R.E.M. will reissue its debut single “Radio Free Europe” for the first time in 40 years this summer, pressing up new 7-inch vinyl copies of the original Hib-Tone version of the song released in 1981 — and different than the re-recorded version that appeared on 1983’s Murmur. Full details right here.

The 1982 debut album by Love Tractor, part of the fertile Athens, Ga., college-rock scene that also birthed R.E.M., The B-52’s and Pylon, has been remixed and remastered by Bill Berry and Sugar’s David Barbe, and will be reissued with an unreleased bonus track this fall. Full details right here, and listen to the bonus track.

hough he’s been known to hop on stage with his former bandmates in recent years, former R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry has been largely content to let those occasional musical excursions speak for themselves. This past spring, though, Berry did something far more unusual: he sat for an interview with the new podcast “In Weird Cities.”

Check out the latest installment right here — this week’s episode features items on Depeche Mode, Paul Weller, Missing Persons, Bill Rieflin of Ministry and R.E.M., Cold Cave and more.
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Bill Rieflin, the thunderous drummer who made his name in Chicago’s late-’80s/early-’90s industrial scene pounding out beats for Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pigface and more before manning the kit for R.E.M. over the last eight years of that band’s career, died on Tuesday of cancer, according to former bandmates. He was 59.

Check out the latest installment right here — this week’s episode features items on The Pretenders, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, The Psychedelic Furs, Morrissey and U2’s Bono, plus a countdown of the top 10 albums by Depeche Mode as voted by Strangeways Radio fans. Watch the whole thing right here.

This is a round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. May also include some other titles released in recent weeks but not previously featured. Titles from Simple Minds, The Cure, Visage and more.

As promised, former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe today followed up the October release of his debut solo single “Your Capricious Soul” with a second single, “Drive to the Ocean,” released on his 60th birthday. Like its predecessor, this single also benefit a climate action group. Hear it right here.

Former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe will follow up the October release of his debut solo single “Your Capricious Soul” with a second single, “Drive to the Ocean,” to be released on his 60th birthday on Jan. 4. Like its predecessor, this single also benefit a climate action group. Details right here.

The, er, monstrous reissue of R.E.M.’s 1994 album Monster arrives on Friday, and the band has continued to tease some of the unheard material that’ll appear on the box set. Next up: the instrumental demo “Uptempo Mo Distortion,” which sounds enough like “old” R.E.M. to explain why it wasn’t further developed.

R.E.M. continues to tease fans with tastes of its newly remixed version of Monster, this time previewing the massive reissue of the 1994 album with original producer Scott Litt’s new take on “Let Me In,” the spare, wall-of-sound tribute to Kurt Cobain that anchored that record. Check it out right here.

Michael Stipe today released his debut solo single, the synthy “Your Capricious Soul,” which comes a full eight years after the breakup of R.E.M. The song can be purchased for download from Stipe’s website, with proceeds benefiting the climate action group Extinction Rebellion. Hear it right here.

Eight years after the breakup of R.E.M., the band’s former frontman Michael Stipe is ready to release his debut solo single, a song called “Your Capricious Soul” that he’s been playing live and will be released digitally this weekend to benefit the climate action group Extinction Rebellion. Full details here.