Real or fake? Depeche Mode fans are debating a trio of 30- and 40-second samples — including one that may be a never-before-released track — that surfaced online yesterday and purportedly come from a 1980 demo tape. Hear those samples here.

Updating a couple Depeche Mode-related items we reported on, Erasure’s Vince Clarke this week tweeted that the joint album he’s working on with former bandmate Martin Gore is ‘almost done,’ while Andy Fletcher revealed that DM’s new remix album will arrive in April.

Depeche Mode Andrew Fletcher will head out on the road in late January for more than a dozen DJ dates in Eastern Europe, Australia and the Far East — including a gig in Beijing.

With Alan Wilder and Vince Clarke on board, Depeche Mode fans are abuzz over the possibility that all five past and present members will appear on disc together for the first time on a new remix album reported to be in the works.

After teasing fans with a couple 30-second clips from its forthcoming ‘Tour of the Universe: Live in Barcelona’ DVD and Blu-ray, Depeche Mode today offered up something a bit more substantial: a nearly 6-minute electronic press kit for the film, featuring performance footage, backstage clips and interviews with Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher.

Fans today got their first glimpse of Depeche Mode’s forthcoming ‘Tour of the Universe: Live in Barcelona’ DVD/Blu-ray as the band posted a 24-second clip that mostly features shots of fans waving their arms and clapping to the strains of ‘Songs of Faith and Devotion’ single ‘I Feel You.’ Plus, there are a couple shots of Dave Gahan waving his arms and clapping, too.

To commemorate Depeche Mode songwriter Martin L. Gore’s birthday — he turns 49 today — we present this rare solo performance of one of his best-loved songs, ‘Enjoy the Silence.’

In honor of Dave Gahan’s birthday today — he’s 48 — we present this clip: Depeche Mode performing its combo of ‘Behind the Wheel’ and B-side ‘Route 66’ during a World Violation Tour stop in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 1990.

Round-up of headlines from last week while we were on vacation, including news about Paul Westerberg, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Talking Heads’ Christ Frantz, Duran Duran and more.

In this installment of Milestones, we look at Depeche Mode’s classic ‘Violator,’ released exactly 20 years ago today. The record found the band at its commercial and artistic peak, and even sparked a near-riot in Los Angeles when the band showed up for an autograph session.

Depeche Mode’s live double album ‘101,’ recorded at the band’s massive Rose Bowl concert in 1988, was released 21 years ago this week. To mark the occasion, we look back, and offer up clips from the accompanying ‘101’ film.

The LA Weekly yesterday pointed out a trio of Depeche Mode home videos just uploaded to YouTube that capture the synthpop giants before, during and after their appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards on the Universal Studios lot in Hollywood on Sept. 9, 1988.

If all press ultimately is good press, then the brouhaha surrounding Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan’s sign-off at the end of the band’s concert in […]