Former Jam leader Paul Weller took time out of his very brief, two-city U.S. tour last night to perform a 10-song outdoor gig for ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!,’ which aired the title track to his current album, ‘Wake Up the Nation,’ and posted a bonus performance of ‘No Tears to Cry.’

Former Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin says he and Robert Smith have discussed recording a second album as The Glove — the duo’s short-lived early-’80s side project — and that The Cure’s frontman tells him, ‘It’s just a matter of time.’

Mike Mills revealed the first details of R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, ‘Collapse Into Now,’ on Wednesday, telling Spin.com that the record features a ‘more expansive’ sound than 2008’s hard-rocking ‘Accelerate,’ thanks, in part, to guest appearances by the likes of Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Peaches.

With Grinderman’s European tour now complete and an American trek ready to begin next week, Nick Cave’s sludge-blues side project this week released a video for ‘Worm Tamer,’ the forthcoming second single off the band’s ‘Grinderman 2’ album.

Since it’s Election Day here in the U.S., check out this 30-second PSA that Sonic Youth did for Rock the Vote during the 1992 presidential election. As Thurston Moore says, ‘Don’t keep freedom for granted. Vote to keep it strong.’

Former Modern Lovers leader Jonathan Richman dropped by ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ last night to promote his forthcoming album O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth — due out next Tuesday — by performing ‘These Bodies That Came to Cavort.’

The U.K. arm of Rhino Records next month will celebrate the life and music of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis with a new limited-edition box set collecting 10 newly remastered 7-inch singles by the classic postpunk act.

This week’s new releases include a brand-new best-of from the Pet Shop Boys, a 2CD reissue of The Jam’s ‘Sound Affects,’ a live DVD from INXS, new studio albums from Brian Eno and Elvis Costello, and reissues from The Fall, UB40 and The Motels.

Whether intending to launch on Johnny Marr’s birthday or not, the crew that brought us the extraordinary Recycle: Joy Division & New Order — The Factory Years blog picked an appropriate date to kick off its next sonic restoration project: The Smiths: Extra Track (and a tacky badge).

Today marks the 47th birthday of one of the signature guitarists of his generation: Johnny Marr of The Smiths. In honor of this peerless player, here’s a full ‘Meat is Murder’-era Smiths show, filmed for Spanish television on May 18, 1985, in Madrid.

Paul Westerberg is mixing old and new formats this week by issuing a pair of new songs — under the pseudonym Mr. F — on limited-edition, multicolored 7-inch vinyl that comes with a code to download a third, digital-only track.

Reunited college-rock favorites The Feelies ‘have completed recording basic tracks for a new album’
— the New Jersey combo’s first new record since 1991’s ‘Time for a Witness’ — that is slated to be released next spring on Bar/None Records.

With his new album, ‘National Ransom,’ out in the U.K. this past week — and due to arrive on these shores on Tuesday — Elvis Costello dropped by the studios of BBC’s Radio 4 on Thursday to chat with host John Wilson and play this track, ‘Jimmie Standing in the Rain,’ off the new record.