Depressed at the thought of another vampiric summer holed up inside watching The Nightmare Before Christmas while blasting Pornography on endless repeat? Well dig out the SPF 100, troops, because the Cure have recently announced appearances at four major European festivals. Kicking off this August at Spain's celebrated Benicàssim Festival, the band will also hit up Route du Rock, Rock Oz'Arenes, and the Rock N' Coke Festival through early September. The Cure's official website also mentions the likelihood of further touring in the near future, but nothing has been finalized as of yet. Until we have more for you, the confirmed dates look like this:

08-05 Castellon, Spain - Benicàssim Festival
08-13 St. Malo, France - Route du Rock
08-18 Avenches, Switzerland - Rock Oz'Arenes
09-03 Istanbul, Turkey - Rock N' Coke Festival

In other news, pastier-than-thou frontman Robert Smith has recently lent his name to a new signature axe from Schecter Guitars. Dubbed the "UltraCURE", the jet black guitar retails for a whopping $999.00 (those 2-disc reissues suddenly don't seem so pricey, huh?), and can be ordered online through various music retailers. Smith will be donating all his proceeds from the instrument to Amnesty International.

And finally, as previously reported, devoted fans should check out Billy Corgan's upcoming solo debut TheFutureEmbrace, which proudly boasts a Robert Smith duet on Bee Gees cover "To Love Somebody". The album will be on shelves June 21 (or, if you shop at used record stores, June 22). Speaking with MTV Asia, Corgan explained, "When the Cure were in Chicago for their Curiosa Tour, Robert had come by my house and we sat up all night playing guitars and shooting the whatever...the idea came up about stuff we wanted to work on together. I was thinking, 'OK, what could Robert do?' The only song that seemed really right was this cover-- and my version kind of sounds like the Cure anyway. So I called him up and had to talk him into it. But he did an amazing job."

Probably as a 3 piece unless Severin really does join the band. Which would be way cool, btw. It's time some favors were returned.

And I'm interested to hear the collabo. I love 'em both, but that's gotta be one of THE unlikeliest covers ever.

if severin joins the band, oh my goodness.... does this mean we'll get a deluxe two-disc reissue of The Glove?

and did billy corgan and robert smith already do some stuff together on a reeves gabriels album? i know a bunch of folks started collaborating after the big bowie 50th birthday bash, and some of that wound up on reeves' solo albums...you've heard the song with bowie and frank black and robert smith all doing vocals, right?

Severin already talked about it, they've been hanging out and decided to put together a Glove reissue. So he says it's happening. It's supposed to be part of The Cure's next batch of remasters, likely Glove/Top/Head...Door. So yay for that!

I don't know if they ever worked together with Reeves. I know they've been good buddies for years now, but I haven't heard anything other than stories from Billy. I have heard that song you speak of - what was it called again? Gave me a headache honestly. I expected more.

i keep not buying the CD of 'head on the door' because i know the reissue is coming (i have it on tape). how hot would those three be as the next round of reissues?! would it make sense to put 'seventeen seconds' on the bonus disc of 'the top'?

oh, i forget the name of the song...it wasn't a great song, but i remember thinking it was interesting enough. it goes in my pile of "nice try but no cigar" songs that bowie has lent vocals to...

"pretty pink rose" is in the same pile, though i do admit to a slight love for that song...too bad the rest of the belew album that song came from was such a yawner.

Probably not. But I'm sure you mean "Japanese Whispers", right? That would be a good idea actually, although I think there are tons of extras lying around for "The Top" already between "Concert" and all the demos. I really kinda doubt they'll do anything with the JW stuff, which is too bad in a way cuz that album is becoming pretty hard to come by in the states.

Isn't "Gunman" from that too?

shit. yeah, 'japanese whispers'. it's been a long week.

i'm really curious about that album, which i used to just dismiss as an early 'greatest hits' album but now i'm starting to realize has its own thing going on.

and i forgot all about 'concert'...i've never heard a cure live album. i'm usually kinda 'eh' about live CDs unless it's prince or bowie (though bjork's 'vespertine live' and some of laurie anderson's live stuff is up there on my list)...is the cure's live stuff worth checking out?

oh, duh. i forgot about 'trilogy'. that kicks my ass. the 'bonus' footage of 'the kiss' is so amazing - i knew robert smith was a decent guitarist, but that clip just blew me away. he's really underrated as a musician.