Johnny Marr, the legendary co-founder, guitarist and songwriter for The Smiths, today debuted the first track off what’s being billed as his second solo album, the 11-song Playland, which is due out Oct. 6/7 via Warner Music.

Saturday night, Johnny Marr brought a special guest on stage for the encore of his concert in Portsmouth, England: Robyn Hitchcock, who helped Marr perform the Smiths classic “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” and Hitchcock’s own “Tell Me About Your Drugs.”

Johnny Marr returns this October with what’s being billed as his sophomore solo album, the 11-song Playland, a collection of new music built “around a common theme of ‘songs that move at the speed of life’” that arrives just 18 months after the release of his first official solo record, The Messenger.

This week’s new releases include XTC’s “corrected polarity” version of ‘Skylarking,’ finally arriving on CD, plus Johnny Marr’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, a live set from The Fixx on CD and DVD, plus a reissue of The Godfathers’ 1993 self-titled album.

On this holiest of holy days — Record Store Day, of course — Johnny Marr took to Facebook to lament the ongoing loss of record stores, calling them “a very important kind of shop,” and blaming greedy landlords for pricing music more and more retailers “out of their premises and livelihoods, and our culture.”

Third time’s the charm? One-half of The Smiths reunited on stage Sunday for the third time in less than a year, as bassist Andy Rourke joined Johnny Marr toward the end of his Lollapalooza Brazil set to perform their former band’s classic “How Soon Is Now?”

One-half of The Smiths reunited on stage in New York on Saturday night for the second time this year, as bassist Andy Rourke showed up toward the end of Johnny Marr’s gig at Webster Hall to once again perform their former band’s classic “How Soon Is Now?” and, this time, “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” as well.