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.

Out March 23, the soundtrack to ‘Hot Tube Time Machine’ features such ’80s film staples as Echo & The Bunnymen’s ‘Bring On the Dancing Horses’ and New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle,’ plus tracks by The Replacements (‘I Will Dare’), INXS (‘What You Need’) and The English Beat (‘Save it For Later’).

Australia’s Hoodoo Gurus today announced a May 11 U.S. release date for their ninth studio album, ‘Purity of Essence,’ which the band is teasing with a six-part web mockumentary that pokes fun at Metallica’s self-help doc ‘Some Kind of Monster.’

Sonic Youth will reissue four of its early classics — Confusion is Sex (1983), Bad Moon Rising (1985), EVOL (1986) and Sister (1987) — on 180-gram audiophile vinyl this winter as part of Original Recordings Group’s new “Official and Definitive Sonic Youth Vinyl Series.”

Beggars Archive will release an expanded 2CD reissue of The Charlatans’ 1990 debut “Some Friendly” — although not the larger “Omnibus” set originally planned — to coincide with the band’s 20th anniversary performance of the full album in London and Barcelona this May.

The second set of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums — 1988’s Tender Prey, 1990’s The Good Son and 1992’s Henry’s Dream— will be reissued in deluxe CD/DVD sets with new 5.1 surround sound mixes next month, Mute Records announced this week.

Brit DJ/producer Tim Simenon’s alter ego Bomb the Bass returns in the coming weeks with both a brand-new album — Back to Light, only the act’s second full-length in the last 15 years — and an expanded reissue of its game-changing 1988 debut Into the Dragon.

Rock iconoclast Lou Reed next month will issue a digitally remastered edition of his oft-derided 1975 guitar-feedback opus Metal Machine Music on a trio of audiophile formats, and mark the occasion by taking his Metal Machine Trio to Europe for a brief tour billed as “A Night of Deep Noise.”

Florida-based record label 24 Hour Service Station next month will release a two-disc tribute to New Order, proceeds from which will benefit the Salford Foundation Trust’s Tony Wilson Awards, established in memory of the late Factory Records co-founder and Manchester musical icon.

Last week saw the release Turn Ons, the debut album from The Hot Rats, aka Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Brit pop-rockers Supergrass. We’d be remiss for not mentioning this album, since a.) Supergrass is a superb band, and, b.) the record features covers by the likes of Gang of Four, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Roxy Music and The Cure. In the case of that last act, check out the clip above to see the Hot Rats perform a fuzzed-out version of Robert Smith and Co.’s 1983 single “The Lovecats” at last year’s Glastonbury Festival. It’s the grooviest thing.

Tweet The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon have reunited on record for the first time since 1982’s Combat Rock, each contributing to the title […]

Tweet Reformed 2 Tone ska legends The Specials will commemorate last year’s string of sold-out U.K. reunion concerts with the March release of a 24-track […]

Tweet Former Depeche Mode keyboardist Alan Wilder has revealed the tracklist and cover art for Selected, the recently announced best-of compilation from his solo electronic […]