Citing an ‘unforeseen illness,’ the Karl Wallinger-led World Party today canceled a string of upcoming concerts in New York City and at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas — but promised to ‘return this summer for a whole tour of the U.S.A.’

A week before the disc arrives in stores, the folks at Sub Pop Records have begun streaming ‘Several Shades of Why,’ the first-ever solo studio album from Dinosaur Jr guitar god J Mascis. Hear the whole thing right here.

After wrapping its upcoming U.K. tour, the reunited Big Audio Dynamite will bookend its appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival with a pair of pre- and post-fest gigs in Los Angeles and New York City.

For his first live dates since a series of trouble-prone 2009 outings, Morrissey will return to the stage this summer with a nine-date U.K. tour leading up to a slot headlining the Hop Farm Music Festival alongside such icons as Lou Reed, Iggy & The Stooges and Patti Smith.

In honor of today’s release of ‘Collapse Into Now,” tonight’s Slicing Up Eyeballs show on Strangeways Radio took a look back at the career of R.E.M. Watch for a replay at 2 p.m. EST Friday.

Last week’s news that troubled pop star George Michael would be covering New Order’s late-’80s smash ‘True Faith’ as a charity single for Comic Relief was met with the appropriate derision — which turns out to be totally appropriate, now that we can hear the Auto-Tuned bastardization that the ex-Wham! singer has churned out.

The latest installment of indie behemoth Amoeba Music’s web series ‘What’s In My Bag?’ asks Johnny Marr the titular question during his recent visit to the chain’s Hollywood store.