This week’s new releases include the Pet Shop Boys’ second new album in a year (‘Electric’), plus an expanded reissue of The Cult’s ‘Electric,’ a repress of Peter Buck’s 2012 vinyl-only solo debut and a new monkey-themed 7-inch, a collection of Style Council albums and a reissue of Frank Black’s ‘Oddballs.’

Fans of Black Francis who plan to see the Pixies frontman’s solo-acoustic show in New York City next week who are older than 30 — and let’s face it, that’s a lot of us — might want to consider something they haven’t done in a couple decades: investing in a fake ID. Tickets are $15 cheaper for fans 30 and under.

Last Friday night, a group of Boston-bred artists gathered at the Pleasant Street Theater to throw a party in honor of the venue as it closes after 30 years. Among those performing: Pixies frontman Black Francis and Throwing Muses leader Kristin Hersh, who together performed the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation.”

To celebrate the birthday today of Black Francis, the songwriter whose lyrics gave name to this site, check out full video of the Pixies’ classic 15-song set opening for the Throwing Muses at London’s Town & Country Club on May 1, 1988

Since the announcement last month that MTV plans to revive its ‘120 Minutes’ franchise as both a new monthly TV show and a quick-hit web series, the music-averse network has begun populating its MTV Hive website with performances by the likes of The Cure, Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain and World Party.

David Bowie next month will release a new live album recorded at his 50th birthday celebration in New York City in 1997, a 25-song set featuring guest appearances by The Cure’s Robert Smith, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth and the Pixies’ Frank Black.

The Houston, Texas-based Catastrophic Theatre is working with Pixies frontman Black Francis to adapt his 2007 solo album ‘Bluefinger’ — a concept record about the life and death of Dutch rocker and painter Herman Brood — into a rock opera set to debut this fall.

Tweet Pixies frontman Black Francis will delve into the recording of1989’s Doolittle during a “classic album dissection” on this week’s “Sound Opinions” radio show, aka […]

Mark Mulcahy, frontman of nearly forgotten ’80s college-rock act Miracle Legion, is the subject of a new tribute album featuring contributions by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, […]

The Pixies will bring their Doolittle 20th anniversary tour to the U.S. this fall, playing their classic 1989 album in its entirety in at least […]

The Pixies’ Frank Black is touring North America next month in two guises: as Black Francis, and with Grand Duchy, the grungy synthpop duo he […]

Dormant since 2007, the Pixies tore out of hibernation this weekend with a private gig and festival set in Stockholm and a high-profile slot at […]

Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV is a man of many monikers: Black Francis, Frank Black, Frank Black Francis. Now comes the Pixies frontman’s latest musical […]