The Church, which recently began working on a follow-up to 2014’s Further/Deeper, will return to the U.S. for what’s being billed as a “limited run” of concerts — a nine-date tour that has the band playing shows in the eastern half of the country, including a slot at Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

The Factory Theatre in suburban Sydney, Australia, on Saturday hosted a 25th anniversary tribute to The Cure’s ninth album Wish that was headlined by Steve Kilbey of The Church, and featured a number of Sydney-area musicians performing songs off that record and Robert Smith and Co.’s back catalog.

The Church is marking today’s U.S. release of their new album Further/Deeper by debuting a new music video for opening track “Vanishing Man,” a clip that spotlights the artwork of frontman Steve Kilbey. The video, which you can watch below, premiered at Guitar World.

This week’s new releases include the belated U.S. issue of the new studio album from The Church (“Further/Deeper”), plus a reissue of OMD’s “Junk Culture,” a new Art of Noise compilation, a CD/LP box set of The Go-Betweens’ early work, plus a Stiff Little Fingers live album.

The Church this week treated fans to a free download of a brand-new Christmas song — it is, quite succinctly, called “Xmas” — that will appear as one of three previously unreleased bonus tracks appended to the forthcoming 2LP vinyl release of the band’s new record Further/Deeper.

The Church will follow February’s U.S. release of its new album Further/Deeper with a 19-date North American tour that will find the Aussie rockers performing both at San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival and the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas.

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long-running Australian rockers’ first record without guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, who was “not available” and has been replaced by Powderfinger’s Ian Haug.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,

It’s hardly a tour or anything, but Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli — who have been writing new music together over the past year — have now added a second performance together this fall, a show in San Francisco that comes two days after their sold-out Los Angeles gig.