Former Commotions leader Lloyd Cole this week debuted the first music from Standards, a new 11-track album that finds the singer-songwriter reuniting with part of the team — Matthew Sweet on bass and co-producer/drummer Fred Maher — behind Cole’s 1990 self-titled solo debut.

Lloyd Cole returns to more electric sounds this summer with the release of ‘Standards,’ a new 11-track album that finds the singer-songwriter reuniting with part of the team — Matthew Sweet on bass and co-producer/drummer Fred Maher — behind Cole’s 1990 self-titled solo debut, the so-called “X” album.

This week’s new releases include the ‘Songs For Slim’ reunion EP from The Replacements, new studio albums from Robyn Hitchcock, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, They Might Be Giants, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Lloyd Cole and Cluster founder Hans-Joachim Roedelius.

For this week’s installment of Vintage Video, we flash back to 1985 for this great German TV broadcast of a 40-minute performance in Munich by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, filmed about five months after the band’s classic debut ‘Rattlesnakes’ was released (footage via Manu Guinarte).

Lloyd Cole is once again reaching out to his fanbase to help finance the recording of his next album, a project that finds the singer-songwriter reuniting with part of the team — Matthew Sweet on bass and co-producer/drummer Fred Maher — behind Cole’s 1990 self-titled solo debut, the so-called “X” album.

Over the past few days, Lloyd Cole has treated fans to a couple gems from the vault, posting a pair of post-Commotions U.K. radio sessions recorded in 1990, including a four-song BBC studio set in which he’s backed by a full band that included soon-to-be-star Matthew Sweet and ex-Voidoids guitarist Robert Quine.

Morrissey, as he’s wont to do, made headlines this week with a typically acerbic attack on his native England, this time blasting the London Olympics over “the blustering jingoism that drenches the event” and suggesting that the “spirit” of Nazi Germany no pervades modern-day Britain. Billy Bragg disagrees.

In this week’s link round-up we find Lloyd Cole writing about David Bowie’s ‘Low,’ plus interviews with Jim Reid of the recently reunited Jesus and Mary Chain, Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of The Beat (aka The English Beat) and New Wave piano man Joe Jackson.

Our round-up of this week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes news about The Jesus and Mary Chain, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Kraftwerk, Simple Minds, Colourbox, Morrissey, Lloyd Cole and Paul Weller — plus the first new Public Image Ltd. song in 20 years.

After performing with his Small Ensemble bluegrass trio on recent tours, former Commotions leader Lloyd Cole strips it all back down next month for a 13-date solo-acoustic tour of the U.K. and Europe. He’ll perform seven U.K. shows beginning March 5 followed by concerts in Germany, The Netherlands and Italy.

After spending much of last fall and this past spring touring Europe, former Commotions leader Lloyd Cole finally is ready to support 2010’s ‘Broken Record’ in the United States, and has begun announcing dates for a June tour — with nine on the books so far, all in the eastern part of the country.

Three weeks ago, we launched the inaugural Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll in an effort to gauge what this site’s frequenters think are the year’s best new albums and reissues. Now, with hundreds of ballots cast, the results are in.

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.