As a prelude to tonight’s Los Angeles tour stop, synthpop vets Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark played a half-hour in-store set at Amoeba Music in Hollywood yesterday afternoon — and you can watch the whole thing right here, thanks to the indie record chain.

This week’s new releases include The The’s soundtrack to the film ‘Tony’; a new best-of from Scritti Politti; Mike Watt’s punk opera ‘Hyphenated-Man’; the second album from Steve Wynn’s The Baseball Project; a new OMD single; and This Mortal Coil on vinyl.

This latest round of links and stuff includes a look back at 20 years of R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion,’ a talk with OMD’s Andy McCluskey, a long-lost Dream Syndicate interview and a link to watch the BBC’s ‘Reggae Britannia’ documentary.

Now less than a month away, the schedule for the South By Southwest music festival is starting to solidify, with a host of ’80s college rock vets slated to make appearances in Austin, Texas, next month — including Duran Duran, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Edwyn Collins, World Party, J Mascis and more.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark today released the video for the third single off their 2010 album ‘History of Modern,’ a cool stop-motion/animated clip for ‘History of Modern (Part I)’ created by Sweden’s Lapantafilm, winner of a make-our-next-video contest hosted by the group.

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival tonight unveiled the official lineup for the April15-17 festival, which will include appearances by Duran Duran, Wire and — in one of the lineup’s biggest surprises — a reunion of Mick Jones’ post-Clash project Big Audio Dynamite.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark will bring its ‘History of Modern’ tour to North America in March for a 16-date trek booked around the South By Southwest festival — the classic lineup’s first U.S. concerts since opening for Depeche Mode’s ‘Music for the Masses’ tour.

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.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are treating their fans to a special gift each day leading up to Christmas as a thank-you for their support this year, beginning with a free MP3 of ‘Sister Marie Says’ (Soil In The Synth Remix), a new mix of the ‘History of Modern’ single.

This week’s new releases include ‘Find the Torch, Burn the Plans,’ a new CD/DVD live set and documentary form Paul Weller; the U.S. release of ex-Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn’s ‘Northern Aggression’; and new CD singles from Pet Shop Boys and OMD.

The reunited Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark today debuted the video for ‘Sister Marie Says,’ the second single off ‘History of Modern,’ the synthpop group’s first new album in 14 years.

This week’s releases include new studio albums from OMD, ex-Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins and reunited no-wave act Swans; plus a new Jesus and Mary Chain best-of; and expanded reissues of the Bangles’ first two albums, ‘All Over the Place’ and ‘Different Light.’

Thanks to the folks at Canada’s HushMusic, we’ve got copies of the forthcoming ‘Retro:Active 7 — Rare & Remixed’ compilation CD to give away to three lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs readers. The new installment features mixes of songs by Echo & The Bunnymen, Tears For Fears, OMD and a-ha.