Six months after the death of frontman Pat DiNizio, the remaining original members of The Smithereens – Jim Babjak, Dennis Diken, and Mike Mesaros – will play shows this summer with singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw sitting in as the band’s guest vocalist.  See the full dates right here.

For this week’s installment of “120 Minutes” Rewind, we present this interview with the late Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens broadcast circa 1989/1990 in which he discusses his band’s crossover hit “A Girl Like You.” The song, DiNizio explains, was written based on the screenplay to Cameron Crowe’s 1989 film “Say Anything.”

The surviving members of The Smithereens took to the stage in Red Bank, N.J., last night to pay tribute to their fallen bandleader, Pat DiNizio — performing a marathon set that found the band’s members joined by special guests Steven Van Zandt, Dave Davies of The Kinks, Marshal Crenshaw, Ted Leo, and more.

Little Steven Van Zandt is hosting a concert tonight in New Jersey to pay tribute to the late Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens, a show that will be streamed live online and will feature DiNizio’s surviving bandmates fronted by Van Zandt, as well as Patty Smyth and Scandal. Full details on tonight’s show right here.

Pat DiNizio, the lead singer and chief songwriter for The Smithereens, the New Jersey-bred college-rock mainstays who recorded “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “Only a Memory” and “Blood and Roses,” has died, the band announced tonight on its official website. He was 62. The cause of DiNizio’s death was not revealed.

Original bassist Mike Mesaros is back in The Smithereens fold after a dozen years away, and, in addition to playing sporadic shows with the college-rock graduates, he’ll be on the new album the band is recording and which will be the group’s first in six years. Plus, watch a recent 3-hour set.

The Smithereens frontma Pat DiNizio has teamed up with jazz musician Christian Josi to record and release a brand-new Christmas single entitled “Holiday 2012” featuring bossa nova takes on holiday standards “Winter Wonderland” and “White Christmas.” Check out their version of “Winter Wonderland.”

The Smithereens — who released the aptly titled ‘2011,’ their first collection of new material in more than a decade, last year — will keep busy this on the road summer, criss-crossing the U.S. to play at least 15 concerts between June and September at a variety of clubs, theaters and a number of small-town festivals

Fresh off last year’s 30th anniversary celebration, New Jersey retro-rockers The Smithereens reunite this spring with their ’80s-era producer Don Dixon for the band’s first album of new material in 11 years: the aptly titled ‘Smithereens 2011.’

To mark Pat DiNizio’s 55th birthday today, here’s a 1987 clip of The Smithereens performing their breakthrough single ‘Blood and Roses’ on UK television.

The Smithereens will celebrate their 30th anniversary with a special homecoming concert next month in their birthplace of Carteret, N.J., as well as with a retrospective performance at frontman Pat DiNizio’s fifth-annual Halloween bash.