Earlier this month, Australia’s MAX TV network aired an hour-long documentary on Midnight Oil as part of its “The Artist’s Story” series, and now, thanks to the folks at the Midnight Oil Fan Page on Facebook, those of us who aren’t Down Under can watch this excellent career overview.

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind,we present a great 20-year time capsule: It’s the full, hour-long “120 Minutes Presents: The Alternative Year in Rock” special that aired on on Nov. 24, 1992 — the Tuesday before Thanksgiving — and features host Dave Kendall in what likely was one of his final “120” appearances.

Last week came news that classic college-rock combo Camper Van Beethoven is set to return early next year its first album in more than eight years, and now we’ve got our first taste of ‘La Costa Perdida’ in the form of the song “Northern California Girls,” which premiered this week at Billboard.com.

For a generation raised by MTV — particularly in the late ’80s and early ’90s — they were ubiquitous: those 30-second “Rock the Vote” promos featuring stars ranging from R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Madonna imploring viewers to register to vote and cast their ballots.

Just in time for Election Day, nerd-pop duo They Might Be Giants have dusted off a song they originally recorded during the 2008 presidential campaign called “Vote Or Don’t,” and have produced a new music video for the track, which you can see here, and are offering it as a free MP3 download.

Dave Gahan soon will have a new Depeche Mode album to promote, but first he’s trying his hand at selling Volkswagens: The frontman appears, fairly briefly, in a new French commercial for the VW Golf that is soundtracked by a couple cover versions of the DM staple “People Are People” as well as the original recording.

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we highlight another “120 X-Ray” segment, this time a clip from the Aug. 21, 1988, broadcast featuring host Kevin Seal — bathed, as seemingly always, in chintzy special effects — introducing interview segments with Tracey Tracey of The Primitives.