The members of R.E.M. today marked the release of the 25th anniversary edition of ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’ by looking to their future, announcing they’ve ‘just completed recording their next record in Berlin.’

Nearly two months after scrubbing its North American summer tour, U2 today announced 16 rescheduled dates for the 360° Tour’s second stateside leg, which now will open May 21, 2011, in Denver and run through July 23, 2011, in Minneapolis.

Synth maestro Gary Numan appears in a clever new commercial for DieHard automotive batteries, playing his signature tune ‘Cars’ via, well, two dozen actual cars.

For the latest installment of the A.V. Club’s weekly web series “Undercover: 25 Bands, 25 Cover Songs, 1 Small Room,” prog-metal outfit Coheed & Cambria stripped down to an acoustic duo and performed a tender cover of The Smiths’ ‘A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours,’ which opens 1987’s ‘Strangeways, Here We Come.’

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Live Aid, the Bob Geldof-organized African famine relief concert that remains one of the cultural signposts of the ’80s. For readers of this site, the event is perhaps best remembered as the tipping point in U2’s ascent from college-rock upstarts to global superstars.

Six previously unreleased Morrissey tracks finally will see the light of day this fall when EMI releases a 20th anniversary reissue of the ex-Smith’s iconic early-career singles compilation ‘Bona Drag.’

Short-lived British postpunk act The Pop Group — which somehow melded punk, dub, noise and funk — will reunite this September after nearly 30 years apart, with four concerts scheduled in the U.K. and Italy and a new album reportedly in the works.