The reunited Afghan Whigs this morning offered fans their first taste of upcoming seventh album Do To The Beast with the premiere on Spotify of the first track off that release: “Algiers,” a four-minute, mostly acoustic ballad that’s dirtied up, in the middle, with a fuzzed-out electric-guitar solo,

Now that the dust has settled from the controversial Best Albums of the ’80s poll, it’s time to get back to the voting. And next up will be a poll to determine the best EPs and mini-albums of the ’80s — basically, that somewhat ambiguous class of release that’s too long to be a single yet not quite long enough to be a full LP.

Back in 2011, the good folks at Rhino Records requested we take a stab at curating their ‘Just Can’t Get Enough: The ’80s’ playlist on Spotify — and now that the label’s launched its own app within Spotify, we’ve been asked to freshen it up with 25 new tracks representing the classic ’80s alternative era.

This week’s new releases include the second solo album from R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, as well as a new studio record from Suzanne Vega, a reissue of the debut album from New Zealand’s Verlaines and a reissue of a Shane MacGowan & The Popes live CD/DVD set.

Tonight’s edition of “Dark Wave” on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave featured music from Virgin Prunes, Christian Death, Lycia, The Gruesome Twosome, Skinny Puppy, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bauhaus, Tubeway Army, NItzer Ebb, The Names and more.

Echo & The Bunnymen today revealed that the band’s upcoming 12th studio album — produced by Killing Joke bassist Youth — is nearing completion and will be formally announced soon, and that frontman Ian McCulloch “feels it’s the band’s best work for a very long time.”

Just hours after announcing a pair of high-profile arena concerts in New York and Los Angeles, Morrissey this morning has unveiled a full 25-date U.S. tour this May and June that will hit many of the cities and venues that saw cancellations during the former Smiths singer’s disastrous late-2012 and early-2013 American tour.

Morrissey has yet to announce his promised U.S. tour this spring, but tonight he did confirm two major concerts: arena shows in Los Angeles and New York in May and June that will find the former Smiths singer sharing the stage with legendary crooners Tom Jones and Cliff Richard, respectively.

Peter Buck is back with his second solo album, another vinyl-only release — ambitiously titled I Am Back To Blow Your Mind Once Again — that he’ll support with a short round of dates later this month in the Midwest and South opening for and then backing roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo

It’s been a busy few months for David J: The bassist recorded a new version of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and is putting together a new album called An Eclipse of Ships. Add to that a new role as bassist for the band Stellarum, with which he’s just recorded a slow-burning cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”

Tonight’s Slicing Up Eyeballs Music Hour on Strangeways Radio featured music by Game Theory, Midnight Oil, The Waterboys, XTC, Minutemen, The Smithereens, Bob Mould, Ramones, Oingo Boingo, Violent Femmes, The Replacements and more. Replay 2 p.m. EST Friday.

When Morrissey announced last month he’d signed a new record deal and plans to release an album later this year, he also promised that 2014 tour dates would be “announced soon.” It appears a spring U.S. trek is beginning to take shape with concerts set for Dallas and Boston in late May and early June.

As promised, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart reunited as the Eurythmics to perform a Beatles cover — “The Fool on the Hill” off Magical Mystery Tour — on the “The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles” television special that was taped last month and broadcast on CBS last night.