The playlist from tonight’s ‘Dark Wave’ on Sirius XM’s classic-alt station 1st Wave boasts an unusual number of deep, rarely aired cuts from regulars such as Siouxsie and the Banshees (the band’s cover of The Doors’ ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’), the Psychedelic Furs (‘Imitation of Christ’), The Jesus and Mary Chain (‘Catchfire’) and Love and Rockets (‘Holiday on the Moon’).

Squeeze co-leader Chris Difford is in the midst of releasing his third solo album, ‘Cashmere If You Can,’ piece-by-piece each week through the Saturday Morning Music Club, which delivers multimedia bundles to subscribers’ desktop apps each Saturday.

The producer of ‘Playing the Angel: The Musical’ — which was to have been based around Depeche Mode songs such as ‘Personal Jesus’ and ‘Walking in My Shoes’ — has pulled the plug on the project, citing ‘miscommunication and misunderstanding’ over his rights to use the band’s music.

Reunited 2 Tone ska legends The Specials performed ‘Gangsters’ and ‘Nite Klub’ on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ last night, and have begun setting dates for a late-summer return to North America, with concerts announced so far in New York, New Jersey and Toronto.

This week Beck and his Record Club gang tackle one of the lesser-known tracks on INXS’ ‘Kick,’ ‘Calling All Nations,’ offering up a nice, mellow jam with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark once again taking the mic.

Scottish dream-pop trio Cocteau Twins later this month will reissue their first three albums and a bonus EP on audiophile quality, 180-gram vinyl in a super-limited 5LP box set designed by 4AD’s famed Vaughan Oliver.

A cutting-edge theater company on the Mediterranean island of Malta has acquired the rights to use Depeche Mode songs such as ‘Personal Jesus’ and ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ in ‘Playing the Angel: The Musical,’ which is set to open early next year.

This year may be nearly half over, but it’s certainly not too late to catch up with The Smiths Project, an ambitious and impressive effort by San Jose, Calif., musician Janice Whaley to record layered vocal arrangements of every song ever released by The Smiths — all by the end of 2010.

That concert in Atlanta featuring ex-frontman Dean Wareham ‘performing the Galaxie 500 songbook’ that we told you about last month won’t be a one-off after all: Wareham and his Dean & Britta bandmates have announced a scattered string of such shows between August and December.

Devo not only celebrated yesterday’s release of ‘Something for Everybody’ — their first new album in 20 years — by holding a listening party for cats, the jump-suited band also turned up on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ last night to perform the single ‘Fresh.’

The founding members of British post-punk/New Wave act Modern English — immortalized by their hit ‘I Melt With You’ — are reuniting for the first time since the mid-’80s to tour this summer in support of the band’s just-released album ‘Soundtrack.’

Given today’s release of ‘Intriguer’ in the U.K., it seems fitting to post this sweet clip: Crowded House and the venerable Johnny Marr covering the David Bowie classic ‘Moonage Daydream’ during the encore of the band’s May 27 concert in Manchester.

This week’s new releases include the U.K. edition of ‘Intriguer,’ Crowded House’s second post-reunion album; ‘Something for Everybody,’ Devo’s first new album in 20 years; ‘Close-Up Vol. 1: Love Songs,’ a disc of Suzanne Vega re-recordings; and the reissue of The Dream Syndicate’s ‘Medicine Show.’