The Church will release what it’s billing as its 25th studio album next month, a collection of new material that’s been christened Further/Deeper and which marks the long-running Australian rockers’ first record without guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, who was “not available” and has been replaced by Powderfinger’s Ian Haug.

“Armed only with their guitars,” Robyn Hitchcock and The Church’s Steve Kilbey are pairing up for a short run of Australian dates — just four have been announced — this April and May during which promoters promise “an unforgettable evening of whimsical lyricism and psychedelic nursery rhymes.”

The Church’s Steve Kilbey will perform with former bandmate Richard Ploog for the first time in nearly 25 years next month when the drummer — who left after 1990’s Gold Afternoon Fix — joins Kilbey and Mark Gable of The Choirboys for a “one-off special tour” called “Discover Australia: A Stumble Through Australian Pop History.”

The Church’s Steve Kilbey dropped a New Year’s surprise for fans, releasing a nearly 3-hour documentary that features performances, interviews and “general horsing around” that he filmed during the short 1991 U.S. tour by Jack Frost, his group with Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens.

The Church has begun work on its 21st album, but the band is proceeding without founding guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, frontman Steve Kilbey announced this week in a statement that first suggests Willson-Piper simply can’t make the sessions for the new record, then implies he’s out of the band for good.

Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli — who have been writing new music together over the past year — made their live debut together Wednesday night with an intimate show in Los Angeles, where they performed selections from each other’s projects and premiered at least one new song,