Twenty-six years ago today, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions released their debut album ‘Rattlesnakes,’ a 10-track indie-pop masterpiece. In this recently filmed Portuguese clip, Cole offers his thoughts on the 1984 album.

To mark Pat DiNizio’s 55th birthday today, here’s a 1987 clip of The Smithereens performing their breakthrough single ‘Blood and Roses’ on UK television.

Last night, a host of musicians — including Alison Moyet and Billy Bragg — gathered at London’s O2 Sheperd’s Bush Empire to remember the life and musical legacy of Kirsty MacColl on what would have been the late singer’s 51st birthday.

The Jam’s Paul Weller is lining up a live CD/DVD package called ‘Find the Torch, Burn the Plans’ this fall that will feature a new Julien Temple documentary and a full live concert recorded earlier this year at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

This week’s new releases include Trent Reznor’s score for ‘The Social Network,’ a super-limited 12-inch from The Cult, the U.S. editions of Duran Duran’s ‘Notorious’ and ‘Big Thing’ reissues, a disc of Suzanne Vega acoustic re-recordings, and a CD/DVD of film soundtrack work from John Foxx.

Tonight’s installment of “Dark Wave” featured a few nice surprises, including a live version of Depeche Mode non-album cut ‘Death’s Door,’ rare appearances by Fad Gadget (‘Collapsing New People’) and Misfits (‘London Dungeon’), and, as requested last week, a House of Love track that’s not ‘Christine’ (that would be, this week anyway, ‘Destroy the Heart’).

Andy Partridge this week unveiled the restored cover art — featuring close-up photos of men’s and women’s flower-adorned pubic hair — planned for the forthcoming double-vinyl reissue of XTC’s 1986 album ‘Skylarking.’