Andy Rourke of The Smiths is no longer part of the Manchester triple-bass supergroup Freebass, which also features Peter Hook of New Order and Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield of The Stone Roses, according to a note posted on the band’s website.

With its second album out next month, Nick Cave’s garage-blues side project Grinderman — which features three of the frontman’s Bad Seeds bandmates — this week announced a 15-date North American tour this fall to follow its previously unveiled European trek.

U2’s huge 360° Tour roared back to life in Turin, Italy, tonight, with the band treating fans to a fresh instrumental intro and two new songs — ‘North Star’ and ‘Glastonbury’ — as well as resurrected ’90s cuts ‘Miss Sarajevo’ and ‘Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.’

Three weeks ago, fabled drone-rockers Spacemen 3 reunited for a short benefit gig in London, and while co-founder and current Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce didn’t participate, the band was filled out with special guests that included My Bloody Valentine recluse Kevin Shields and Pat Fish of The Jazz Butcher.

After initially cautioning that their reunion solely was about ‘nostalgia,’ the members of U.K. indie-pop act The Primitives have hit the studio to record their first new music since 1991’s ‘Galore,’ telling fans ‘hopefully there’ll be a new Primitives release pretty soonish.’

Trevor Horn is resurrecting The Buggles, announcing today on his website that ‘The Buggles will return… 28.09.10,’ a headline that appears alongside a vintage photo of himself and former bandmate Geoff Downes.

On Aug. 24, 1980, the members of XTC set up at Richard Branson’s Manor Studio to record another version of ‘Towers of London,’ a track destined to be the second single off the band’s just-completed, but not-yet-released album ‘Black Sea’— a weekend session captured for posterity in the hour-long documentary ‘XTC at the Manor.’

The folks at Sub Pop Records are giving away a free mp3 download of ‘Sex With an X,’ the title track and first single from The Vaselines’ forthcoming album — only the second ever from the newly reunited Scottish indie-pop duo.

The long-rumored, little-believed reissues of My Bloody Valentine’s two albums — 1988’s ‘Isn’t Anything’ and 1991’s ‘Loveless’ — have been delayed for the umpteenth time, and now are due Jan. 24, 2011, according to Amazon.co.uk.

Ever-quirky frontman Fred Schneider will take a break from the long-running B-52s this fall to release ‘Destination… Christmas!,’ a collection of 11 original and “party friendly” holiday tunes with his Orlando, Fla.-based side project The Superions.

Soundgarden this fall will release ‘Telephantasm,’ a new best-of spanning the band’s debut on the seminal 1986 proto-grunge comp ‘Deep Six’ to its final album, ‘Down on the Upside,’ a decade later — with a previously unreleased ‘Badmotorfinger’ outtake thrown in for good measure.

Peter Gabriel plans to follow up this year’s long-in-the-works ‘Scratch Your Back’ — his disc of orchestral cover versions of some of his favorite songs — next year with another orchestral album, one that this time will feature new takes on his own songs.

Superb pro-shot video has emerged for the first time of the 1995 joint David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails tour. Watch Bowie and NIN perform ‘Hurt’ and ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ together, and ‘The Heart’s Filthy Lesson’ and ‘Wish’ apart.