The massive touring production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice classic “Jesus Christ Superstar” that was to have starred Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd. frontman John Lydon and hit 54 cities across North America this summer has been canceled less than two weeks before it was slated to open.

It’s well-documented that The Cure likes to play long, even in festival settings. Friday night, the band headlined the BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley, Calif., where they were given a two-and-a-half hour time slot… which apparently wasn’t enough. Check out video of Robert Smith and Co.’s abrupt ending.

Neil Taylor — who co-compiled the magazine’s original C86 compilation tape and curated next month’s expanded 3CD reissue — is writing a book about the U.K. indie-pop scene between 1983 and 1986 that promises “be the gospel according to those who were truly passionate about the music.”

Exploring the legacy of ’80s college rock, the Slicing Up Eyeballs Music Hour airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific on Strangeways Radio. If you caught this week’s episode, pop over to the Strangeways message board to leave requests for future shows.

The reunited original lineup of Scottish indie-pop outfit Close Lobsters today released a brand-new EP that marks the band’s first recordings in a quarter century, and we’re thrilled to premiere the video for one of the tracks, “New York City in Space,” here on Slicing Up Eyeballs.

The 8-Bit Operators collective next month follows up its tributes to Kraftwerk, Devo and The Beatles with a new collection of chiptune covers of Depeche Mode classics, a 15-track collection featuring “highly musical, lo-bit video-game hardware re-imaginings” of some of the band’s best-known songs from the past 30 years.

Erasure today announce the release of its 16th studio album this fall, a 10-track record titled The Violet Flame that will be followed by a massive 58-date world tour that will mostly see Andy Bell and Vince Clarke play venues in the U.S. and U.K. between mid-September and the end of 2014.