The latest side project from R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck — the country-tinged Tired Pony, fronted by Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody — stopped by the ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ last night to perform ‘Dead American Writers,’ off the band’s just-released debut ‘The Place We Ran From.’

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey joined Pearl Jam in Berlin last night to rip through the MC5’s classic ‘Kick Out the Jams’ at a concert that also featured the Seattle rockers debuting a new cover of Public Image Ltd.’s ‘Public Image.’

Word emerged this spring — via bandleader Colin Meloy’s Twitter feed — that R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck would be contributing to The Decemberists’ upcoming sixth album — and we’ve now got photographic evidence, thanks to a series of snapshots posted on R.E.M.’s official site today.

Attention tapeheads: The ever-iconoclastic Robyn Hitchcock is releasing an ultra-limited run of his new album ‘Propellor Time’ — on which he’s backed by members of R.E.M. and The Smiths — on ‘hand-assembled’ cassette.

This week’s new releases include new albums from David Byrne & Fatboy Slim (‘Here Lies Love,’ about Imelda Marcos) and Robyn Hitchcock (‘Propellor Time’), plus expanded reissues from David Bowie, The Colourfield and Squeeze.

Robyn Hitchcock has just released a new video for ‘Ordinary Millionaire,’ a song co-written with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr that serves as the first single off the 3-years-in-the-making ‘Propellor Time.’