Ted Leo and the Pharmacists cover Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the debut of the A.V. Club’s new ‘Undercover’ series, which will feature bands covering tunes by The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, R.E.M. and more.

The short career of enigmatic Liverpool indie-pop act The La’s will be celebrated this spring with Callin’ All, a four-disc, 91-track box set that compiles singles, b-sides, unreleased outtakes and live material — and no fewer than six versions of ‘There She Goes,’ the band’s signature tune.

To show our support for 1st Wave’s Sunday night ‘Dark Wave’ show — and the idea that Sirius XM should dig deeper all the time, not just once a week — tonight we begin posting each week’s playlist.

The Smiths’ classic second album, ‘Meat is Murder,’ was released Feb. 14, 1985 — exactly 25 years ago today. To mark the occasion, we’ve assembled live video of nearly every track on the album (”Well I Wonder” being the missing link).

The editor of Smiths Indeed — the classic fanzine published from 1986 to 1989 and sold at The Smiths’ ‘The Queen Is Dead’ shows in the UK — is reprinting the full set of 12 issues in a limited-edition run for the second time.

Peter Hook last night christened his new Manchester club FAC251 — housed in the former headquarters of Factory Records — with members of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays helping perform a career-spanning set that included the live debuts of an unfinished Joy Division song and a New Order outtake.

Esteemed UK publishing house Faber & Faber has posted “An Open Letter to Morrissey” on its blog, imploring the former Smiths singer to not only complete his long-discussed autobiography but let the company publish it — noting that, “History demands it; destiny commands it.”

[tweetmeme]Robyn Hitchcock this spring will release the 3-years-in-the-making Propellor Time, an album recorded with current back-up band The Venus 3 — R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey and ex-Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin — and featuring guest turns by the likes of The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, Nick Lowe and John Paul Jones of Led [...]

[tweetmeme]A previously unheard alternate take of The Smiths’ 1984 B-side “Girl Afraid” has surfaced on a just-discovered Rough Trade Records reference cassette of the band’s Hatful of Hollow LP, which suggests a different tracklist originally was planned for the celebrated compilation album.
According to an article in the January issue of the U.K.’s Record Collector magazine, [...]

[tweetmeme]Morrissey today issued a lengthy and somewhat whiny statement to his fans in which he reflects back on his troubled 2009, addressing, for the first time, his on-stage collapse and the concert two weeks later during which he was pelted in the head with a bottle, as well as apologizing for the performance of his [...]