The Wedding Present this month will release ‘Live 1990,’ the fourth in its series of archival live albums, collecting remastered versions of the seventh and eighth of the band’s live cassettes that were only sold at shows and through the group’s fanzine. The set includes the band’s first North American concert.

Last fall, Simple Minds announced plans to release a new box set containing the band’s first five albums and an untold number of bonus cuts — and now, with the collection and accompanying European tour due next month, we’re finally getting a look at the set’s tracklist, via our friends at The Second Disc.

Adam Ant today announced he is delaying the release of his new album and canceling his February tour of the U.S. — although he plans to reschedule what will be his first American trek in 16 years for September and October.

Lou Barlow has been treating fans to a treasure trove of free, rare and often unreleased music via his e-mail newsletter, and with his latest dispatch, he reaches back all the way back to 1983 to share a ‘lost’ 3-song practice tape from Deep Wound, his pre-Dinosaur Jr band with J Mascis.

Wayne Hussey will extend the 25th anniversary celebration of The Mission — featuring a reunited lineup of original members Simon Hinkler and Craig Adams, plus new drummer Mike Kelly — by taking the band to Latin America late this spring and performing at least one European festival date this summer.

It’s Michael Stipe’s birthday today — he’s 52 — so we’re cracking open the Vintage Video vault to bring you a 30-year-old R.E.M. concert, filmed Oct. 10, 1982, at The Pier in Raleigh, N.C., for broadcast on local television — less than two months after the release of ‘Chronic Town.’

One-man electropop outfit Cassettes Won’t Listen — aka Brooklyn’s Jason Drake, who last fall released his own version of Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’ and has remade songs by The Cure and INXS — returns with another cover of an ’80s alt classic: the Pixies’ ‘Hey.’ Stream it here.

This week’s episode of Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio featured brand-new music from Ministry, Martin Gore and The Ocean Blue, plus older favorites from The Chills, Tones on Tail, The The, The Cult, Robyn Hitchcock and The Cure, plus Destroyer’s new cover of New Order’s ‘Leave Me Alone.’

New (work) week, new month, new year… time, it would seem, for the latest in our monthly series of Auto Reverse mixtapes — two 45-minute sides to help you ease back into post-holiday life. Stream or download the two sides, crammed, as always, with some ’80s college-rock favorites and a few new tracks.

The full-album tribute is becoming de rigueur for British music magazines, and the latest to receive the treatment is New Order’s 1983 classic ‘Power, Corruption & Lies.’ The new issue of Mojo features the newly reunited, Peter Hook-less band on the cover, plus a CD featuring a track-by-track cover of the album and its accompanying singles and B-sides.

Last May, Dead Can Dance announced it would be reuniting, and while not much has been heard since, Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard today informed fans via Facebook that ‘we have started working on the album and the world tour is taking shape… we will be announcing news in the coming weeks.’

Today we round up the last two weeks of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines, including stories on Morrissey, New Order, Ministry, They Might Be Giants and more, plus the results of our readers poll, of which Duran Duran was the big winner.

Many think of U2 on New Year’s Day — including us at Slicing Up Eyeballs HQ. But not for the obvious reason (uh, ‘New Year’s Day’). No, the clock striking midnight on New Year’s Eve always reminds us one most heavily bootlegged concerts of the era, when U2 rang in the 1990s at Dublin’s Point Depot in a show broadcast live across Europe and behind the crumbling Iron Curtain.