, and here’s another: A Sept. 23, 2009, visit during which the brothers Kirkwood performed four tracks off their then-new album ‘Sewn Together,’ plus ‘one of those Nirvana songs,’ aka ‘Plateau.’

Journalist Van Gosse, who trailed The Cure’s first U.S. tour in April 1980 on behalf of Melody Maker, has unearthed a long-lost cassette recording he made of the band’s first-ever American concert on April 4, 1980, at Emerald City in Cherry Hill, N.J. You can stream the entire concert right here.

Our latest link round-up includes a Q&A with Morrissey in which he suggests he’ll retire in 2014 at age 55, plus interviews with Bob Mould reflecting on Sugar’s ‘Copper Blue,’ John Lydon discussing Public Image Ltd. and the Sex Pistols, and former Replacements drummer Chris Mars talking art and music.

Danish indie-pop combo Efterklang premiered its forthcoming album ‘Piramida’ by performing it in full at the Sydney Opera House backed by a symphony orchestra and a new touring drummer: Budgie, of Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, who will join the band on a series of fall European dates.