With Morrissey’s libel case against the NME slated to go to trial in a month, the music weekly today apologized to the singer, writing, ‘We wish to make clear that we do not believe that he is a racist; we didn’t think we were saying he was and we apologise to Morrissey if he or anyone else misunderstood our piece in that way.’

This week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines include news about The Cure, The Stone Roses, Pixies, The Cult, The Mission, Killing Joke, Bob Mould, Meat Puppets, Budgie, Morrissey, Dinosaur Jr, Madness, Sonic Youth, Peter Gabriel and PiL — plus our latest Auto Reverse mixtape for your downloading pleasure.

Our latest link round-up includes a Q&A with Morrissey in which he suggests he’ll retire in 2014 at age 55, plus interviews with Bob Mould reflecting on Sugar’s ‘Copper Blue,’ John Lydon discussing Public Image Ltd. and the Sex Pistols, and former Replacements drummer Chris Mars talking art and music.

Morrissey recently wrapped up a run of dates in the Far East and in the western U.S. and, as he’s known to do, today released a statement in which he ranks his Top 10 tour stops (Jakarta’s No. 1) and once again bemoans his lack of a record label, indicating his finished album is no closer to being released.

This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes reports about The Stone Roses, The Cure, Buzzcocks, Skinny Puppy, Nick Cave, Redd Kross, Ultravox, Paul Weller, Vince Clarke and Depeche Mode, Peter Gabriel, Morrissey, Sugar, Blondie, Devo and more.

Well, it’s once again Morrissey’s birthday — insert “Unhappy Birthday” joke here — and the perpetually glum Smiths frontman is 53 today. To celebrate, we thought we’d dig up our favorite photo of him (yes, that’s Moz and Rick Astley), and then post a dozen Smiths and Morrissey concerts for your viewing pleasure.

Our latest collection of links includes sad news about the passing of former Crowded House drummer Peter Jones, plus an interview with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan about Soulsavers, news of Morrissey’s libel suit against the NME proceeding to court this summer, and a mix of David Bowie covers from Strangeways Radio.