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.