Today we celebrate one of the more significant milestones in the college-rock era, the 30th anniversary of the release of R.E.M.’s debut EP, ‘Chronic Town.’ the five-song record that launched the band and, in many ways, the ’80s indie scene. To commemorate this classic record we present audio of a 1982 concert.

For this week’s ‘120 Minutes Rewind,’ we offer up a clip of unusually good video quality, a nine-minute reel from summer 1990 that saw Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley sitting down to talk about the band’s just-released ‘Goo’ album with host Dave Kendall.

As they near the end of their summer run of European festivals, The Cure tonight plays the U.K.’s venerable Reading Festival — exactly 33 years to the day since Robert Smith and Co. last played the festival. To mark the occasion, we present this vintage tape of The Cure’s 1979 set at Reading.

The series launched this summer, and, so far, titles are available on Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins and David Bowie. Next month sees publication of a title on Kate Bush, with books due in spring and summer 2013 on Abba, My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, PIxies, R.E.M. and Roxy Music.

XTC’s Andy Partridge has re-teamed with singer-songwriter Peter Blegvad for a follow-up to the duo’s 2004 album ‘Orpheus: The Lowdown,’ and are previewing the record — titled ‘Gonwards’ — with a video for the track “Sacred Objects.” The song features lyrics and vocals from Blegvard set to music by Partridge and Stu Rowe.

On the eve of its fall North American tour, John Lydon’s reconstituted Public Image Ltd. will release a new double-A sided single off this year’s ‘This Is PiL’ album, spotlighting the tracks “Reggie Song” and “Out of the Woods” and featuring, as B-sides, tracks recorded in 2010 at New York City’s Terminal 5.

Bob Mould today debuted the music video for “The Descent,” the first single off his forthcoming album Silver Age, and, as you can see above (via Pitchfork), the clip finds the suited rocker seemingly abandoning his life of corporate serfdom for a back-to-nature foray into the local woods.