The Cure this morning confirmed headlining slots at three European festival performances this summer — Hultsfred Festival in Sweden and Hurricane and Southside festivals, both in Germany over the same weekend — with a promise of ‘lots more to come,’ according to the band’s official site.

This week’s edition of The Week in Rock features headlines about Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and Vince Clarke, The Cure, World Party, Peter Murphy, Morrissey, Bob Mould, fIREHOSE, IanMcCulloch, David Bowie, Grinderman, Jane’s Addiction and more.

The Cure won’t be going back into hibernation following last year’s sudden burst of activity, as Robert Smith tonight announced on the band’s website that, ‘The Cure will be headlining a series of major European music festivals this summer.’ The first 3 will be announced Monday.

One-man electropop outfit Cassettes Won’t Listen — aka Brooklyn’s Jason Drake, who last fall released his own version of Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’ and has remade songs by The Cure and INXS — returns with another cover of an ’80s alt classic: the Pixies’ ‘Hey.’ Stream it here.

Well, here we are — the end of another calendar year, and time to see what folks have been reading on Slicing Up Eyeballs over the past 12 months. The verdict? A lot of Nirvana, U2, Pixies, Joy Division and The Cure, each of which scored multiple headlines in the year’s Top 20 list.

This week’s new releases include the new soundtrack for ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,’ courtesy of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, plus a box set of the first five Cure albums, a reissue of David Bowie’s ‘Heathen’ on vinyl and a collection of early Cramps singles.