A new 10-part podcast series from California public radio mainstay KCRW celebrates ’80s college-rock era host Deirdre O’Donoghue and her archive of in-studio performances.

In a move meant “to help lift spirits during lockdown,” XTC’s Andy Partridge has released a free digital track called “Cavegirl” — a demo for a song intended for an “aborted bubblegum sampler album” that was to have been a best-of compiling tracks from “the mythical American bubblegum label Hercules.”

Matthew Seligman, the highly inventive bassist for The Soft Boys who went on to record with Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, The Waterboys, Peter Murphy, Morrissey and more, and who played with David Bowie at Live Aid, died Friday after being in a coma for two weeks with COVID-19, his longtime friend Dolby announced,

Bill Rieflin, the thunderous drummer who made his name in Chicago’s late-’80s/early-’90s industrial scene pounding out beats for Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pigface and more before manning the kit for R.E.M. over the last eight years of that band’s career, died on Tuesday of cancer, according to former bandmates. He was 59.

On the heels of their just-released Planet England EP, master songwriters Andy Partridge of XTC and Robyn Hitchcock are back at work on new music, according to a post by Hitchcock on Instagram, and are hoping this project won’t take a dozen years like the last one. Details right here.

This is a round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. May also include some other titles released in recent weeks but not previously featured. Releases from The Cult, Pixies, INXS, Rain Parade and more.

Songwriting greats Andy Partridge of XTC and Robyn Hitchcock next month will release a four-song EP that Hitchcock says “began in his shed in Swindon in 2006” and is now finished after the two re-teamed last year to write one final song. Full details on the project right here.

R.E.M. famously didn’t tour behind 1991’s breakthrough Out of Time, but the band did play a handful of largely professional shows that year, among the best-known of them being a pair of concerts in London under the nom-de-rock of Bingo Hand Job. See the full details and tracklist right here.

A frequent on-air guest at KEXP, singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock stopped by the radio station’s Seattle studios on May 1 for a half-hour live session and conversation with host John Richards. Joined by Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger, The Long Winters) on backing vocals, Watch the full set here.

The Psychedelic Furs will follow up their spring and summer North American dates with Robyn Hitchcock — and concerts in Mexico, South America, Europe and the U.K. — with a just-announced run of 20 dates this fall in the U.S. and Canada. See those new tour dates, and more, here.

Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. This week: Robyn HItchcock’s new self-titled album arrives, as does the all-star live set ‘Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live… And More.’

The Psychedelic Furs today announced a new set of summer dates for their current tour with Robyn Hitchcock — who covered the Furs’ 1984 classic “The Ghost in You” on his recent The Man Upstairs album — adding shows in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia this July.

Robyn Hitchcock is giving fans another taste of his upcoming self-titled record in the form of a second single, the fully plugged-in “Mad Shelley’s Letterbox,” which you can stream below. The 10-track Robyn Hitchcock, which follows up 2014’s The Man Upstairs, will be released April 21 by Yep Roc Records.