Last month, Johnny Marr brought his old friend Matt Johnson onstage in London to perform a cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 single “Summer in the City” — their first time onstage together in 25 years. Turns out they also recorded a version of the song at soundcheck that night, and now have released it digitally.
Legendary 2 Tone ska act The Specials this week released its first single with original lead frontman Terry Hall since 1981’s “Ghost Town,” a lilting new song called “Vote For Me” that is the first cut to surface off the band’s forthcoming reunion album Encore. Listen to the full track right here.
Ian Brown, the once-again-former lead singer of The Stone Roses, will release his first new solo album in a decade next year, a 10-song collection called Ripples that is preceded by the release of lead-off single, and lead-off track, “First World Problems” — which you can hear right here.
Bob Mould, the legendary frontman of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, is back with a new album and single — both called Sunshine Rock — that he says find him looking on the brighter side of things after a few years living abroad. Or, more simply, “This is not Black Sheets of Rain.” He’s also going on tour next year.
R.E.M. continues to dole out samples of the material that will be found on its upcoming 9-disc R.E.M. at the BBC box set, most recently in the form of a 2003 on-air performance of Green-era single “Orange Crush” on the BBC’s “Mark and Lard” program — which you can stream in full right here.
Dead Can Dance — led by co-founders and mainstays Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard — today offered up the first taste of their upcoming ninth studio Dionysus in the form of “The Mountain,” the opening of the forthcoming record’s second act. Stream the full track right here.
For longtime fans, one of the key lures of the upcoming 9-disc R.E.M. at the BBC box set is the inclusion of a 16-song live set recorded at Rock City in Nottingham, England, in 1984 during the Reckoning tour. The band is now previewing that disc with the high-octane live version of “Radio Free Europe” that you can stream here.
Echo & The Bunnymen have premiered a new recording of what the band subtly calls “the greatest song in the world,” a slowed-down, piano-and-strings take on the classic 1984 single “The Killing Moon” that is to be included on the group’s upcoming album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon.
As part of the commemoration of the band’s 40th anniversary, Bauhaus is releasing a five-song EP recorded at the band’s first studio session on Jan. 26, 1979 — a collection that includes “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and three previously on released recordings. Full details right here.
Echo & The Bunnymen this week premiered one of the two new songs that will be included on its upcoming album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon, a collection of largely re-rerecorded material. Check out that new track, “The Somnambulist,” right here. The band also is going on tour later this year.
Here’s a preview of the new box set from Yazoo – the classic synthpop duo of Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke that was christened Yaz in the U.S. – that arrives this fall, a remix of the classic 1982 single “Situation” by contemporary producer Richard X. You can stream the track here.
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