The members of New Order have been talking up new music since reuniting a few years ago, and the prospect of a new album became that much more real this past September when the band signed to the legendary Mute label and it was announced the group soon would return to the studio to work on new music.

Annik Honoré — girlfriend of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis at the time of his death, the alleged inspiration for “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and the co-founder of the Les Disques du Crépuscule and Factory Benelux labels — died this week at the age of 56, according to press reports and associates.

On the heels of the success of his recent Joy Division memoir, bassist Peter Hook’s first book — 2009’s ‘The Haçienda: How Not To Run a Club” — was just published in the U.S. for the first time this week, and we’ve got copies of the brand-new paperback to award to two very lucky, U.S.-based Slicing Up Eyeballs readers.

Next week sees the publication of “Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs that Defined the 1980s,” a tour through 35 classic songs via new interviews with the artists, a list that includes Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths, Simple Minds and many, many more.

New Order, which began making noise about recording new music not long into its current reunion, finally treated fans to some of that work this past weekend during the band’s slot at Lollapalooza Chile, debuting a new 6-minute number that bears the working title of “Drop the Guitar,”

Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook has yet to debut his new show featuring full front-to-back performances of the latter group’s third and fourth albums — 1985’s Low-Life and 1986’s Brotherhood — but he’s already announcing plans to bring it to North America for a 14-date tour this November.