Exactly 28 years ago today, The Smiths took the stage for only their third concert — and only their second with the final Morrissey/Johnny Marr/Andy Rourke/Mike Joyce lineup — opening for Factory Records funk band 52nd Street at New Order’s infamous Manchester club The Hacienda.

Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo turns 55 today, so we thought we’d honor the band’s least-known voice with one of his best-loved songs: ‘Mote,’ off 1990’s ‘Goo.’

The Charlatans will follow up last year’s double-disc re-release of debut album ‘Some Friendly’ this spring with an expanded reissue of 1999’s ‘Us and Only Us,’ supplementing the record’s original 11 tracks with 19 bonus B-sides, remixes, radio sessions and live tracks.

Last fall, Heaven 17 released a 2DVD set called ‘Penthouse and Pavement: Live in Concert 2010’ — and if you haven’t seen it yet, now’s your chance to win an autographed copy from Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Pet Shop Boys next month will release a 2CD set featuring their score to the Hans Christian Andersen adaptation ‘The Most Incredible Thing,’ the duo’s first-ever full-length ‘narrative ballet,’ set to debut in London in mid-March.

This week’s installment of Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio featured new tracks by The Feelies, OMD and Gang of Four, plus favorites by The Jesus and Mary Chain, PiL, Ministry, The Railway Children and The Cure. Replay at 2 p.m. EST Friday.

The first night of next month’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami will take on something of a New Wave/synthpop vibe, with Duran Duran this week joining the already-announced Erasure at the electronic music bash.

Peter Murphy will tour the U.S. in March and April, hitting, at a minimum, cities on the East and West coasts, with at least one Texas stop in between, judging from preliminary dates we’ve been able to assemble from venue and ticketing websites.

As promised last week, R.E.M. today premiered its first music video from the forthcoming ‘Collapse Into Now’: a clip for radio single ‘Mine Smell Like Honey.’

Kate Bush is set to reissue four key albums — 1982’s ‘The Dreaming,’ 1985’s ‘Hounds of Love,’ 1989’s ‘The Sensual World’ and 1993’s ‘The Red Shoes’ — later this year as rumors continue to swirl that she plans to release brand-new material in 2011 as well.

Punk/post-punk icon John Lydon turns 55 today, and to commemorate, rather than choose between the equally groundbreaking Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd., here’s something equally important: Lydon’s collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa on Time Zone’s 1984 single ‘World Destruction.’

This week’s new CDs include ‘The Palace Guards,’ the solo debut from David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, plus ‘White Magic,’ the second album from The Church’s Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy of electronic group All India Radio.

The playlist from tonight’s ‘Dark Wave’ — the Sunday night ‘darker side of alternative’ show on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave — features tracks by The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, Japan, Camouflage, TSOL and more.