Bassist Eric Avery made it official this morning, announcing via Twitter that he has quit Jane’s Addiction for a second time as the rockers have now wrapped up their rescheduled tour of Australia — the final dates of a reunion that started with last year’s joint trek with Nine Inch Nails.

This week’s new releases include ‘Almost Alice,’ the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ soundtrack with a rare solo track from The Cure’s Robert Smith, plus a new Bomb the Bass album and a new 2CD best-of from The Stranglers.

This week’s installment of ‘Dark Wave’ on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave featured the usual staples (The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxise and the Banshees), plus a few nice surprises, such as Peter Murphy’s ‘Marlene Dietrich’s Favourite Poem’ and Tubeway Army’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’

The next two titles in Duran Duran’s series of expanded reissues — 1986’s ‘Notorious’ and 1988’s ‘Big Thing’ — are due out June 7 internationally, according to a release schedule from the Dutch arm of EMI Music.

Larry Cassidy, co-founder and frontman of Factory Records postpunk outfit Section 25, has died, British music journalist John Robb reports today on his blog. The circumstances surrounding Cassidy’s death are not yet known.

U2 today informed fans that it has begun shipping copies of ‘Artificial Horizon,’ the free remix album being sent to paying members of the band’s website.

Lloyd Cole this week released a new ‘souvenir’ CD recorded last month with his twangy Small Ensemble that features stripped-down, acoustic takes on Commotions favorites and solo tunes — plus two new songs likely earmarked for the next album, which he’s set to begin recording Monday.