Fresh off last year’s 30th anniversary celebration, New Jersey retro-rockers The Smithereens reunite this spring with their ’80s-era producer Don Dixon for the band’s first album of new material in 11 years: the aptly titled ‘Smithereens 2011.’

Contemporary indie acts such as Ted Leo, St. Vincent and Dan Deacon will cover the music of their predecessors at this May’s Our Band Could Be Your Concert, a 10th anniversary celebration of Michael Azerrad’s ’80s underground bible ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ and a tribute to the bands that book chronicled.

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.