Today marks the release of the 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant,’ and to help celebrate, the fine folks at EMI Music have provided us with a copy of the set — featuring a whopping 19 previously unreleased studio demos — to award to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader.

This week’s new releases include the expanded 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant,’ plus Dead Can Dance’s 4LP ‘Box Set II’ and ‘Weird Pop,’ the brand-new double-vinyl best-of from Bauhaus spin-off Tones on Tail.

Next week sees the release of the latest installment in R.E.M.’s ongoing reissue series: an expanded 2CD, 25th anniversary re-release of ‘Lifes Rich Pageant.’ Thanks to an exclusive pre-release stream at Spin.com, you can go ahead and check out the fully remastered 1986 album and the 19-track bonus disc.

R.E.M. continue their reissue series this July with a 25th anniversary edition of ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ that will feature a newly remastered version of the 1986 album and a bonus CD featuring 19 unreleased demos that include a never-before-released song.

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.

To help celebrate the release of R.E.M.’s latest album ‘Collapse Into Now,’ the folks at EMI Music — who now control the band’s classic college-rock output on I.R.S. Records — have provided us with a 5CD/2LP prize pack to award to a lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader.

Monday night in New York City, Patti Smith sang and read poetry at Milk Studios for the opening of ‘Illumination: Who Are Poets,’ an exhibit by rock ‘n’ roll photographer Steven Sebring — and was joined onstage by Michael Stipe for an impromptu performance of R.E.M. smash ‘Everybody Hurts.’

New York City’s Baruch College played host Saturday night to a star-studded tribute to Big Star’s beloved ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ album, performed by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, plus Matthew Sweet, members of Teenage Fanclub and Yo La Tengo, and surviving Big Star member Jody Stephens.

Slicing Up Eyeballs caught up with the Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn last week as he was rehearsing with The Baseball Project for a tour that hits both South By Southwest — for a marathon 14 gigs — and a series of spring training ballgames.

In honor of today’s release of ‘Collapse Into Now,” tonight’s Slicing Up Eyeballs show on Strangeways Radio took a look back at the career of R.E.M. Watch for a replay at 2 p.m. EST Friday.

This week’s new releases include brand-new albums from R.E.M. (‘Collapse Into Now’), Blancmange (‘Blanc Burn’) and Exene Cervenka (‘The Excitement of Maybe’), plus a new EP from The Primitives, two mid-period reissues from The Mission and a new KMFDM single.

Much of R.E.M.’s new album has been intentionally leaked by the band over the past two months, but now — one week before ‘Collapse Into Now’ actually arrives in stores — you can hear the whole thing, streaming here.

While R.E.M. is busy promoting its forthcoming new album ‘Collapse Into Now,’ the band will continue its reissue series with the release later this year of an expanded 25th anniversary edition of 1986’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant.’