Beloved '80s rockers The Pixies, whose influence has been cited by everyone from Nirvana to Veruca Salt, will get the career retrospective treatment on Oct. 7 when 4AD releases Death to the Pixies. The release of the two-CD set from the band, which featured Black Francis (aka Frank Black) and Breeders leader Kim Deal is split into a live CD from a 1990 show in Holland and a greatest hits disc from the band's brief six-year career, which, according to U.S. representatives at 4AD, happens to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the release of the band's first 4AD album, Come on Pilgrim. The songs on the greatest hits CD, all approved by the band members, are: "Cecilia Ann," "Planet Of Sound," "Tame," "Here Comes Your Man," "Debaser," "Bone Machine," "Gigantic," "Velouria," "Dig For Fire," "Holiday Song," "Caribou," "Where Is My Mind," "Monkey Gone To Heaven," "Wave Of Mutilation,"

"U-Mass," "Nimrod's Son" and "Gouge Away". The live CD will feature: "Debaser," "Rock Music," "Broken Face," "Isla de Encanta," "Hang Wire," "Dead," "Into the White", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "Gouge Away", "Here Comes Your Man," "Alison," "Hey," "Gigantic," "Crackity Jones," "Something Against You," "Tame," "Wave of Mutilation," "Where is My Mind," "Ed is Dead," "Vamos" and "Tony's Theme"...

As anticipated, Marilyn Manson's Friday concert in Calgary will not take

place. For a few hours on Monday, though, it appeared that the shock

rocker might wriggle his way into performing on a technicality. Last week,

the Max Bell Centre was ordered to post a $35,000 bond as part of the

breach of contract trial that ensued after the venue canceled Manson's

show. When the Centre's check bounced on Monday, it looked as if show

promoter, Universal Concerts Canada, had won an injunction allowing the

concert to proceed. According to UCC vice-president Mark Norman, the judge

in the suit then called lawyers for both sides into a closed session on

Tuesday, during which he gave the Max Bell Centre a 24-hour extension. Max

Bell representatives immediately presented the judge with a certified

check -- thus there was no injunction and no show. The breach of contract

suit will proceed in the coming months as planned. "The world stops turning

every second with Marilyn Manson," Norman told ATN. The Calgary show marks the first time that one of Manson's recent concerts has been successfully

canceled. Although his Antichrist Superstar tour has encountered

controversy throughout the United States and Canada, the band has until now

through the courts won the right to play, settled for smaller venues or accepted

payment without performing...

Joan Jett continues to toil on her new album, whose title has changed yet again, from Headlocked to the equally grasping Fit To Be Tied. The album, tentatively due on Oct. 14, is currently being wrapped-up in an L.A. studio with producer Ted Templeman (Van Halen) at the helm. As reported previously in ATN, in addition to Jett's usual backing band, The Blackhearts, the album will feature several duets with Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hannah, one of which will be called "Tube Talking." The album will also feature a cover of the classic Replacements' song "Androgynous"...

Look for a two-CD set called Anyway the Wind Blows -- The Anthology, a 50-song greatest hits collection from J.J. Cale, author of a number of hits for Eric Clapton, including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine." The Oklahoma-born Cale, whose name has become synonymous with the phrase "laid back," has often been cited by Clapton as an inspiration for the style the guitar god initially adopted when he launched his solo career in 1970, and this collection runs the gamut from Cale's early, more intense work, to his mid-career sidle into a more country style. Included in the set are six previously-unreleased tracks...

Striking a blow for the arts, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $13.7 billion spending bill on Tuesday that would help keep the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) afloat by providing $100 million to the oft-besieged department, according to Reuters. The move countered a Republican-led charge in the House to reduce NEA spending to $10 million next year, or just enough to shut down the agency, which awards grants to hundreds of arts-related ventures from local community orchestras to independent filmmakers. The measure, which would help keep the NEA at its current funding levels, would take effect at the beginning of the new fiscal year, on Oct. 1. The bill now moves to the Senate floor sometime in September where it will likely face further opposition. The NEA has come under fire in the past for disbursement of funds to such controversial artists as sexually-explicit performance queen Karen Finley. According to the NEA, of the 112,000 grants made since 1965, fully .03 percent (about 40) have gone to artists some people have found objectionable...

Finally, after a five year silence, The Sundays will finally drop the much-anticipated follow-up to 1992's Blind. The new album, entitled Static And Silence, will hit U.S. shelves on Sept. 23, preceded by a single, "Summertime." Produced by the band, which now consists of guitarist Dave Gavurin and singer Harriet Wheeler, the 12-song album features the new compositions "Homework," "Folk Song," "She," "When I'm Thinking About You," "I Can't Wait," "Cry," "Another Flavour," "Leave This City," "Your Eyes," "So Much" and "Monochrome." The band will tour the U.S. in the fall.

(ATN's Senior Writer Gil Kaufman and Staff Writer Chris Nelson compiled this report.)