Back on Dec. 19, visitors to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art witnessed a surprise ‘walk-in concert’ by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Patti Smith as part of the museum’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of French political activist and writer Jean Genet.

Former Hüsker Dü drummer, songwriter and co-vocalist Grant Hart will embark on a short tour of the mid-Atlantic and southeastern regions of the U.S. next month in support of the reissue of the long-out-of-print ‘The Last Days of Pompeii,’ the 1991 debut from his post-Hüskers project Nova Mob.

This week’s episode of Slicing Up Eyeballs on Strangeways Radio celebrated the best new and reissued music of 2010, with tracks by Grinderman, The Jam, Depeche Mode, Hoodoo Gurus, The Cure, Concrete Blonde and more.

The latest installment of the A.V. Club’s Undercover web-video series features the very folky Vetiver tackling the Ramones’ ’80s classic ‘Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight).’ Needless to say, it’s an entirely different take on the punk fa

Public radio program Studio 360 is streaming a new piece on the inclusion of R.E.M.’s ‘Radio Free Europe’ in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry and a special bonus concert from the early ’80s recorded in Athens, Ga. Hear both here.

Not much coming out this week after Christmas, except for an import of the new Shaun Ryder best-of ‘XXX: 30 Years of Bellyaching,’ featuring tracks by Happy Mondays, Black Grape and Gorillaz.

KMFDM is offering up a free new song called ‘Rebels in Control’ in support of WikiLeaks and as a protest against the denial-of-service attacks mounted on services such as PayPal and MasterCard that were allowing supporters to contribute funds to the embattled organization.

While U2 hasn’t yet unveiled the tracklist for its next fanclub CD, called ‘U2: Duals,’ the band today offered U2.com members a sneak peak in the form of ‘Amazing Grace/Where the Streets Have No Name,’ a track featuring Bono and Co. and the Soweto Gospel Choir that was created last summer for the World Cup. Hear it here.

Fans of The Smiths are reveling in an unexpected Christmas gift this week with the appearance of a bootleg LP featuring 16 unreleased studio outtakes, including the scrapped original recording of ‘Sheila Take a Bow,’ a reggae-like take on ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ and two previously unheard instrumentals.

The release of R.E.M.’s new album ‘Collapse Into Now’ is still more than two months away, but the band is in full pre-Christmas promotional mode, not just offering up free tracks but now releasing a 2-minute trailer for the record that features the band performing many of the new tracks live in the studio.

Exploring the legacy of ’80s college rock, ‘Slicing Up Eyeballs’ airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific on Strangeways Radio. This week’s show featured tracks by R.E.M., Paul Weller, The Sisters of Mercy, Midnight Oil, A Certain Ratio, Lloyd Cole and more.

Twisted troubadour Robyn Hitchcock is opening his vaults slightly to fans, this week posting a streaming collection of a dozen covers — recorded both live and in the studio recently — of songs by David Bowie, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, the Grateful Dead and Nick Drake.