The John Darnielle-led Mountain Goats this week announced their 16th studio album, a guitar-less record called Goths that, as its title suggests, celebrates the dark musical genre: “the friends whose bands never made it out of Fender’s Ballroom, the Gene Loves Jezebels of the world.”

Bob Mould this morning treated fans to the first taste of his upcoming 11th solo album Beauty & Ruin, dropping the 2-minute “pure adrenalin shot” that is “Hey Mr. Grey,” which is meant to introduce fans to the forthcoming record, described by his label Merge as a “compact epic,”

Bob Mould may be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Workbook at the moment, but he’s also looking ahead: Merge Records this week announced that it will release Mould’s 11th studio album, Beauty & Ruin, which “packs a staggering lifetime’s worth of emotion and experience into a 36-minute package.”

Later this month, Dinosaur Jr will release a limited-edition live album called ‘Chocomel Daze’ that recorded in 1987 and will be available only on vinyl or as a digital download — and our friends at Merge Recrods have set us up with a copy of the deluxe 150-gram vinyl LP to give away to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader.

Bob Mould today debuted the music video for “The Descent,” the first single off his forthcoming album Silver Age, and, as you can see above (via Pitchfork), the clip finds the suited rocker seemingly abandoning his life of corporate serfdom for a back-to-nature foray into the local woods.

With the release of his new solo album Don’t Be A Strangers still more than a month out, Merge Records this week has offered up the first taste of the new project from former American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel in the form of a streaming MP3 of album opener “I Love You But You’re Dead.”

Bob Mould is set to release his first new album in three years in less than a month, and Merge Records this morning offered up the first taste of Silver Age in the form of lead single “The Descent,” which, perhaps not surprisingly, is very reminiscent of Mould’s ’90s work with Sugar.

After suffering a heart attack last year and seeing the ‘implosion’ of the American Music Club reunion after two mid-to-late 2000s albums, former frontman Mark Eitzel this fall will release a brand-new solo album called Don’t Be a Stranger that his label, Merge Records, is pitching as his ‘finest solo album in over a decade.’

With Merge Records set to release U.S. editions of Sugar’s catalog reissues next week, the label is teasing the discs with this video of Bob Mould and his band — drummer Jon Wurster and bassist Jason Narducy — tearing through ‘Copper Blue’ standout “Hoover Dam” at San Francisco’s NoisePop festival back in February.

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.

Merge Records is offering fans a taste of the first new album in 15 years from Redd Kross — the ’80s cult act founded by brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald that scored some minor college-radio hits as ’90s major-label alt-rockers — in the form of a free download of the record’s stomping title track.

With expanded reissues of Sugar’s catalog — 1992′s landmark ‘Copper Blue,’ the 1993 companion EP ‘Beaster’ and 1994 sophomore album ‘File Under: Easy Listening’ — coming out over the next few weeks in the U.K., Merge Records has announced it will release trimmed-down versions in the U.S. later this summer.

Following this summer’s cassette-only reissue of ‘Bug,’ the reunited Dinosaur Jr this fall will re-release that 1988 album along with the band’s first two records — 1985’s ‘Dinosaur’ and 1987’s ‘You’re Living All Over Me’ — on vinyl this fall, the trio’s current label, Jagjaguwar, announced this week.