Dreams So Real — featured in the landmark rock doc ‘Athens, GA: Inside/Out’ and whose debut single and album were produced by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck — are reuniting for a pair of rare concerts next month, and are whetting fans’ appetites by streaming a previously unreleased early-’90s demo.

Following the break-up of R.E.M. last year, frontman Michael Stipe was quick to say he had no intentions of making a solo album — but that doesn’t appear to be the case for guitarist Peter Buck. Longtime R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey broke the news this week to KIRO 97.3 radio show Seattle Sounds.

This year’s South By Southwest will feature appearances by a horde of ’80s college rock vets, including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bob Mould performing ‘Copper Blue,’ The Wedding Present, Thomas Dolby, The Cult, Dinosaur Jr and The dB’s, plus R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills playing Big Star’s ‘Third.’

Here’s one for fans of unusual covers: Singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson loops her own vocals in place of the piano part in this cover of R.E.M.’s beloved “Nightswimming,” which she recorded during a recent visit to the studios of Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Welcome to another installment of the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This edition includes headlines about Simple Minds, R.E.M, The Wedding Present, Adam Ant, The Mission, Deep Wound and New Order — plus our latest Auto Reverse mixtape.

It’s Michael Stipe’s birthday today — he’s 52 — so we’re cracking open the Vintage Video vault to bring you a 30-year-old R.E.M. concert, filmed Oct. 10, 1982, at The Pier in Raleigh, N.C., for broadcast on local television — less than two months after the release of ‘Chronic Town.’

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out our fourth and final days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite music of the year. Today, we bring you the big one: The best albums of 2011.

Today we roll out the third of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. This time, it’s your Top 10 singles of the year.

Today we roll out the second of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. This time, it’s your Top 10 reissues of the year.

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out the first of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. First up: Your Top 10 compilations, box sets and/or live albums.

This week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines included items on Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, New Order, R.E.M., PiL, The Housemartins, Bob Mould, Sinead O’Connor, Peter Gabriel and the Minutemen, plus the third installment of our Rhino ‘Just Can’t Get Enough — The ’80s’ Spotify playlist.

R.E.M. this week sent fan-club members the band’s final holiday single, capping a nearly 25-year-old tradition with a 2-track CD featuring live renditions of ‘Perfect Circle’ and ‘Life and How To Live It,’ the latter of which was recorded at the band’s last-ever concert in Mexico City in November 2008.

This week’s new releases include ‘Ersatz G.B.,’ the 29th studio album from The Fall, plus new best-ofs from R.E.M. (‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage’) and Wall of Voodoo (‘Lost Weekend’), and expanded reissue of Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Johnny YesNo’ soundtrack and Curt Smith’s solo effort ‘Mayfield.’