Morrissey fan site True To You today posted this 21-year-old photo of Moz (smiling, no less) and Rick Astley backstage at BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops,’ where the two appeared following the February 1989 release of their ‘The Last of the Famous International Playboys’ and ‘Hold Me In Your Arms’ singles, respectively.

This year may be nearly half over, but it’s certainly not too late to catch up with The Smiths Project, an ambitious and impressive effort by San Jose, Calif., musician Janice Whaley to record layered vocal arrangements of every song ever released by The Smiths — all by the end of 2010.

Highlights of tonight’s ‘Dark Wave’ on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave include a cut off The The’s generally neglected ‘Dusk’ album (‘Love is Stronger Than Death’); a favorite off Morrissey’s solo debut, ‘Viva Hate’ (‘Late Night, Madulin Street’); and a real rarity in ‘No Name, No Slogan,’ the one-off 1989 single from Acid Horse, a hybrid of Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire.

Morrissey turns 51 today, and in honor of that milestone, we present, in its entirety, his 1992 concert film ‘Live in Dallas,’ which, while still not available on DVD in the U.S., is floating around on YouTube.

Fans of The Smiths’ underrated final album, ‘Strangeways, Here We Come,’ are abuzz about a rough demo of ‘Paint a Vulgar Picture’ that recently hit the web. The track features slightly different lyrics, and in a different order, than the 1987 album version.

Spin magazine recently dropped a goldmine into Google Books: scans of nearly every issue of the music mag, from its May 1985 debut up through October 2009. We’ve flipped through the ’85 to ’90 issues, creating links to stories about The Cure, R.E.M., The Replacements, Morrissey, New Order and many, many more.