With a deluxe reissue due out and U.K. tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ set to being next month, Heaven 17 last night appeared on the BBC2 program ‘Later Live… with Jools Holland’ — although the synthpop group opted to perform its later hit ‘Temptation,’ the U.K. No. 2 single off its sophomore album ‘The Luxury Gap.’

Los Angeles punk icons Social Distortion today announced that their seventh album — ‘Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes’ — will be released Jan. 18 on Epitaph Records and preceded by the release of first single “Machine Gun Blues” via iTunes on Nov. 9.

Saturday night, following a U.K. solo-acoustic gig, The Alarm’s Mike Peters discovered someone had walked off with his lyric book. And he wants it back: ‘Mike has been using this book extensively… to play lesser-known songs requested by fans,’ according to a post on the Alarm’s site.

The week’s new releases include a host of reissues from the likes of The Church (‘Of Skins and Heart,’ ‘The Blurred Crusade’), The Soft Boys (‘A Can of Bees,’ ‘Underwater Moonlight’), Dexys Midnight Runners (‘Searching for the Young Soul Rebels’), Gary Numan (‘Automatic’), The Wedding Present (‘Live 1989’) and Nick Heyward (‘North of a Miracle’).

With his North American tour now underway, former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder today offered up a free Recoil multimedia EP — ‘Want: The Architect Mixes’ — that fans can download from Mute Records in exchange for a name and e-mail address.

Bassist Eric Avery, who has now twice quit Jane’s Addiction, has decided to open up for the first time about his experience on last year’s reunion tour by submitting to a series of video interviews conducted by long-running fan site Xiola.org.

Bob Mould’s turning 50 today, so to celebrate, here’s a clip of Sugar — whose debut, ‘Copper Blue,’ is arguably the former Husker Du leader’s finest moment — playing ‘Helpless’ on the BBC in 1993.

The surviving members of The Cars revealed their reunion this past summer by simply posting a photo of the band in the studio on Facebook; now they follow that up with the first musical proof they’re back together: a 1:13-long video clip of the new song ‘Blue Tip.’

Pared-down U.K. postpunk act Wire today announced it will self-release its 12th studio album — and third post-reunion effort — on Jan. 11, an 11-track collection called ‘Red Barked Tree’ that is preceded by a free MP3 download of the song ‘Two Minutes.’

The enigmatic Andrew Eldritch will take Doktor Avalanche and the rest of the current incarnation of The Sisters of Mercy back out on the road early next year for what’s being billed as a 30th anniversary tour, with dates announced so far in the U.K. and Europe in February and March.

Last night, the Pixies played Santiago’s Teatro La Cupula, their first-ever headlining date in Chile, and proceeded to celebrate the successful rescue of all 33 miners by playing an epic 33-song set (plus a two-song encore) that’s being billed as the longest set they’ve ever played.

The American arm of Beggars Banquet is launching a new line of stripped-down, budget-priced vinyl reissues from artists such as The Fall and The Cult, in addition to releasing some older best-of sets from the likes of the Pixies and Love and Rockets on 12-inch for the first time.

Let’s be honest: Can there be too many photos of Morrissey with a cat sitting on top of his head? Here’s another one.