Matthew Seligman, the highly inventive bassist for The Soft Boys who went on to record with Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, The Waterboys, Peter Murphy, Morrissey and more, and who played with David Bowie at Live Aid, died Friday after being in a coma for two weeks with COVID-19, his longtime friend Dolby announced,

Record Rack: 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. This week’s new titles include release from U2, Thomas Dolby, The Art of Noise and The Colourfield, plus the new ‘C89’ box set.

Thomas Dolby will be heading out on tour in the U.S. this summer with a show in which he’ll “deconstruct half a dozen of my favorite songs.” In announcing the tour’s concept on Twitter, he also offered a clip of what fans won’t see: him and Rick Springfield covering The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of Depeche Mode’s iconic “Concert For the Masses,” a daylong show at the 100,000-seat Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., that also featured performances by Wire, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Thomas Dolby — and was, of course, filmed and recorded for ‘101.’

First International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield recorded a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in space, and now Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is joining in the pop-music fun, jumping on stage this week at a Smithsonian Magazine conference to perform “She Blinded Me With Science” with Thomas Dolby.

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we bring in someone not normally associated with “120 Minutes”: Original MTV VJ Martha Quinn, who is seen in this clip interviewing Michael Aston of Gene Loves Jezebel for the alt-music program during its very early incarnation in 1986.

This year’s South By Southwest will feature appearances by a horde of ’80s college rock vets, including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bob Mould performing ‘Copper Blue,’ The Wedding Present, Thomas Dolby, The Cult, Dinosaur Jr and The dB’s, plus R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills playing Big Star’s ‘Third.’

This week’s edition of The Week in Rock features headlines about Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and Vince Clarke, The Cure, World Party, Peter Murphy, Morrissey, Bob Mould, fIREHOSE, IanMcCulloch, David Bowie, Grinderman, Jane’s Addiction and more.

Thomas Dolby will embark on a 24-date North American tour this spring with his Time Capsule in tow: a chrome- and brass-plated road trailer that ‘resembles a Jules Verne/HG Wells-inspired time-travel machine’ outfitted with a video studio so fans can upload ‘a personal video message to the future.’

This week’s new releases include brand-new albums from Thomas Dolby (first in 20 years!), Magazine (first in 30 years!) and Skinny Puppy, plus the U.S. version of The Smiths’ deluxe ‘Complete’ box set, the Peter Gabriel ‘New Blood: Live in London’ DVD/Blu-ray and ‘Fac. Dance,’ a compilation of Factory Records 12-inches.

Our latest link round-up includes a Q&A with Thomas Dolby, news of a comic-book series inspired by The Smiths, an essay on whether MTV’s ‘120 Minutes’ is still necessary, news of the return of Washington, D.C.’s WHFS and a review and excerpt of Simon Reynolds’ new book ‘Retromania.’

Beloved British sophisti-pop act Prefab Sprout returns this fall with Let’s Change the World With Music, the reclusive act’s first new album in eight years […]