The lastest in French music site La Blogotheque’s impromptu “A Take Away Show” series — in which bands or artists throw together spontaneous performances, wherever they may be — features Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch offering up a stark, solo-acoustic take on the band’s classic “The Killing Moon.”

Former Talking Heads leader David Byrne turns 58 today, and we mark his birthday with one of his quirkier solo projects: ‘Music for the Knee Plays,’ a 1985 brass-band-and-vocals album Byrne composed for Robert Wilson’s opera ‘the CIVIL warS.’

Last Friday, drummer Anton Fier reactivated the Golden Palominos for the experimental folk-rock collective’s first concert in more than 20 years, playing a headlining set at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City with the band’s Syd Straw-fronted 1985-’87 lineup.

Synthpop act Heaven 17 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its debut album ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ by performing the record in its entirety during an eight-date U.K. tour this fall that’s being billed as ‘part art installation and part concert.’

Today we commemorate Bono’s 50th birthday, knowing full well the frontman, and U2 itself, are somewhat divisive forces in the annals of ’80s college rock. Check out the band’s epic performance of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ from ‘Rattle and Hum.’

In honor of Dave Gahan’s birthday today — he’s 48 — we present this clip: Depeche Mode performing its combo of ‘Behind the Wheel’ and B-side ‘Route 66’ during a World Violation Tour stop in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 1990.