AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: Paging Smiths...

AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: Paging Smiths fans: If you’ve been going crazy collecting hard-to-find B-sides, you can rest on your laurels. Warners will release a two-album Smiths compilation next month titled “Louder Than Bombs.” The collection features a host of new Morrisey-penned songs, plus previously unreleased tracks, British singles and other oddities. New tunes include: “Is It Really So Strange,” “Sheila Take a Bow,” Sweet and Tender Hooligan,” “Half a Person,” “You Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby” and the group’s new British single, “Shoplifters of the World Unite.” . . . The new U2 album, due out March 9, is titled “The Joshua Tree.” The first single from the album will be “With or Without You.” . . . Brian Wilson says he’s at work on a new solo album, which could include such offbeat new tracks as “I Couldn’t Get the Poor Old Body to Move,” “So Much Sugar” and “Let’s Go to Heaven in My Car,” which is also slated to appear on the sound-track album to “Police Academy IV,” due out from Motown Records.