Today is Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon’s 52nd birthday, and to mark the occasion — and with a tip of the hat to the current batch of reissues — we present this fabulous clip of DD playing its single ‘Notorious’ on an Italian television show in 1987. I

This week’s new releases include Trent Reznor’s score for ‘The Social Network,’ a super-limited 12-inch from The Cult, the U.S. editions of Duran Duran’s ‘Notorious’ and ‘Big Thing’ reissues, a disc of Suzanne Vega acoustic re-recordings, and a CD/DVD of film soundtrack work from John Foxx.

It’s a huge new release week, with new albums from Killing Joke and Bad Religion; live albums from Yazoo and Tom Tom Club; reissues from Duran Duran, David Bowie, The Fall and Morrissey; and new compilations from Soundgarden, KMFDM and David Sylvian.

With its as-yet-untitled new record nearly complete, Duran Duran today announced its first South African concerts in 17 years, a five-date run in December that’s being billed as ‘the start of an enormous global campaign around the release of their next studio album.’

This week’s new releases include ‘Who We Touch,’ the 11th album from The Charlatans; ‘The Morning After,’ a new mini-album from James; a David Bowie tribute album featuring Duran Duran and Mick Karn; and reissues from Madness and Flesh for Lulu’s Nick Marsh.

The first taste of Duran Duran’s long-in-the-works 13th studio album hit the Internet this evening after Mark Ronson — who’s producing the disc — played 30 seconds of ‘Blame the Machine’ on his East Village Radio show.

Now that EMI has come out defending its last set of expanded Duran Duran reissues, the label has pushed back the release of the band’s next pair: 1986’s ‘Notorious’ and 1988’s ‘Big Thing,’ both now due on Sept. 27, nearly four months after their original June release date.

More than three months after Duran Duran reissued its self-titled debut and ‘Seven and the Ragged Tiger,’ the band’s label, EMI, is defending the albums’ remastering amid fan complaints, acknowledging that ‘the mastering on these versions is different to that of previous remasters — however that does not necessarily make it wrong.’

Monday, Duran Duran co-founder Nick Rhodes — who today celebrates his 48th birthday — posted a short video update on YouTube to bring fans up to date on the band’s lengthy sessions for its 13th studio album.

In what should come as no surprise by this point, the next two titles in Duran Duran’s series of expanded reissues — 1986’s ‘Notorious’ and 1988’s ‘Big Thing’ — apparently have been delayed a second time and are now due out Sept. 7.

This week’s new releases include ‘Wake Up the Nation,’ the 10th studio album from The Jam’s Paul Weller, plus reissues of Duran Duran spinoff Arcadia’s ‘So Red the Rose’ (CD/DVD) and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Darklands’ (vinyl).

Round-up of headlines from last week while we were on vacation, including news about Paul Westerberg, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Talking Heads’ Christ Frantz, Duran Duran and more.

This week’s new releases include a new solo album from the Pixies’ Black Francis called ‘NonStopErotik,’ plus expanded reissues from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Galaxie 500 and Duran Duran, as well as a vintage live album from The Wedding Present.