Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are treating their fans to a special gift each day leading up to Christmas as a thank-you for their support this year, beginning with a free MP3 of ‘Sister Marie Says’ (Soil In The Synth Remix), a new mix of the ‘History of Modern’ single.

With Duran Duran’s first album in three years — ‘All You Need Is Now’ — now available via iTunes, it should come as no surprise that the original music-video band has, in fact, released a new music video to promote lead-off single ‘All You Need Is Now.’ The clip, seen above, premiered Monday night on Yahoo Music.

Just days after R.E.M. started giving away MP3s of the opening track to 2011’s ‘Collapse Into Now,’ a second song — ‘It Happened Today,’ featuring Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder on backing vocals — from the album has hit the web after it was released as a single digitally in other parts of the world.

Christmas week is a light one for new releases, with only two notable titles: the digital edition of Duran Duran’s long-awaited ‘All You Need Is Now,’ and a 180-gram vinyl reissue of Ride’s shoegaze classic ‘Nowhere.’

With Duran Duran’s long-awaited new album ‘All You Need Is Now’ due out digitally on Tuesday, the band’s been doing loads of press here in the U.S. and back in Europe — including this live debut of lead-off single ‘All You Need Is Now’ on the U.K. television show ‘Loose Women’ this past Friday.

As we reported earlier this month, Sonic Youth is preparing to release its soundtrack to the French film ‘Simon Werner a Disparu’ (aka ‘Lights Out’) as SYR9 in the long-running Sonic Youth Recordings series — and today the band revealed the release date, tracklist and cover art for the project.

Erasure this week announced their first U.S. performance of 2011, a slot at the Ultra Music Festival, the wildly popular electronic bash that takes place March 25-27 in Miami.

Thirty-three years ago tonight, Elvis Costello & The Attractions staged one of the more infamous stunts in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history, pulling the plug on their label-approved song ‘Less Than Zero’ less than 10 seconds in and instead ripping through ‘Radio Radio.’

While an official announcement is still forthcoming, The Godfathers are planning at least a short U.S. tour in February, a long-anticipated trek that will bring the reunited U.K. rockers’ annual St. Valentine’s Day Massacre concert to America for only the second time.

After collaborating on a full-album cover of Yanni’s ‘Live at the Acropolis’ last summer, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore has now tapped Beck to produce his third solo album, titled ‘Benediction’ and due out sometime in 2011 on Matador Records.

Following appearances by Peter Gabriel and Jane’s Addiction earlier this fall, satellite provider DirecTV’s new performance and Q&A show ‘Guitar Center Sessions’ this month spotlights The Cult.

R.E.M. today released a free MP3 of ‘Discoverer,’ the opening track off its new album ‘Collapse Into Now’ — which will be released March 7 in the U.K. and March 8 in the U.K. via Warner Bros. Download it here.

Today we mark the birthday of Paul Simonon — he’s turning 55 — with this performance of The Clash bassist’s signature tune, ‘The Guns of Brixton,’ filmed April 25, 1980, for the band’s second-ever U.S. television appearance on ABC’s late-night comedy show ‘Fridays.’