Now less than a month away, the schedule for the South By Southwest music festival is starting to solidify, with a host of ’80s college rock vets slated to make appearances in Austin, Texas, next month — including Duran Duran, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Edwyn Collins, World Party, J Mascis and more.

This week’s new releases include ‘Staring at the Sea,’ the second post-reunion album from The Blow Monkeys; ‘Bordeaux,’ a new collaboration between Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd; and the belated U.S. release of Heaven 17’s ‘Live at Scala’ DVD.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day: A snapshot of Billy Bragg and Morrissey — clad in knee-bearing shorts and some sort of floral or Hawaiian shirt, with his tongue jutting out — at Canada’s Wonderland amusement park in Toronto while on tour with The Smiths in 1985.

Hey, what do you know: Turns out exactly two years have passed since Slicing Up Eyeballs: The Legacy of ’80s College Rock launched, and here we are — 1,276 posts and 1.7 million pageviews later — still chugging along.

It’s Ian Brown’s birthday today — he’s turning 48 — so to mark the occasion, we present one of those oft-told tales of Stone Roses lore: The band’s appearance on BBC’s ‘The Late Show’ in September 1989, which ended less than a minute into a live performance of ‘Made of Stone’ when the power abruptly cut out.

To help promote ‘Several Shades of Why,’ the forthcoming solo album from Dinosaur Jr mastermind J Mascis, the folks at Sub Pop Records have posted this rather odd interview with some woman named Maureen.

With a new multi-disc box set of live and studio rarities due this spring, Karl Wallinger will kick off World Party’s 25th anniversary year with five concerts at South By Southwest and in New York City in March — a prelude for the band’s ‘most extensive U.S. tour since 2006.’

The surviving members of The Cars today released the video for their first single in 24 years: ‘Blue Tip,’ off the reunion album ‘Move Like This,’ due out May 10 via Concord Music. Watch it here.

Duran Duran finally will issue its new album ‘All You Need Is Now’ in physical formats — CD, vinyl and a CD/DVD “Deluxe Edition’ package — on March 22 in North America, with up to six new songs added to the original nine-song tracklist, depending on which format you buy.

Next month, Los Angeles’ Dum Dum Girls — equal parts The Ronettes and The Jesus and Mary Chain — will follow up their 2010 Sub Pop debut with a four-track EP called He Gets Me High that includes a blissfully fuzzed-out cover of The Smiths high-water mark ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes’ Out.” T

Former members of KMFDM and Revolting Cocks will join Front 242 and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult this spring at the Wax Trax! Records Retrospectacle: 33⅓ Year Anniversary, a two-night multimedia concert in Chicago celebrating the legendary record store and industrial music label.

Today’s roundup of interesting web nuggets includes two members of the Pixies discussing a new album, the 30th anniversary of ‘Dance Craze,’ a new streaming song from Nick Lowe’s ‘Labour of Lust’ album and a word from Soundgarden.

Tonight’s Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio featured new music by Eleventh Dream Day and J Mascis, plus favorites old and new by Robyn Hitchcock, Red Flag, Tin Machine, The The, Prefab Sprout and more.