The Pixies today canceled their first-ever concert in Israel this week, and while the band didn’t give a specific reason, the move follows last week’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and similar cancellations by Gorillaz and Elvis Costello.

The 2010 installment of Athens PopFest will feature headlining sets by Mission of Burma and The Wedding Present — which will play 1989’s ‘Bizarro’ in its entirety — as well as Dead Milkmen singer Joe Jack Talcum and the reunited Oh-OK, the early ’80s act featuring Lynda Stipe, sister of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe.

The 2008 reunion tour by Yazoo — or Yaz, as the Vince Clarke/Alison Moyet group was called here in the U.S. — will be documented with a two-disc live album called ‘Reconstructed Live’ that’s due out this fall, the band announced today on its official site.

In this late-’70s news footage from a Kansas City TV station, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe is among the fans interviewed about the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ phenomenon — in full Frank-N-Furter regalia.

Having already played more than 40 concerts on their wildly successful ‘Doolittle’ 20th anniversary tour, the Pixies will bring the show back to the U.S. for an 11-date run in September, hitting cities the band skipped last fall.

Enigmatic The The mastermind Matt Johnson continues to use his web show ‘Radio Cineola’ to treat fans to never-before-heard music, and this month is no different, with songs from the unreleased ‘Gun Sluts’ and ‘2 Blocks Below Canals’ albums making their debut.

This week, Beck and his Record Club cohorts — St. Vincent, Liars and Os Mutantes — cover INXS’ ‘Mystify,’ the fifth and final single, in the U.K. at least, from 1987’s ‘Kick.’