Johnny Marr has been known to invite his lifelong friend Billy Duffy onstage during his solo shows, and a few nights ago in Manchester, The Cult guitarist returned the favor, bringing the ex-Smiths guitarist out in Manchester to play “Rain,” off his band’s 1985 album Love. See footage of it right here.
On the heels of their just-released Planet England EP, master songwriters Andy Partridge of XTC and Robyn Hitchcock are back at work on new music, according to a post by Hitchcock on Instagram, and are hoping this project won’t take a dozen years like the last one. Details right here.
The, er, monstrous reissue of R.E.M.’s 1994 album Monster arrives on Friday, and the band has continued to tease some of the unheard material that’ll appear on the box set. Next up: the instrumental demo “Uptempo Mo Distortion,” which sounds enough like “old” R.E.M. to explain why it wasn’t further developed.
“Dark Wave,” hosted by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Matt Sebastian, airs 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EDT every Sunday on Sirius XM satellite radio’s 1st Wave (Channel 33). The most recent two episodes also are available via Sirius XM’s On Demand service for online subscribers. Here’s tonight’s full playlist.
This Friday marks the release of The Cure’s new audio/video box set 40 Live: Curaetion-25 + Anniversary, and we’re thrilled to be able to give away a deluxe 2DVD/4CD edition of the box set plus an autographed poster to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader. Full details and how to enter right here.
epeche Mode next month will release a massive, 18-disc CD box set simply called MODE that will collect all 14 of the band’s studio albums and include four more discs of B-sides, remixes and rarities, a set billed as “a comprehensive collection of the band’s work to date.” Full details and tracklist here.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this morning unveiled 16 nominees for its Class of 2020, a field that includes Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Pat Benetar, Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., Judas Priest, Motörhead, the MC5 and more. See the full list right here.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 