This past weekend saw the inaugural edition of the Darker Waves festival take over Huntington Beach in Southern California, with New Order and Tears For Fears.

Cocteau Twins frontwoman Elizabeth Fraser today debuted her first new music in 13 years, the track “Golden Air” from her new project Sun’s Signature.

Elizabeth Fraser will release her first new music in more than a decade via a “finally finished” 12-inch vinyl EP featuring five songs by Fraser and her partner Damon Reece.

October’s a big month for LP-collecting Echo & The Bunnymen fans, with the band’s first four albums receiving vinyl reissues — including limited-edition colored pressings — from Rhino Records.

Industrial rockers Stabbing Westward have released a new Halloween-themed EP called Hallowed Hymns that features new covers of The Cure’s “Burn” — two versions, in fact — as well as Ministry’s “(Every Day Is) Halloween” and Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.” Listen to the new EP right here.

Our good friends at Strangeways Radio are putting together a week-in-review video series called Alt. Rewind that recaps the news posted at Slicing Up Eyeballs and on the Strangeways site throughout the preceding week, hosted by Velvet Rebel. Watch the latest episode right here.

The “ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic” today led promoter Goldenvoice has pulled the plug on the rescheduled Cruel World festival in Los Angeles, which would have celebrate the ’80s alternative era with a bill topped by Morrissey, Bauhaus, Blondie and Devo. Get your full information on refunds here.

The Cruel World music festival lives on. Goldenvoice, the event’s promoter, today announced the inaugural Los Angeles-based festival with the ’80s-heavy bill — Morrissey, Bauhaus, Blondie and Devo — is being moved to Sept. 12 from May 2 over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. Full details right here.

The inaugural Cruel World music festival that boasted a bill topped by ’80s alternative stalwarts Morrissey, Bauhaus, Blondie, Devo and Echo & The Bunnymen appears to have been postponed indefinitely in response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, but promoters have barely communicated anything to ticketholders.

Check out the latest installment right here — this week’s episode covers news about the Depeche Mode Violator singles box set, Record Store Day releases from David Bowie, U2 and more, plus touring news from Echo & The Bunnymen and Duran Duran. Plus a countdown of the top 10 ’80s movie soundtracks.

Echo & The Bunnymen today announced a pair of warm-up concerts in San Diego and San Luis Obispo, Calif., in the days leading up to the band’s appearance at the Morrissey-headlined Cruel World festival outside of Los Angeles in early May. Check out full details right here.

Coachella promoter Goldenvoice today announced a massive one-day festival in Los Angeles called Cruel World that will be headlined by Morrissey and feature performances by such contemporaries as the reunited Bauhaus, Blondie, Devo and Echo & The Bunnymen. Full lineup and ticket info right here.

Calexico and Iron & Wine have been out on the road this year in support of their 14-years-in-the-making second collaboration, Years to Burn, and have regularly been performing a cover of Echo & The Bunnymen’s “Bring on the Dancing Horses” — which they recorded in a live session for KEXP last summer.