The long-discussed new album from The Jesus and Mary Chain has ‘never really come together’ Jim Reid says in a new interview, in which he attributes the lack of progress to the fact that he and his brother William simply have ‘different ideas of how to record this album.’

The Sisters of Mercy’s 30th anniversary tour will end the year where it began 2011 — in Europe — with 15 more dates planned for November and December, although the band’s first-ever trip to Australia and New Zealand was scuttled after this week’s Soundwave Revolution touring festival fell apart.

This week’s new releases include the U.K. CD-only version of The Smiths ‘Complete’ box set, reissues of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Automatic’ and ‘Honey’s Dead,’ the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind,’ the new single from Erasure and a new album from The Bangles (‘Sweetheart of the Sun’).

The playlist from Sunday night’s ‘Dark Wave’ — the weekly ‘darker side of alternative’ show on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave — featured Killing Joke, Cocteau Twins, Nick Cave, Japan, Love and Rockets and much more. ‘Dark Wave’ airs Sundays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern/7 to 10 p.m. Pacific.

The head-scratching combo of Lou Reed and Metallica, who’ll release their album ‘Lulu’ this fall, today released the first full track from that collaboration: ‘The View.’

This week’s headlines at Slicing Up Eyeballs — you know, in case you missed anything — included a lot of news about the now-defunct R.E.M., plus items on Public Image Ltd., The Jesus and Mary Chain, This Mortal Coil, Scruffy the Cat and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

The now-defunct R.E.M. will release its first-ever career-spanning greatest-hits collection — ‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011’ — in November, and Rolling Stone reports the set will include “a handful of tracks” recorded earlier this year.