Friday, a half-dozen local bands gathered in Springfield, Mo., to play Pixies songs, an otherwise run-of-the-mill tribute night except for one thing: Black Francis and his wife, former Springfielder Violet Clark, returned the favor, sending along their own video tribute to the midwestern city.

Today is the 53rd birthday of Porl Thompson of The Cure, and to mark the occasion, we present what’s arguably his signature guitar solo, the freak-out at the end of ‘Wish’ standout and concert favorite ‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea,’ shown here in the version included on the 1993 concert film ‘Show.’

With his new album, ‘National Ransom,’ now out, Elvis Costello made the television rounds this past week, appearing and performing on the ‘Late Show With David Letterman,’ ‘The Colbert Report,’ ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ and even Joe Scarborough’s cable talk show ‘Morning Joe.’

Former Jam leader Paul Weller took time out of his very brief, two-city U.S. tour last night to perform a 10-song outdoor gig for ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!,’ which aired the title track to his current album, ‘Wake Up the Nation,’ and posted a bonus performance of ‘No Tears to Cry.’

With Grinderman’s European tour now complete and an American trek ready to begin next week, Nick Cave’s sludge-blues side project this week released a video for ‘Worm Tamer,’ the forthcoming second single off the band’s ‘Grinderman 2’ album.

Since it’s Election Day here in the U.S., check out this 30-second PSA that Sonic Youth did for Rock the Vote during the 1992 presidential election. As Thurston Moore says, ‘Don’t keep freedom for granted. Vote to keep it strong.’

Former Modern Lovers leader Jonathan Richman dropped by ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ last night to promote his forthcoming album O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth — due out next Tuesday — by performing ‘These Bodies That Came to Cavort.’