Much has been made about the loss of album art in the download age, but pop-culture maven Matthew Chojnacki argues that even more endangered are the 7- and 12-inch single sleeves of the 1980s — ephemeral splashes of music history that he’s compiled in the new book ‘Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute.’

A treasure trove of early ’80s concert footage shot at New Order’s legendary club FAC51 The Hacienda soon will make its way online thanks to a deal by Ikon — Factory Records’ video spinoff — to provide its remaining archive of performances to Peter Hook’s site fac51thehacienda.com.

To commemorate Ian McCulloch’s 52nd birthday today, here’s a full, 53-minute Echo & The Bunnymen live performance filmed in Madrid and broadcast on Spanish TV on Sept. 4, 1984.

This week’s new releases include a new single from Morrissey featuring two vintage unreleased B-sides, a Norwegian-released album from Robyn Hitchcock, audiophile vinyl pressings from Echo & The Bunnymen, INXS and The B-52s, and a 3CD reissue from The Icicle Works.

There’s less than a week left before that holiest of holy days for vinyl junkies: Record Store Day 2011, which, this year, will see special releases in the U.S. and the U.K. by R.E.M., The Smiths, New Order and Joy Division, Kate Bush, Sonic Youth and many more.

Echo & The Bunnymen today announced a 10-date North American tour this May that will find the U.K. rockers performing their beloved first two albums — 1980’s ‘Crocodiles’ and 1981’s ‘Heaven Up Here’ — in their entirety.

Turns out Echo & The Bunnymen won’t be the only ones doing the full-album thing this spring: The Psychedelic Furs are planning to bring their ‘Talk Talk Talk’ tour to the ‘western U.S.’ for a round of dates in April in May.

Although dates have yet to be announced, Echo & The Bunnymen will return to the U.S. this May to perform to perform their first two albums — 1980’s ‘Crocodiles’ and 1981’s ‘Heaven Up Here’ — in their entirety.

For the past day or so, Echo & The Bunnymen’s web folk have been uploading a stream of videos to the band’s YouTube channel, including this 1985 TV appearance that finds the band joined by Billy Bragg to play The Velvet Underground’s ‘Run Run Run.’

The lastest in French music site La Blogotheque’s impromptu “A Take Away Show” series — in which bands or artists throw together spontaneous performances, wherever they may be — features Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch offering up a stark, solo-acoustic take on the band’s classic “The Killing Moon.”

With the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival now two-thirds of the way through, we thought we’d prowl YouTube for some initial video highlights from the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, The Specials, Public Image Ltd. and Faith No More.

Fans who can’t be in Indio, Calif., this weekend — or bands trapped in the U.K. by an angry volcano — can watch much of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival via free streaming webcasts on Facebook, MySpace and Verizon V Cast Video on Demand (for those with Verizon phones) beginning tonight.

Bernard Sumner’s New Order spinoff Bad Lieutenant is one of the myriad bands set to play this weekend’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival — and the group today went ahead and announced (spoiler alert) its setlist for Saturday night’s performance.