KMFDM is offering up a free new song called ‘Rebels in Control’ in support of WikiLeaks and as a protest against the denial-of-service attacks mounted on services such as PayPal and MasterCard that were allowing supporters to contribute funds to the embattled organization.

While U2 hasn’t yet unveiled the tracklist for its next fanclub CD, called ‘U2: Duals,’ the band today offered U2.com members a sneak peak in the form of ‘Amazing Grace/Where the Streets Have No Name,’ a track featuring Bono and Co. and the Soweto Gospel Choir that was created last summer for the World Cup. Hear it here.

Fans of The Smiths are reveling in an unexpected Christmas gift this week with the appearance of a bootleg LP featuring 16 unreleased studio outtakes, including the scrapped original recording of ‘Sheila Take a Bow,’ a reggae-like take on ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ and two previously unheard instrumentals.

The release of R.E.M.’s new album ‘Collapse Into Now’ is still more than two months away, but the band is in full pre-Christmas promotional mode, not just offering up free tracks but now releasing a 2-minute trailer for the record that features the band performing many of the new tracks live in the studio.

Exploring the legacy of ’80s college rock, ‘Slicing Up Eyeballs’ airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific on Strangeways Radio. This week’s show featured tracks by R.E.M., Paul Weller, The Sisters of Mercy, Midnight Oil, A Certain Ratio, Lloyd Cole and more.

Twisted troubadour Robyn Hitchcock is opening his vaults slightly to fans, this week posting a streaming collection of a dozen covers — recorded both live and in the studio recently — of songs by David Bowie, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, the Grateful Dead and Nick Drake.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are treating their fans to a special gift each day leading up to Christmas as a thank-you for their support this year, beginning with a free MP3 of ‘Sister Marie Says’ (Soil In The Synth Remix), a new mix of the ‘History of Modern’ single.

With Duran Duran’s first album in three years — ‘All You Need Is Now’ — now available via iTunes, it should come as no surprise that the original music-video band has, in fact, released a new music video to promote lead-off single ‘All You Need Is Now.’ The clip, seen above, premiered Monday night on Yahoo Music.

Just days after R.E.M. started giving away MP3s of the opening track to 2011’s ‘Collapse Into Now,’ a second song — ‘It Happened Today,’ featuring Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder on backing vocals — from the album has hit the web after it was released as a single digitally in other parts of the world.

Christmas week is a light one for new releases, with only two notable titles: the digital edition of Duran Duran’s long-awaited ‘All You Need Is Now,’ and a 180-gram vinyl reissue of Ride’s shoegaze classic ‘Nowhere.’

Tonight’s ‘Dark Wave’ on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave featured a number of nice surprises, including a rare airing of a Morrissey album cut (‘Late Night, Maudlin Street’) and some lesser-played Peter Murphy (‘Marlene Dietrich’s Favorite Poem,’ ‘You’re So Close’).

With Duran Duran’s long-awaited new album ‘All You Need Is Now’ due out digitally on Tuesday, the band’s been doing loads of press here in the U.S. and back in Europe — including this live debut of lead-off single ‘All You Need Is Now’ on the U.K. television show ‘Loose Women’ this past Friday.