SPOT, an in-house producer and engineer who helped make albums by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Descendents, Meat Puppets for SST Records, has died.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on live music across the globe, with giant festivals — including Coachella and South By Southwest — postponed or canceled and tours in the U.S. and around the world being canceled or curtailed in an effort to protect large crowds from transmitting COVID-19.

Legendary post-punk act Wire will open its 40th anniversary celebrations this year with the release of the band’s 15th studio album, Silver/Lead, which is preceded by the single “Short Elevated Period” — and you can stream that track here.

American Laundromat Records next spring will release a double-CD tribute to quirky director Wes Anderson titled I Saved Latin!, a collection that will feature indie artists such as Black Francis, Kristin Hersh, Juliana Hatfield, Mike Watt and more covering songs featured in films.

This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes news about Kate Bush, Peter Buck, Erasure, J Mascis, Husker Du, Howard Jones, Madness, Paul Weller, Mike Watt, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lee Ranaldo, The Cure and Close Lobters — plus a B-52’s live DVD giveaway.

Legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt this May will publish a new book called ‘On and Off Bass’ that combines his 2000s-era tour diaries with his nature photography, and he’ll launch the memoir with a pair of release parties — including a New York show that’ll find him jamming with Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis and Murph.

fIREHOSE — the band formed by Mike Watt and George Hurley following the 1985 death of their Minutemen bandmate D. Boon — will precede its spring tour and Coachella appearances with “lowFLOWs” the Columbia Anthology (’91-’93), a new 2CD set that compiles the band’s major-label output plus four unreleased cuts.