The first U.S. tour in 20 years by The Godfathers apparently has been curtailed by visa problems, as the U.K. band today announced an abbreviated schedule that drops three of the first four scheduled shows and moves a Chicago date to the end of the trek.

Today’s roundup of interesting stuff, featuring a look at The Cure’s ‘Disintegration,’ a new R.E.M. interview, a downloadable 17-song intro to The Fall, and a look back at New Order’s rare cover of the reggae track “Turn the Heater On.”

Tonight’s episode of Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio featured brand-new music from The Godfathers, Scritti Politti and The Primitives, plus favorites by Nick Cave, Joseph K, The Selecter, The Waterboys and Meat Puppets.

While they still haven’t a full U.S. tour, Duran Duran will play a Coachella warm-up show at San Francisco’s famed Fillmore on April 16, bassist John Taylor announced during an interview with a Bay Area radio station Monday.

The Godfathers today released their first new single since 1995 — a 4½-minute rocker called ‘Back Into the Future’ — and next week will release expanded reissues of 1988’s ‘Birth School Work Death’ and 1989’s ‘More Songs About Love and Hate.’

The surviving members of The Cars today revealed what appears to be the cover of ‘Move Like This,’ the reunited band’s first new album since 1987’s ‘Door to Door.’

This week’s new releases include an expanded reissue of Ride’s debut ‘Nowhere’; a new Bob Geldof album called ‘How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell’; a new best-of from Propaganda’s Claudia Brücken (‘Combined’); a reissue of Howard Jones’ ‘The 12″ Album’; vinyl reissues of Bauhaus and Dead Can Dance; and a collection of ZTT 12-inch mixes.

On Thursday night, Duran Duran played the first of only three U.S. concerts scheduled so far this year, joining an unlikely combo of Kid Rock and Jason Derulo at the NFL Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam in Grand Prairie, Texas. See video here.

Just days after releasing the Buster Keaton-inspired video for lead single ‘Mine Smell Like Honey,’ R.E.M. slipped out a second video this week from the forthcoming ‘Collapse Into Now’: a live-in-the-studio take on album opener ‘Discoverer.’

Exactly 28 years ago today, The Smiths took the stage for only their third concert — and only their second with the final Morrissey/Johnny Marr/Andy Rourke/Mike Joyce lineup — opening for Factory Records funk band 52nd Street at New Order’s infamous Manchester club The Hacienda.

Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo turns 55 today, so we thought we’d honor the band’s least-known voice with one of his best-loved songs: ‘Mote,’ off 1990’s ‘Goo.’

The Charlatans will follow up last year’s double-disc re-release of debut album ‘Some Friendly’ this spring with an expanded reissue of 1999’s ‘Us and Only Us,’ supplementing the record’s original 11 tracks with 19 bonus B-sides, remixes, radio sessions and live tracks.

Last fall, Heaven 17 released a 2DVD set called ‘Penthouse and Pavement: Live in Concert 2010’ — and if you haven’t seen it yet, now’s your chance to win an autographed copy from Slicing Up Eyeballs.