Capitol/EMI today announced it will release ‘The Very Very Best of Crowded House,’ a new greatest-hits package, on Oct. 26 as both a 19-track CD and download and as an expanded 32-track digital-only collection.

The defunct Ministry next month will release ‘Every Day is Halloween: The Anthology,’ a 12-track compilation that appears to mix some of the band’s best-known singles with new covers of classic songs by AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones — and Amy Winehouse?

For our latest installment of Vintage Video, we flash back to March 1984 to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers — long before they became sensitive alt-rock balladeers — make their television debut on the ‘Thicke of the Night’ talk show’s one and only season.

As Crowded House nears the end of its U.S. tour, the band this week released an official music video for ‘Either Side of the World,’ the second single off this summer’s ‘Intriguer.’

Thanks to the folks at Canada’s HushMusic, we’ve got copies of the forthcoming ‘Retro:Active 7 — Rare & Remixed’ compilation CD to give away to three lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs readers. The new installment features mixes of songs by Echo & The Bunnymen, Tears For Fears, OMD and a-ha.

The first two albums by Robyn Hitchcock’s late-’70s/early-’80s neo-psychedelic band The Soft Boys — 1979’s ‘A Can of Bees’ and 1980’s classic ‘Underwater Moonlight’ — will be reissued in stripped-down CD and audiophile vinyl editions that come with new download-only bonus tracks.

The Pogues today announced a ‘Farewell Christmas’ tour of the U.K. and Ireland this December, which band co-founder Peter ‘Spider’ Stacy declares will be ‘the last Christmas tour for the foreseeable future’ — although there’s disagreement even amongst the band about that.