Johnny Marr today premiered the first song off his forthcoming solo record The Messenger by releasing a starkly black-and-white video for the album’s hypnotic title track — which you can watch right here. The album, written and produced by the former Smiths guitarist, who also handles vocal duties, is due out Feb. 26.

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.

Last month we posted a great Dinosaur Jr live set from Seattle’s KEXP that was recorded at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Ore., during MusicfestNW, and here’s another one: a full 10-song, 40-minute set from the reunited Redd Kross, touring in support of their first album in 15 years, ‘Researching the Blues.’

For those of us living in Southern California in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Halloween meant one thing: Oingo Boingo’s epic “Dia de los Muertos” concerts in Los Angeles and San Diego. We’ve posted this 1990 show before, but now we’ve got two full sets from 1987 — Oct. 30 and 31 at Irivne Meadows.

Bob Mould was in Los Angeles on Monday ahead of the first of his last two ‘Copper Blue’ shows — after tonight’s L.A. concert and an Austin, Texas, appearance on Friday, he says he’s done playing the Sugar album front-to-back — and squeezed in an appearance on “Conan” to tear through ‘Silver Age’ track “Keep Believing.”

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we spotlight another “120 X-Ray” segment, this time a 1987 clip featuring host Kevin Seal discussing the 4AD label’s compilation album Lonely Is An Eyesore, which featured tracks from Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses, Clan of Xymox, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil and more.

The Pogues next month will release a special 30th anniversary live package in multiple audio and video formats, a set recorded at the band’s concerts in Paris last month and dubbed, naturally, “The Pogues in Paris: 30th Anniversary Concert at the Olympia.” Check out the trailer for the video release.