SPOT, an in-house producer and engineer who helped make albums by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Descendents, Meat Puppets for SST Records, has died.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on live music across the globe, with giant festivals — including Coachella and South By Southwest — postponed or canceled and tours in the U.S. and around the world being canceled or curtailed in an effort to protect large crowds from transmitting COVID-19.

Legendary post-punk act Wire will open its 40th anniversary celebrations this year with the release of the band’s 15th studio album, Silver/Lead, which is preceded by the single “Short Elevated Period” — and you can stream that track here.

American Laundromat Records next spring will release a double-CD tribute to quirky director Wes Anderson titled I Saved Latin!, a collection that will feature indie artists such as Black Francis, Kristin Hersh, Juliana Hatfield, Mike Watt and more covering songs featured in films.

This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes news about Kate Bush, Peter Buck, Erasure, J Mascis, Husker Du, Howard Jones, Madness, Paul Weller, Mike Watt, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lee Ranaldo, The Cure and Close Lobters — plus a B-52’s live DVD giveaway.

Legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt this May will publish a new book called ‘On and Off Bass’ that combines his 2000s-era tour diaries with his nature photography, and he’ll launch the memoir with a pair of release parties — including a New York show that’ll find him jamming with Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis and Murph.

fIREHOSE — the band formed by Mike Watt and George Hurley following the 1985 death of their Minutemen bandmate D. Boon — will precede its spring tour and Coachella appearances with “lowFLOWs” the Columbia Anthology (’91-’93), a new 2CD set that compiles the band’s major-label output plus four unreleased cuts.

This fall, American Laundromat Recordings will celebrate the soundtrack to the 1984 cult classic ‘Repo Man’ with a track-by-track tribute, featuring the likes of Black Francis, Mike Watt, Matthew Sweet and Amanda Palmer and more covering songs originally recorded by Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Suicidal Tendencies.

The reunited fIREHOSE — the band formed by Mike Watt and George Hurley following the 1985 death of their Minutemen bandmate D. Boon — will precede its appearances at April’s two-weekend Coachella Festival with an 11-date club tour of the western U.S. — the trio’s first concerts since splitting in 1994.

The newly expanded two-weekend Coachella festival announced its 2012 lineup this afternoon, with headliners The Black Keys, Radiohead and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg joined by Pulp, Buzzcocks, Squeeze, Madness and a reunion of fIREHOSE, the Mike Watt’s and George Hurley’s post-Minutemen act.

If you’ve haven’t seen director Tim Irwin’s 2005 documentary ‘We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen,’ now’s your chance — the full 90-minute film has made its way onto YouTube. The film features interviews with surviving members Mike Watt and George Hurley.

This week’s new releases include The The’s soundtrack to the film ‘Tony’; a new best-of from Scritti Politti; Mike Watt’s punk opera ‘Hyphenated-Man’; the second album from Steve Wynn’s The Baseball Project; a new OMD single; and This Mortal Coil on vinyl.

While punk rock is most closely associated with the London and New York City scenes of the late 1970s, the Los Angeles strain that erupted in the early ’80s was just as vital — something Dave Travis attempts to document in his forthcoming DVD ‘A History Lesson Part 1: Punk Rock in Los Angeles in 1984.’