Kathryn Bigelow, who last night won the Oscar for best director for ‘The Hurt Locker,’ directed a video for New Order’s ‘Touched By the Hand of God’ in 1987 that finds Bernard Sumner and Co. outfitted as a hair-metal band.

Larry Cassidy, co-founder and frontman of Factory Records postpunk outfit Section 25, has died, British music journalist John Robb reports today on his blog. The circumstances surrounding Cassidy’s death are not yet known.

Bad Lieutenant, the new band from New Order’s Bernard Sumner, will make its belated U.S. debut this April with an appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and club dates in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, the group announced Monday.

While U.S. fans await word of Bad Lieutenant’s stateside debut — following last fall’s aborted showcase concerts in New York and Chicago — Bernard Sumner’s New Order spinoff on Wednesday announced five new live dates in the U.K. next month.

Revered as an iconic singles band, New Order delivered, with its fifth album “Technique,” what now holds up — alongside 1985’s “Low-Life” — as its strongest front-to-back effort. The album was released on this date in 1989.

[tweetmeme]The two studio albums by The Other Two — the New Order spinoff featuring husband-and-wife team Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert — will be reissued next month in digitally remastered editions featuring nine bonus remixes.
Due out Jan. 26 in Europe, the synthpop duo’s 1993 debut The Other Two & You comes with new artwork and [...]

[tweetmeme]Last month, on the eve of its airing on BBC Four, we offered up a few previews of “Synth Britannia,” the much-buzzed documentary that tracks the rise of British synthpop in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Now, particularly for those fans outside of the U.K. who couldn’t see the broadcast, we’re thrilled to be [...]

[tweetmeme]Visa problems have scuttled the debut American concerts by New Order spinoff Bad Lieutenant — including two dates opening for the Pixies in New York and Chicago — the band announced today, just the latest bureaucratic setback for U.K. acts attempting to tour the United States.
The Bernard Sumner-led act posted on its website today that [...]

[tweetmeme]Here’s a clip of Bad Lieutenant — aka  Bernard Sumner and a couple other guys on acoustic guitars — running through the New Order classic “Bizarre Love Triangle” at an in-store performance in Paris this past Wednesday. The band was in France for a performance at the Festival les Inrocks, one of its handful of [...]

U.S. concerts on the Pixies’ ongoing Doolittle 20th anniversary tour will be opened by  New Order spinoff Bad Lieutenant and a series of indie luminaries, including garage-rocker Jay Reatard, noise act No Age and TV on the Radio side project Rain Machine.
The Pixies’ publicity team this morning unveiled the November trek’s openers, with Bernard Sumner’s Bad [...]