Pixies: From Pilgrim to Cindy

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Just like my previous subjects, the Afghan Whigs, the Pixies have just released a new album after years off. Also like the Whigs, I have never listened to them at all. Pretty much all I know this that they are a significant US alt-rock band and their lead singer rejoices in the ultra-cool name of Black Francis. I also seem to recall that they featured heavily on the soundtrack to the much overlooked Christian Slater movie 'Pump Up the Volume', where he played a student running a pirate radio station on campus and his playlist was almost exclusively angsty teen stuff. He opened his show with Leonard Cohen's 'Everybody Knows', so you could tell where he was coming from. First stumbling point was finding them on Spotify, not The Pixies you see, just Pixies.

Addendum May 2023: Also like the Afghan Whigs, Pixies have put out three more albums since I wrote this and I have not gone back to add them. The missing content is: Head Carrier (2016), Beneath The Eyrie (2019) and Doggerel (2022). Also, since I was even more slapdash back then than I am now, Trompe Le Monde got missed out.

COME ON PILGRIM

28th September 1987

Come On Pilgrim is the debut EP by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released on September 28, 1987 on 4AD. Produced by Gary Smith, the release consists of eight tracks from a seventeen-song recording session that the band had recorded at Fort Apache Studios in March 1987.

Signing the band based on the quality of the recordings, 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell whittled its track-listing down to eight songs, remixing them to become Come On Pilgrim. The remaining nine songs were subsequently released in 2002 as Pixies.

From Wikipedia

Caribou

Vamos

Isla De Encanta

Ed Is Dead

The Holiday Song

Nimrod's Son

I’ve Been Tired

Levitate Me

COME ON PILGRIM (1987)

Starts promisingly with the kind of guitar sound that you can only get by using a really knackered amp on 'Caribou'. A bit like Billy Bragg in his prime. Both behind and ahead of their time I'd say, combining clear late seventies punk elements with the forthcoming grunge explosion. The songs are short too. 'Caribou' weighs in at the longest as the only one exceeding 3 minutes. Admirable. It all sounds quite conventional to me, but, it is possible that Pixies were true pioneers and what I count as conventional was groundbreaking at the time.Both The Holiday Song and Nimrod's Son remind me of the Buzzcocks. The vocal style is definitely in the Pete Shelley mould. The latter also borrows it's riff heavily from 'Ace of Spades'. The closing 'Levitate Me' starts with a really satisfyingly rolling deep guitar which is a nice contrast to Frank's whiny vocal. I enjoyed this a lot. As a debut it's very accomplished and they are clearly more than just a punk band, they have good tunes too.

SURFER ROSA

21st March 1988

Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD.^[4] It was produced by Steve Albini. Surfer Rosa contains many of the elements of Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.

As 4AD was an independent label, distribution in the United States was handled by British label Rough Trade Records; however, it failed to chart in either country. Only one single was released, a rerecorded version of "Gigantic", and reached number 93 on the UK Singles Chart. Surfer Rosa was rereleased in the US by Elektra Records in 1992, and in 2005 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Surfer Rosa is often included on critics' lists of the best rock albums. Alternative rock artists including Billy Corgan and PJ Harvey have cited it as an inspiration; it was an influence on Nirvana's 1993 album In Utero.

From Wikipedia

Bone Machine

Break My Body

Something Against You

Broken Face

Gigantic

River Euphrates

Where Is My Mind?

Cactus

Tony's Theme

Oh My Golly!

Vamos

I'm Amazed

Brick Is Red

So they're really a punk band aren't they, if anything? This album covers the full range of punk styles (and there are more than you might think. 'Bone Machine' has a kind of plodding quality to it, which is not meant as a negative and has an almost rapped vocal. 'Break My Body' goes into a Public Image Limited area and 'Something Against You' is a kind of berserk thrash. 'Broken Face' has a kind of weird yipping at the beginning and comes close to their predecessors The Dickies. The later track, 'Tony's Theme' which is introduced as a song about a superhero called Tony also reminded me of their song 'Gigantor' (about a Japanese cartoon superhero). Now, 'Gigantic' is sung by bassist Kim Deal and is definitely a foreshadowing of all those US talent show popstrels of the Clarkson, Swift, Lavigne ilk, although the subject matter is a little more 'grown up' I think. 'River Euphrates' collapses into some fairly savage wailing at the end. 'Oh My Golly' features what Wikipedia calls 'studio banter', which amounts to a conversation involving a fair amount of swearing. There's more chit-chat at the start of 'I'm Amazed' too.

DOOLITTLE

17th April 1989

Doolittle is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. Doolittle was the Pixies' first international release, with Elektra Records as the album's distributor in the United States and PolyGram in Canada.

Pixies released two singles from Doolittle: "Here Comes Your Man" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", both of which were chart successes on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, while tracks such as "Debaser" and "Hey" have also received praise. The album itself reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart, an unexpected success for the band.

From Wikipedia

Debaser

Tame

Wave of Mutilation

I Bleed

Here Comes Your Man

Dead

Monkey Gone to Heaven

Mr. Grieves

Crackity Jones

La La Love You

No. 13 Baby

There Goes My Gun

Hey

Silver

Gouge Away

They like a solo bass intro, do the Pixies. 'Debaser' starts it off and delivers some pretty unnerving manic laughter midway through. Something about it reminded me of 'Sonic Reducer' by the Dead Boys on their album 'Young, Loud and Snotty', but on revisiting the latter on Spotify I couldn't really detect any real similarities other than the obvious punk heritage. Nice to hear that one again though. Frank whispers the lyric menacingly on 'Tame', before launching into screamy madness for the chorus. 'Wave Of Mutilation' is quite well known isn't it? I think I've heard it before. It certainly is a bit more accessible than a lot of their output, despite the title.There's a bit of that crunchy guitar thing that Radiohead used in 'Creep' on 'I Bleed'. They don't really go for very cheery themes do they? Having said that 'Here Comes Your Man' is a much more breezy affair, at least musically. It could almost be Tom Petty. 'Monkey Gone To Heaven' with it's dreamy vocals had me racking my brains for something that has come since that is very similar, but can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' era REM?

'Mr Grieves' is a bit of a departure, much more complex than some of the more straightforward thrashes, typified by the following track 'Crackity Jones'. I liked the Smiths-like 'La La Love You', especially the whistling. Always room for that on any album. I found 'No 13 Baby' a bit dull. Lots of chugging and rather pedestrian guitar.Contrast with 'There Goes My Gun'which packs a lot into it's 1 minute 50 running time. The vocal on 'Silver' is slightly reminiscent of the foxes who regularly wail outside our house on summer nights. That's not a good thing by the way. 'Gouge Away' finishes it off. A rather good committed effort. To me this is their best so far. A bit more varied than previous efforts and I'm beginning to see why they are so highly regarded.

BOSSANOVA

13th August 1990

Bossanova is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Pixies. It was released on August 13, 1990, by English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Because of 4AD's independent status, major label Elektra handled distribution in the US.

Bossanova reached number 70 on the Billboard 200. The album peaked at number three in the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from Bossanova: "Velouria" and "Dig for Fire". Both charted on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, at No. 4 and No. 11, respectively.

After Pixies finished touring obligations for their second album, Doolittle (1989), in January 1990, band members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles. Bassist Kim Deal stayed in the UK to record the Breeders' first album in January with producer Steve Albini, although she ultimately decided to travel out to Los Angeles with the rest of the group.^[5] Lovering stated that he, Santiago, and Francis moved to Los Angeles because that's where they intended to record their next album. The three band members lived in the Oakwood apartments, along with comic Garrett Morris and members of the band White Lion. Producer Gil Norton also moved into the apartment complex.^[6]

From Wikipedia

Cecilia Ann

Rock Music

Velouria

Allison

Is She Weird

Ana

All Over the World

Dig for Fire

Down to the Well

The Happening

Blown Away

Hang Wire

Stormy Weather

Havalina

Straight in with an instrumental for Cecilia Ann (which is kind of like the Shadows if they'd started 30 years later) before getting down to some serious shouty stuff in 'Rock Music'. Things eventually calm down for 'Velouria' which is in a similar vein to 'Wave of Mutilation' from Doolittle. I was listening to 'All Over The World' while walking into work. It features some rather irritating loud-hailer speech in the background and I was convinced it was coming from my surroundings rather than the record.  'Dig For Fire' is great, but probably far too commercial for the hardcore fans. 'Stormy Weather' is interesting since it has a quite subtle change of pace halfway through. I reckon the time signature probably changes a couple of time actually. The closer is 'Havalina'. Quite a reflective piece of guitar pop with ethereal vocals. Very pleasant after everything that's gone before. I'm glad I'm coming to the end. It's been interesting, but I've been in an alternative American guitar rock rut for too long now. Let's see what their 2013 comeback is like and then move on to something a little more mainstream.

INDIE CINDY

19th April 2014

Indie Cindy is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Pixies. Released in April 2014, it was the band's first album since 1991's Trompe le Monde, and the first Pixies album not to feature bass guitar player Kim Deal.^[2] Instead, bass guitar duties on the album are handled by Simon "Ding" Archer, a former member of the British post-punk band The Fall.^[3]

The album combines all the songs from the band's 2013–14 extended play releases—EP1, EP2, and EP3—which were recorded and produced in 2012 by Gil Norton, who produced the band's previous albums Doolittle, Bossanova, and Trompe le Monde.^[4]

Limited numbers of vinyl copies of the album were released on Record Store Day 2014 (double album but pressed at 45 rpm), 10 days prior to the album's full release. These copies came with a single-sided 7" single of "Women of War".^[1][5] The album was released in North America on April 29, 2014 as a digital download, digipak CD and 2LP vinyl as well as a deluxe edition on CD or vinyl which included a live CD and a 40-page hardback book.^[6]

From Wikipedia

What Goes Boom

Greens and Blues

Indie Cindy

Bagboy

Magdalena 318

Silver Snail

Blue Eyed Hexe

Ring the Bell

Another Toe in the Ocean

Andro Queen

Snakes

Jaime Bravo

Well they've certainly matured. This is a much easier listen than anything  that has gone before. So much so that J. walked into the kitchen as I was playing it said "This is alright, are you off the Pixies now?" The change is typified by 'Greens and Blues' which is a kind of soft Indie pop unlike anything they've done before. The title track has a bit of a harder edge but still shows the more tuneful influence before breaking down into some frantic guitar. The start of 'Magdalena 318' sounds like it could have been made in the BBC radiophonic workshop. The kind of off-the-wall noises that introduced the latest monster in early Doctor Who. The rest is similar. 'Ring The Bell' is tunefully jangly and my favourite track on the album, 'Another Toe In The Ocean' is a good measured piece of grunge. So by and large the new incarnation has dispensed with all the scary noises and mad vocals for a more mainstream but still Pixie-ish sound.

One thing I've learned from doing the Pixies and the Afghan Whigs before them is that I prefer to do this kind of thing with bands that I have some kind of 'previous' with. Hearing new stuff is fun, but it's not very relatable to past experience. So next we'll move on to Fleetwood Mac, who are hopefully sufficiently preposterous to generate some amusement.