This week’s new releases include vinyl reissues from R.E.M., Catherine Wheel, The Stone Roses and The Ocean Blue, plus a new album from The B-52s’ Cindy Wilson.

Three days after R.E.M.’s 2008 tour wrapped in Mexico City, the band posted this six-song, 39-minute encore set from that final concert — an appearance Michael Stipe told fans would be ‘our last show for a long time,’ but now stands as the group’s final performance.

R.E.M. today released a free MP3 of ‘Discoverer,’ the opening track off its new album ‘Collapse Into Now’ — which will be released March 7 in the U.K. and March 8 in the U.K. via Warner Bros. Download it here.

Mike Mills revealed the first details of R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, ‘Collapse Into Now,’ on Wednesday, telling Spin.com that the record features a ‘more expansive’ sound than 2008’s hard-rocking ‘Accelerate,’ thanks, in part, to guest appearances by the likes of Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Peaches.

The full 17-song concert R.E.M. recorded for the ‘Austin City Limits’ TV show in 2008 — including three songs that never have been broadcast — will be released on DVD late next month, the band announced today.

R.E.M. tonight posted a minute-long video of the band’s recent recording sessions in Nashville, showing, in typically enigmatic fashion, Michael Stipe playing high-pitched noises off some kind of contraption while the rest of the band and assorted personnel record a round of handclaps — after which Peter Buck asks, ‘Should we double track it?’

The members of R.E.M. today marked the release of the 25th anniversary edition of ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’ by looking to their future, announcing they’ve ‘just completed recording their next record in Berlin.’