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.

Taking a pause from the ongoing Dinosaur Jr reunion, Lou Barlow this week released a new digital EP called ‘= Sentridoh III’ — recorded with his current backing band, The Missingmen — and announced two rounds of North American summer dates.

Enigmatic The The mastermind Matt Johnson continues to use his web show ‘Radio Cineola’ to treat fans to never-before-heard music, and this month is no different, with songs from the unreleased ‘Gun Sluts’ and ‘2 Blocks Below Canals’ albums making their debut.

New Jersey-based radio station WFMU is once again streaming full sets from the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain, today and Saturday, with performance on tap from Wire, Gary Numan, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera, among others.

As promised, Robert Smith this week started streaming The Cure’s live performance of ‘Disintegration’ — recorded at Dallas’ Starplex Amphitheatre on 1989’s Prayer Tour — on the band’s microsite for the new reissue.

As promised, L.A. punk legends Bad Religion this week have released a free downloadable live album — the 17-track ’30 Years Live’ — for fans who sign up for the band’s mailing list.

Last week’s goldmine of ‘Disintegration’-era demos and live tracks wasn’t the first time Robert Smith opened up The Cure’s archives online; in 2001, to mark the release of ‘Greatest Hits,’ he also posted 20 demos, live tracks and remixes, spanning the band’s entire career.

The Cure today launched a special standalone website dedicated to the upcoming ‘Disintegration: Deluxe Edition’ that features videos, liner notes and photos — plus streaming audio of 20 additional demos and live tracks that won’t be on the 3CD set when it arrives June 8.

The Waterboys’ Mike Scott is opening up his archives online, posting a series of ‘exclusive Waterboys songs plus various mysterious and wonderful tracks and mash-ups’ recorded at his home studio.

Fans of The Smiths’ underrated final album, ‘Strangeways, Here We Come,’ are abuzz about a rough demo of ‘Paint a Vulgar Picture’ that recently hit the web. The track features slightly different lyrics, and in a different order, than the 1987 album version.