Exploring the legacy of ’80s college rock, the Slicing Up Eyeballs Music Hour airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific on Strangeways Radio. If you caught this week’s episode, pop over to the Strangeways message board to leave requests for future shows.

The Cure will warm up for its three-night stand at London’s Hammersmith Apollo next week with a pair of special guest appearances on Thursday and Friday at the Brian and Robin’s Christmas Compendium of Reason benefit concert, performing “a small clutch of ‘happy hits'” both nights.

The prospects of The Smiths all gathering in the same room — forget about a live performance, just getting the four together behind a podium would have been a miracle — were dashed early Tuesday when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced next year’s inductees, a list that did not include the first-time nominees.

Earlier this fall, Athens, Ga.-based suicide prevention organization Nuçi’s Space launched a fundraising campaign to help save the steeple of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, famous in R.E.M. lore as the site of the first gig by Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe on April 5, 1980.

This week’s new releases include a pair of bonus-laden CD reissues from Trip Shakespeare, plus vinyl re-releases from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (From Her to Eternity, Firstborn is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks, Your Funeral… My Trial), The Misfits and The Melvins.

Just a couple months after the unreleased “Same Old Madness” was included on the reissue of Ministry’s classic Twelve Inch Singles, another early With Sympathy-era track is seeing the light of day — this time courtesy of bandleader Al Jourgensen, who has famously distanced himself from his band’s early synthpop days.

Tonight’s edition of “Dark Wave” on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave featured Christmas music from Al Jourgensen, Wayne Hussey, Cocteau Twins, X, Wall of Voodoo and The Fall, plus tracks from The Sisters of Mercy, Tones on Tail, TSOL, Camouflage, Pailhead and more.

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe appeared on “CBS This Morning” today to help promote the band’s recently released “REMTV” DVD box set, discussing the band’s history and his own future and the (un)likelihood that we’ll ever see an R.E.M. reunion (“That will never happen. There’s no point.”).

Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman’s lone solo record — 1984’s appropriately titled So-Lo — has been reissued on CD for the first time in more than a decade by the Varese Sarabande label, which has supplemented the nine-song album with a lone bonus track: the original mix of single and album opener “Gratitude.”

Next year’s shaping up to be a good one for fans of Lloyd Cole, as the singer-songwriter this week announced a nine-date U.S. tour — with the promise that “there will be more” shows added — and has revealed that he’s at work on a six-disc box set collecting material he recorded with The Commotions.

In conjunction with the release this month of the 25th anniversary reissue of the Pixies’ classic second album Doolittle, the 4AD label has produced a 30-minute promotional film in which guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lowering reflect back on the making of the record.

Johnny Marr on Monday canceled the remainder of his U.S. tour dates over a “serious close family illness” this week, while Morrissey revealed in an interview that he’s written a new album and will record the follow-up to “World Peace Is None of Your Business” in February.

The spate of hugely expanded box-set reissues continues next year with Simple Minds’ breakthrough sixth album Sparkle in the Rain — featuring the singles “Waterfront” and “Up on the Catwalk” — set for re-release a a five-disc set featuring B-sides, remixes, BBC sessions, a previously unreleased concert.