Saturday night, following an eight-year absence, MTV’s iconic alternative-music show ‘120 Minutes’ returned with a new format and a familiar face: late-’90s host Matt Pinfield. The whole show is now online; watch it here.

When Bob Mould stopped by The AV Club for its Undercover web series, the producers asked him to perform Sugar’s “If I Can’t Change Your Mind,” one of the few songs left on the current list.

This is a little more mainstream than what we usually cover, but it’s hard to deny the significance: Thirty years ago today, on Aug. 1, 1981, MTV went on the air (‘Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll…’), changing the course of music in the ’80s and beyond.

Daniel Ash — he of ’80s darkwave trifecta Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets — turns 54 today, and to mark the occasion, we present this little nugget: It’s a promo for MTV’s ‘120 Minutes’ featuring a cue-card reading Ash and his Love and Rockets bandmates David J and Kevin Haskins that aired sometime around 1986.

Thurston Moore did double duty promoting his new solo album ‘Demolished Thoughts’ on the radio yesterday, managing to appear on the air for live sessions on both KCRW in Los Angeles and 89.3 The Current in Minneapolis/St. Paul (the latter appearance was pre-taped, as Moore also played a gig in L.A. last night).

They Might Be Giants stopped by ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ last night to promote their just-released album ‘Join Us,’ performing ‘Can’t Keep Johnny Down’ for broadcast and ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul’ as a web exclusive.

When former Dead Can Dance member Brendan Perry’s joint North American tour with Cocteau Twins co-founder Robin Guthrie rolled through Seattle last month, the acclaimed musicians dropped by the studios of indie-leaning public-radio outlet KEXP, where the 4AD veterans each performed a selection of their own songs live on the air.

Reunited New Wave legends The Cars this week debuted a new music video for ‘Free,’ off their comeback album ‘Move Like This.’ Watch it right here.

Earlier this evening, Jane’s Addiction took the stage at New York City’s Terminal 5 for an LG-sponsored concert that was webcast live on YouTube and will be assembled into ‘the world’s first user-generated 3D concert.’

The folks over at the U.K. arm of Rhino Records recently discovered this little gem: a clever 1992 advertisement for The Smiths’ 14-track Best… compilation that apparently was shown in British movie theaters.

The Wedding Present’s 2005 tour of North America in support of that year’s ‘Take Fountain’ album is the subject of a new 139-minute concert film called ‘Drive’ that will be released on DVD in the U.S. next week and in the U.K. later this year.

The members of R.E.M. have made no secret about how influenced they were by The Feelies’ 1980 debut ‘Crazy Rhythms,’ and in this May clip, we see the reunited band salute their admirers with a high-energy run through ‘Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)’ off 1982′s ‘Chronic Town’ EP.

Twenty years ago today, the Perry Farrell-spawned Lollapalooza festival — which, in retrospect, joins Nevermind as perhaps the best historical encapsulation of ‘the year punk broke’ — made its debut in the sun-baked Arizona desert with performances by Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Jane’s Addiction.