The Pet Shop Boys are gearing up for next week’s release of their 11th studio album, Elysium, by streaming the full record for fans on The Guardian’s website and performing a 30-minute live set at 9 p.m. CET (3 p.m. EDT in the U.S.) on Wednesday in Berlin that will be streamed live on the web at ElectronicBeats.net.

‘Love This Giant’ — the 2-years-in-the-making album by former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and singer-songwriter/guitar ace Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent — arrives in stores one week from today, but you can get an early listen to the full record courtesy of NPR.

Talking Heads offshoot Tom Tom Club — husband-and-wife rhythm section Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz — this month will release their first new music in a dozen years in the form of the 6-track EP ‘Downtown Rockers,’ and you can listen to the whole set ahead of its release via an exclusive stream on East Village Radio.

The Pet Shop Boys today announced that the song “Leaving” will be the second single off the forthcoming Elysium, and will be released Oct. 15 in the U.K. on CD, 12-inch and as a digital download bundle “with extra tracks and remixes.” The track is slated to premiere on BBC Radio 2 on Friday, but you can hear it here now.

Bob Mould’s first new album in three years — the 10-track ‘Silver Age’ — arrives next week, and the former Hüsker Dü frontman today debuted the record via a full-album stream at RollingStone.com. He tells the rock mag it’s no coincidence the album sounds a bit like Sugar’s just-reissued 1992 debut ‘Copper Blue.’

Today we celebrate one of the more significant milestones in the college-rock era, the 30th anniversary of the release of R.E.M.’s debut EP, ‘Chronic Town.’ the five-song record that launched the band and, in many ways, the ’80s indie scene. To commemorate this classic record we present audio of a 1982 concert.

As they near the end of their summer run of European festivals, The Cure tonight plays the U.K.’s venerable Reading Festival — exactly 33 years to the day since Robert Smith and Co. last played the festival. To mark the occasion, we present this vintage tape of The Cure’s 1979 set at Reading.

With the release of his new solo album Don’t Be A Strangers still more than a month out, Merge Records this week has offered up the first taste of the new project from former American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel in the form of a streaming MP3 of album opener “I Love You But You’re Dead.”

Over the past few days, Lloyd Cole has treated fans to a couple gems from the vault, posting a pair of post-Commotions U.K. radio sessions recorded in 1990, including a four-song BBC studio set in which he’s backed by a full band that included soon-to-be-star Matthew Sweet and ex-Voidoids guitarist Robert Quine.

Before revving up his new band Poltergeist with former bandmate Les Pattinson, guitarist Will Sergeant of Echo & The Bunnymen recorded a fan-funded, acoustic instrumental solo album called ‘Things Inside’, which is now available for purchase — and can be sampled via the three tracks that are streaming here.

Devo later this month will release a song called “Don’t Roof Rack, Me Bro! (Remember Seamus)” — a track about Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s infamous 1983 road trip in which he transported the family dog from Massachusetts to Ontario in a kennel strapped to the roof of the family station wagon.

Ska-pop survivors Madness celebrated their appearance in Sunday’s mammoth, music-filled closing ceremony of the London Olympics — where they performed “Our House,” much like they did for the Queen earlier this summer — by releasing a free track off their forthcoming, as-yet-untitled 10th studio album.

As it’s now Aug. 12 in most parts of the world, Kate Bush’s new “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” [2012 Remix] has gone on sale through digital retailers around the world — although there’s still no sign of it on the U.S. versions of iTunes or Amazon.com. Nevertheless, you can hear the 5:31-long track via ATRL.