This past week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines included news about The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Morrissey, Flipper, The Human League, Dead Can Dance, The Cult, Wire, Paul Weller and Happy Mondays — plus our Q&A with David J and a brand-new Auto Reverse mixtape for February.

This month’s Auto Reverse mixtape includes new music from The Wedding Present and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, plus new remixes of The Cure and Depeche Mode and plenty of old faves by the likes of The Chills, Kraftwerk, Squeeze, Oingo Boingo, The Go-Betweens and many, many more.

With Depeche Mode returning to the studio in March, the first word of a timetable for the band’s 13th album has emerged: Martin L. Gore tells German magazine Sonic Seducer that the record will be released ‘no later than early 2013,’ according to fansite Home.

Former Depeche Mode bandmatesVince Clarke and Martin L. Gore, working together again for the first time in 30 years under the name VCMG, will precede their debut album with a second teaser, in the form of ‘EP 2/Single Blip’ — featuring the title track, which you can hear here, plus remixes by Byetone and Mathew Jonson.

The much-anticipated techno album by VCMG — former Depeche Mode bandmates Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore, working together again for the first time in 30 years — will be named ‘Ssss’ and will be released by Mute on March 13, the duo announced today.

Vince Clarke isn’t the only collaborator that Depeche Mode’s Martin L. Gore has been working with of late; electronic duo MOTOR this week released the single ‘Man Made Machine,’ featuring Gore on vocals. The track is the first single off the techno group’s forthcoming, and more song-based, album.

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out the first of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. First up: Your Top 10 compilations, box sets and/or live albums.

This week’s headlines on Slicing Up Eyeballs included posts about The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Morrissey, The Stone Roses, Adam Ant and Bob Mould, plus a new Peter Gabriel contest and the first installment of our Rhino ‘Just Can’t Get Enough — The ’80s’ Spotify playlist.

After taking much of the past two years off, Depeche Mode are scheduled to reconvene in January and are planning to enter a studio to begin work on a follow-up to 2009’s ‘Sounds of the Universe’ in March, bandmember Andy Fletcher reveals in a recent Italian interview to promote one of his DJ gigs in that country.

This week’s new releases include the debut EP from VCMG, the new techno project from Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore, plus the ‘Hotel Sessions’ from The Lemoneheads, and the debut EP from David Newton of The Mighty Lemon Drops and his new band, Thee Mighty Angels.

This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes posts about Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and Vince Clarke, The Lucy Show, Simple Minds, Paul Weller, Throwing Muses, Elvis Costello and OMD, plus the opening of voting in the 2011 installment of the Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll.

The Japanese Popstars next week will release a 12-inch with remixes of ‘Take Forever,’ the track they recorded with Robert Smith on vocals — and thanks to the fine folks over at Astralwerks, one Slicing Up Eyeballs reader can win that plus a signed copy of the group’s remix 12-inch with an exclusive Depeche Mode mix.

A few tracks from Q magazine’s tribute to U2′s ‘Achtung Baby’ dribbled out in advance of the issue’s arrival this week, but we’re now finally able to present the full set — featuring Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Jack White, The Killers, Garbage and U2 itself (in remixed form) — thanks to YouTube uploader ToneNoir.