This week’s new releases include Record Store Day-related reissues from R.E.M., Sonic Youth and Devo, plus the expanded edition of Iggy and the Stooges’ classic ‘Raw Power,’ and a new Revolting Cocks album.

During a break from sessions for R.E.M.’s next album, Mike Mills contributed a cover of Billy Bragg’s ‘Sing Their Souls Back Home’ — off the agit-folkie’s 2008’s album ‘Mr. Love & Justice’ — to The Voice Project.

Thirty years ago today, R.E.M. played its first-ever concert — reportedly billed as Twisted Kites — performing to several hundred friends and Athens townsfolk at a birthday party inside St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.

The third-annual Record Store Day is set for April 17, and this year’s exclusive releases include a reissue of Rhino’s 4LP Joy Division vinyl box set, a blue-vinyl reissue of R.E.M.’s ‘Chronic Town’ and fresh vinyl reissues from Sonic Youth, Joe Strummer and the Ramones.

Simply awful news out of New Orleans tonight, as word emerges that Alex Chilton of the peerless power-pop act Big Star has died of an apparent heart attack just days before he was scheduled to perform with the reconstituted band at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists cover Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the debut of the A.V. Club’s new ‘Undercover’ series, which will feature bands covering tunes by The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, R.E.M. and more.

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.