Morrissey has issued a wide-ranging statement upon the completion of his recent U.S.-Mexico concerts (“It was a dream tour”) in which he seemingly gives up hope of signing a deal with a “grownup label,” claiming “the follow-up to Years of Refusal grows less and less likely.”

Al Jourgensen’s newly reformed Ministry will release its first original music in four years later this week in the form of the pro-Occupy Wall Street single ’99 Percenters,’ which will go on sale digitally on Friday and then be streamed from the industrial juggernaut’s Facebook page beginning Christmas Day.

Today we roll out the third of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. This time, it’s your Top 10 singles of the year.

Vince Clarke isn’t the only collaborator that Depeche Mode’s Martin L. Gore has been working with of late; electronic duo MOTOR this week released the single ‘Man Made Machine,’ featuring Gore on vocals. The track is the first single off the techno group’s forthcoming, and more song-based, album.

Today we roll out the second of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. This time, it’s your Top 10 reissues of the year.

Tonight’s episode of Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio featured wall-to-wall Christmas songs from the likes of Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Throwing Muses, Pet Shop Boys, R.E.M., Al Jourgensen, Ramones, Miracle Legion, Book of Love, Cocteau Twins and more. Hear a replay at 2 p.m. EST Friday.

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out the first of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. First up: Your Top 10 compilations, box sets and/or live albums.

Having left The Cribs and reunited his early-2000s band The Healers, ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr today offers up a free holiday track recorded with his bandmates: the 3-minute-and-40-second instrumental ‘Free Christmas,’ which can be streamed and/or downloaded here.

This week’s new releases include a 10CD version of last year’s Joy Division ‘+/-: Singles 1978-80’ vinyl box set, plus the 12-inch version of VCMG’s debut single ‘Spock,’ a compilation of Mark Reeder remixes of Depeche Mode and more, plus the ‘I Melt With You’ soundtrack.

This week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines included items on Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, New Order, R.E.M., PiL, The Housemartins, Bob Mould, Sinead O’Connor, Peter Gabriel and the Minutemen, plus the third installment of our Rhino ‘Just Can’t Get Enough — The ’80s’ Spotify playlist.

R.E.M. this week sent fan-club members the band’s final holiday single, capping a nearly 25-year-old tradition with a 2-track CD featuring live renditions of ‘Perfect Circle’ and ‘Life and How To Live It,’ the latter of which was recorded at the band’s last-ever concert in Mexico City in November 2008.

We’re back with Week 3 of the Rhino Records ‘Just Can’t Get Enough — The ’80s’ playlist we’re guest-curating on Spotify. This week’s installment features tasty selections from the likes of OMD, Pylon, The Stone Roses, Heaven 17, XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Orange Juice, New Order and more.

The reunited New Order — featuring keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, but not bassist Peter Hook — apparently will perform in the U.S. for the first time in nearly seven years next March as part of the lineup of the electro-centric Ultra Music Festival in Miami.