With the expanded reissue of R.E.M.’s third album, 1985’s ‘Fables of the Reconstruction,’ now just two weeks away, the folks at Capitol/I.R.S. are starting to give fans a taste of some of the 14 previously unreleased demos that will make up the second disc of the set.

Today sees the release of the sixth double A-side single from Peter Gabriel’s orchestral covers album ‘Scratch My Back’: his version of the Talking Heads’ ‘Remain in Light’ track ‘Listening Wind,’ backed by David Byrne’s take on ‘I Don’t Remember,’ off Gabriel’s third self-titled album.

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.

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.

In this clip recorded for Levi’s ‘Pioneer Sessions,’ James Mercer — leader of The Shins and one-half of Broken Bells — throws down a solo-acoustic cover of Squeeze’s classic ‘Goodbye Girl,’ which also is available as a free download.

Reunited Scottish indie-pop faves The Vaselines today announced they’ll release a new album called ‘Sex With An X’ — only their second ever, the follow-up to 1989’s ‘Dum-Dum’ — in September, and are previewing it with a free download of the track ‘I Hate the ’80s.’ Plus, they’ll mount a 10-date tour of the U.K. this fall.