Black Francis maps out dates with STP, alone

Pixies frontman Black Francis [ tickets ] will play a few headlining shows of his own this year in addition to his upcoming support stint with Stone Temple Pilots.The singer kicks off the run June 23 in Santa Cruz, CA, with a headlining set that comes a day before he hits the road as part of STP's reunion tour, beginning with a June 24 show in Los Angeles.Francis shows only a handful of additional headlining dates currently on his calendar, with stops in Omaha, NE (7/3); Aspen, CO (7/7) and Oakland, CA (7/9). All dates are shown below.Francis is touring behind a recent "mini-album," the recently released "SVN FNGERS." The music was written, recorded and mixed in six days, and on the seventh day, Mark Lemhouse did the artwork, Francis said in a press statement.The set runs 20 minutes and comprises seven songs, which Francis said qualifies as a mini-LP under the "old formats." There will be selected tracks available for download on the Black Francis MySpace page as well as on his website.The EP follows last year's full-length "Bluefinger," which re-established the singer as Black Francis for the first time since the initial breakup of The Pixies in 1993. Born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, Francis reverted to his best-known stage name last year after recording many albums under the name Frank Black.