Long rumored to be making a return to the live arena following last year’s extensive reissue campaign, The Jesus and Mary Chain is set to play its first concerts in four years next month with a short run of U.S. dates that includes stops at the 35 Denton festival in Denton, Texas, and South By Southwest.

The original lineup of Killing Joke — Jaz Coleman, Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker, Martin ‘Youth’ Glover and Paul Ferguson — this morning announced the release of the legendary postpunk band’s 15th studio album, the aptly titled ‘2012,’ which will be released April 2 — and is preceded by the track ‘Rapture,’ which you can stream here.

With the Pet Shop Boys’ brand-new double-disc B-sides compilation ‘Format’ out in the U.K. this week, EMI Music has put together this nine-minute interview reel with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe discussing their method of writing B-sides, their format of choice and which song is most personal to them.

As the reunited Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark gets to work on its upcoming album, the group is treating fans to a glimpse at the making of their 2010 comeback ‘History of Modern’ in the form of a download of a demo version of ‘Green,’ which is available for free in exchange for an e-mail address.

Bob Mould will follow his first-ever performance of Sugar’s 1992 debut ‘Copper Blue’ at San Francisco’s Noise Pop festival later this month with a trio of European dates — in the U.K., Belgium and Finland — this June, he announced today.

Dinosaur Jr is back in the recording studio, working on its follow-up to 2009’s ‘Farm,’ according to bassist Lou Barlow’s daily Twitter account of the sessions, which includes an apparent admonition from the band’s management to ‘stop tweeting.’

The Sisters of Mercy’s 30th anniversary tour enters its second year with the band’s first-ever trip to New Zealand and Australia — where the goth-rockers will play the Soundwave Festival, making up for their slot on last year’s failed Soundwave Revolution spinoff — as well as a short run of dates in South America and Mexico.

With their annual St. Valentines’s Day Massacre concert coming up next week in London, The Godfathers over the weekend posted a rough mix of brand-new track ‘Primitive Man’ the third new song the rockers have released since reuniting in 2008 — which you can stream here.

This week’s new releases include a new B-sides compilation from the Pet Shops Boys (‘Format’), a new live album by Wire (‘The Black Session’), a vinyl reissue of Cocteau Twins’ ‘Stars and Topsoil,’ a new John Foxx and the Maths’ album, a 2CD reissue of Big Country’s ‘The Crossing’ and an archival live album from The Plimsouls.’

The playlist from tonight’s edition of ‘Dark Wave’ — the weekly ‘darker side of alternative’ show on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave — featured Kate Bush, Ministry, Love and Rockets, The Cure, Concrete Blonde, The Teardrop Explodes, Lords of the New Church, The Mission and much more.

If you’re planning to watch the Super Bowl, keep your ears open during the commercial breaks: Two ’80s college-rock classics — Echo & The Bunnymen’s ‘The Killing Moon’ and The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ — are soundtracking a pair of high-profile ads for automaker Audi and beer giant Budweiser, respectively.

This past week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines included news about The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Morrissey, Flipper, The Human League, Dead Can Dance, The Cult, Wire, Paul Weller and Happy Mondays — plus our Q&A with David J and a brand-new Auto Reverse mixtape for February.

Flipper is revving back into service this year, with a handful of U.S. dates announced in the coming months along with plans to perform at the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, this spring followed by a tour of the U.K. and dates in continental Europe in April.