This week’s new releases include expanded reissues of albums from R.E.M. (‘Document’), Sex Pistols (‘Never Mind the Bollocks’), INXS (‘Kick’) and Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, plus new music from Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, with Yoko Ono, and Mark Eitzel, John Foxx and The Cure’s Robert Smith.

Sonic Youth today announced that it finally will release a long-in-the-works archival, 14-track live album that was recorded on 4-track cassette on Aug. 11, 1985, at Chicago’s Smart Bar while the band was touring the U.S. in support of the the release earlier that year of the group’s second studio album, ‘Bad Moon Rising.’

The future of Sonic Youth may remain in doubt following last year’s Kim Gordon-Thurston Moore split, but the band is working on a host of archival projects, according to Lee Ranaldo, including a live album recorded in 1985, a previously unseen 1986 concert film and a possible deluxe-edition reissue of 1987’s ‘Sister.’

News this week of Thurston Moore’s new collaboration with (former?) wife Kim Gordon and Yoko Ono didn’t help answer questions about the future of Sonic Youth, nor does Matador Records’ announcement this morning — complete with debut MP3 — that Moore has started a new band called Chelsea Light Moving.

Lee Ranaldo may have an excellent new solo album to promote — ‘Between the Times and the Tides,’ due out March 20 on Matador Records — but he’s invariably going to be asked at every turn about the future of Sonic Youth, given last year’s break-up of bandmates and spouses Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon.

The future of Sonic Youth may still be uncertain, but fans can at least take solace in Matador Records’ announcement today that Lee Ranaldo will release a new solo album called ‘Between The Times & The Tides’ next spring — and judging by the recent live debut of the songs, it’s a fairly rock-oriented affair.

After 27 years of marriage and 30 years as bandmates, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon today issued a statement announcing they’ve separated, and while Sonic Youth will honor its South American touring commitments next month, the future of the band is uncertain.

It’s indie-rock icon Kim Gordon’s birthday today — she’s 58 — so we thought we’d mark the occasion by turning the clocks back to 1988 for this clip of Sonic Youth absolutely ripping through ‘Daydream Nation’ highlight ‘Cross the Breeze.’

Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo turns 55 today, so we thought we’d honor the band’s least-known voice with one of his best-loved songs: ‘Mote,’ off 1990’s ‘Goo.’

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore today took to his new blog — Flowers & Cream, which he quietly launched earlier this month — to announce a pair of intriguing musical projects: a new solo album and book, plus a “trio” record with wife/bandmate Kim Gordon and Yoko Ono.

As threatened, indie-rock legends Sonic Youth took to the tube last night, making an appearance on teen soap “Gossip Girl” to perform “Starpower” off 1986’s […]

Fans of Sonic Youth this week got the first official taste of the band’s forthcoming The Eternal, as Matador Records posted the album’s first MP3— […]

Nearly overlooked amid the buzz surrounding Sonic Youth’s forthcoming, back-to-the-indies album is the band’s hefty new book, which is due to be published next week. […]