With their first new album in five years, ‘Choice of Weapon,’ coming out in May, The Cult this morning announced a five-date arena tour of the U.K. this September that’ll see the rockers enlisting a pair of freshly reunited contemporaries — The Mission and Killing Joke — to fill out the bill.
On Friday night, John Lydon’s reconstituted Public Image Ltd. performed at the 10th anniversary concert in London for BBC’s 6 Music, and, in the process, debuted two tracks — “Deeper Water” and the single “One Drop,” which has been aired on U.K. radio — off the group’s forthcoming album ‘This Is PiL.’
This week’s new releases include brand-new studio albums from Paul Weller, The Wedding Present, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, John Foxx and the Maths and the Toy Dolls, plus a live album from Frank Black and the Catholics, a live DVD/Blu-ray from The B-52s, and best-ofs from Erasure and Stiff Little Fingers.
This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes news about Kate Bush, Peter Buck, Erasure, J Mascis, Husker Du, Howard Jones, Madness, Paul Weller, Mike Watt, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lee Ranaldo, The Cure and Close Lobters — plus a B-52’s live DVD giveaway.
The Jesus and Mary Chain performed their first concerts in four years this week with a three-date tour of Texas that included a club gig in Houston on Tuesday, a delayed set at 35 Denton on Wednesday and a late-night South By Southwest show in Austin on Thursday.
Kate Bush today announced that she’ll participate in next month’s fifth-anniversary installment of Record Store Day by releasing a limited-edition, two-track 10-inch vinyl picture disc featuring the songs ‘Lake Tahoe’ and ‘Among the Angels,’ both of which can be found on her 2011 studio album ’50 Words for Snow.’
Following the break-up of R.E.M. last year, frontman Michael Stipe was quick to say he had no intentions of making a solo album — but that doesn’t appear to be the case for guitarist Peter Buck. Longtime R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey broke the news this week to KIRO 97.3 radio show Seattle Sounds.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 