With his new album, ‘National Ransom,’ out in the U.K. this past week — and due to arrive on these shores on Tuesday — Elvis Costello dropped by the studios of BBC’s Radio 4 on Thursday to chat with host John Wilson and play this track, ‘Jimmie Standing in the Rain,’ off the new record.

This week’s releases include a new studio albums from Bryan Ferry (‘Olympia’) and Elvis Costello (‘National Ransom’), a live DVD from R.E.M. (‘Live From Austin, TX’), a 4CD ‘omnibus edition’ from The Fall (‘The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall’) and the belated U.S. release of Prefab Sprout’s new album (‘Let’s Change the World With Music’).

Last night, San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall hosted a pair of special charity concerts dubbed ‘Costello Sings Lowe/Nick Sings Elvis,’ a benefit for the Richard de Lone Special Housing Fund that featured Elvis Costello performing songs written by his onetime producer and collaborator Nick Lowe, and vice versa.

San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall this fall hosts a pair of truly special concerts dubbed ‘Costello Sings Lowe/Nick Sings Elvis,’ a one-night charity event that will feature Elvis Costello performing songs by his onetime producer Nick Lowe, and vice versa.

That once-angry young man, Elvis Costello, turns 59 today, and to commemorate the occasion, we cast our spotlight not on the rocker’s brilliantly prolific early period, but, rather, his late-’80s, post-Attractions comeback following a nearly three-year break: the 1989 album ‘Spike,’ a personal favorite.

Re-teaming with producer T Bone Burnett for the fourth time, Elvis Costello this fall will release ‘National Ransom,’ an-all new album featuring the members of his recent backing bands The Imposters and The Sugarcanes, as well as high-profile guests Vince Gill, Jerry Douglas, Marc Ribot and Buddy Miller.

The reconstituted Public Image Ltd. today canceled the entire mid-August German leg of its ongoing reunion tour over ‘production scheduling problems,’ and said it has no plans to rebook the six scrapped concerts.

While the tracklist for Elvis Costello’s forthcoming ‘Pomp & Pout: The Universal Years’ features no previously unreleased material, it does nicely span the years between 1988’s ‘Painted From Memory’ and 2008’s ‘Momofuku.’

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.

Details are scarce, but Elvis Costello fans have two releases to look forward to in the coming months: a new compilation called ‘Pomp & Pout: The Universal Years,’ due out this summer, and a brand-new studio album, ‘American Ransom,’ expected in the fall.

The third-annual Record Store Day is set for April 17, and this year’s exclusive releases include a reissue of Rhino’s 4LP Joy Division vinyl box set, a blue-vinyl reissue of R.E.M.’s ‘Chronic Town’ and fresh vinyl reissues from Sonic Youth, Joe Strummer and the Ramones.

Elvis Costello is poised to tap his 1978 U.S. tour for a second live album in six months, at least in Japan, where the 16-track ‘Live at Winterland, San Francisco’ — recorded just three days after ‘Live at Hollywood High’ — is due for release this summer.

Rough night for the handful of ’80s college-rock vets nominated for Grammy Awards this year: Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, U2, Elvis Costello, David Byrne and Brian Eno, and Ministry all were shut out tonight for trophies in their respective categories, losing, in most cases, to more current acts.