Neil Taylor — who co-compiled the magazine’s original C86 compilation tape and curated next month’s expanded 3CD reissue — is writing a book about the U.K. indie-pop scene between 1983 and 1986 that promises “be the gospel according to those who were truly passionate about the music.”

The reunited original lineup of Scottish indie-pop outfit Close Lobsters today released a brand-new EP that marks the band’s first recordings in a quarter century, and we’re thrilled to premiere the video for one of the tracks, “New York City in Space,” here on Slicing Up Eyeballs.

The 8-Bit Operators collective next month follows up its tributes to Kraftwerk, Devo and The Beatles with a new collection of chiptune covers of Depeche Mode classics, a 15-track collection featuring “highly musical, lo-bit video-game hardware re-imaginings” of some of the band’s best-known songs from the past 30 years.

Erasure today announce the release of its 16th studio album this fall, a 10-track record titled The Violet Flame that will be followed by a massive 58-date world tour that will mostly see Andy Bell and Vince Clarke play venues in the U.S. and U.K. between mid-September and the end of 2014.

The Jesus and Mary Chain paid a visit to South America this past week for a short run of shows, and one of those dates — a performance Sunday at the Cultura Ingelsa Festival in São Paulo, Brazil — was filmed either for web of TV broadcast, and you can now watch the full 16-song, 66-minute set.

Mark Burgess will follow up his spring European tour that found ChameleonsVox — the latest incarnation of The Chameleons — performing 1983 debut Script of the Bridge in its entirety by performing that band’s second and third albums on consecutive nights this December in Manchester.

This week’s new releases include a brand-new studio album from Echo & The Bunnymen (‘Meteorites’), plus audiophile vinyl reissues from Depeche Mode, a new They Might Be Giants compilation, a 7 Seconds studio record, two Suzanne Vega reissues and a new compilation of Factory Records acts.

Martin Lister, the keyboardist and musical director for German synthpop group Alphaville (“Forever Young”) since the mid-1990s, died unexpectedly this past week, the band today announced, saying, “We are all speechless and shocked” and that “Alphaville will never be the same again.”

The Cure is set to headline the Bottle Rock Festival in Napa Valley, Calif., next weekend, but that won’t be Robert Smith and Co.’s only appearance in Northern California: San Francisco radio station Live 105 has announced it has booked the band for a “secret” show that is to be announced on air at 3 p.m. EDT Friday.

It’s been a big week for R.E.M. fans — even bigger than we thought, with not just the release of the band’s 1991 and 2001 “MTV Unplugged” sets and the previously reported digital collection of I.R.S.-era rarities, but also a digital companion featuring a whopping 131 tracks from the band’s Warner Bros. period.

He may be releasing an expanded vinyl reissue of 1983’s Soul Mining next month, but Matt Johnson isn’t only looking backward: He’s recorded not one but two new film soundtracks under the The The banner, new music composed for the independent films “Hyena” and “Penthouse North.”

With Echo & The Bunnymen’s 11th studio album Meteorites set for release in Europe one week from today, the band this morning began streaming the record — which Ian McCulloch calls “more edgy than anything I’ve ever done” — in full via both The Guardian in the U.K. and VPRO in the Netherlands.

The Mission is following up last year’s reunion album The Brightest Light with a brand-new EP that will feature four new songs that each are sung by a different member of the band — plus, for those who purchase the digital version, a bonus fifth track in the form of a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”