This week’s round-up of Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines includes news about Ministry, They Might Be Giants, The Chameleons, The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Kate Bush, Social Distortion, Black Francis, Pulp and Dinosaur Jr — plus our Q&A with Howard Jones.

On Friday night at the MONA FOMA Festival in Tasmania, former Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie and an ad-hoc supergroup featuring The Dresden Dolls, former Bad Seeds multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish performed the Femmes’ classic 1983 self-titled debut album in its entirety.

This round-up of the week’s activity at Slicing Up Eyeballs includes news of The Wedding Present’s new album, plus headlines about The Cure, Morrissey, The Psychedelic Furs, Peter Murphy, Close Lobsters, Hoodoo Gurus, Violent Femmes, New Order and more.

Former Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie has assembled an ad-hoc supergroup featuring The Dresden Dolls, former Bad Seeds multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish to perform the Femmes’ classic 1983 self-titled debut album at the MONA FOMA Festival in Tasmania on Friday.

Ex-Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett’s political career hasn’t been going so great lately, and things went from bad to worse today when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demoted the former rocker over a “bungled home-insulation scheme,” according to Reuters.

Three members of disbanded Aussie rock powerhouse Midnight Oil — drummer Rob Hirst and guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey — and ex-Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie this week announced the formation of The Break, a mostly instrumental surf-rock combo whose debut is due this spring.

Record Rack: A weekly round-up of the pertinent new albums, reissues and/or box sets due out Tuesday. ARTIST: Living Colour RELEASE: The Chair in the […]

While colossal European-style destination festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo have been all the rage in recent years, there’s still no better place to experience live […]