Norwegian pop giants a-ha will bring their worldwide 2010 farewell tour to the United States for three concerts in New York and Los Angeles in May — a short trek that marks just the second time the trio will have performed on American soil since 1986.

Music fans up north have been treated this month to a new documentary series on Bravo! Canada called “Innovators in Music” that profiles artists from different disciplines, including, next month, legendary noise-rockers Sonic Youth.

Today, Trent Reznor dug a few gems out of his archives, posting high-def videos of four June 23, 2006, radio performances he taped in Boston with Peter Murphy during Nine Inch Nails’ 2006 With Teeth tour.

Last year’s six-string doc “It Might Get Loud” was a must-see for fans of U2’s The Edge, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin or The White Stripes’ Jack White — or anyone, really, who appreciates loud rock guitar. The film’s out on DVD now, and here’s one of the deleted scenes that appears as bonus on the disc: It’s four minutes’ worth of The Edge soundchecking solo, running through concert staples “Until the End of the World,” “Pride (In the Name of Love”) and “Bad” alone on guitar, with just the aid of his foot-triggered console of effects.

Is Steve Jobs a big fan of The Cure? Someone at Apple apparently is, since the company used an piano-based cover of the band’s 1985 single “Inbetween Days” — which attentive Slicing Up Eyeballs readers now report is performed by Ben Folds — to soundtrack its eight-minute promo video for the just unveiled iPad tablet computer. Wonder whether Robert Smith will make a pretty penny in royalties off this one?

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.

Three members of disbanded Aussie rock powerhouse Midnight Oil — drummer Rob Hirst and guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey — and ex-Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie this week announced the formation of The Break, a mostly instrumental surf-rock combo whose debut is due this spring.