As promised, Sirius XM’s classic-alternative hub 1st Wave celebrated Halloween on Sunday by devoting half the day to a hugely expanded 12-hour version of its weekly ‘Dark Wave’ show.

Whether intending to launch on Johnny Marr’s birthday or not, the crew that brought us the extraordinary Recycle: Joy Division & New Order — The Factory Years blog picked an appropriate date to kick off its next sonic restoration project: The Smiths: Extra Track (and a tacky badge).

Today marks the 47th birthday of one of the signature guitarists of his generation: Johnny Marr of The Smiths. In honor of this peerless player, here’s a full ‘Meat is Murder’-era Smiths show, filmed for Spanish television on May 18, 1985, in Madrid.

Paul Westerberg is mixing old and new formats this week by issuing a pair of new songs — under the pseudonym Mr. F — on limited-edition, multicolored 7-inch vinyl that comes with a code to download a third, digital-only track.

Reunited college-rock favorites The Feelies ‘have completed recording basic tracks for a new album’
— the New Jersey combo’s first new record since 1991’s ‘Time for a Witness’ — that is slated to be released next spring on Bar/None Records.

With his new album, ‘National Ransom,’ out in the U.K. this past week — and due to arrive on these shores on Tuesday — Elvis Costello dropped by the studios of BBC’s Radio 4 on Thursday to chat with host John Wilson and play this track, ‘Jimmie Standing in the Rain,’ off the new record.

In honor of Halloween, Sirius XM’s 1st Wave will expand this Sunday’s ‘Dark Wave’ to 12 full hours, a veritable ‘goth-a-thon’ promising ‘darker classic alternative music from artists like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and more.’