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.