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.

When not playing in Sebadoh, Folk Implosion or the reconstituted Dinosaur Jr, lo-fi pioneer Lou Barlow likes to occasionally record under his own name, and, […]