Posts Tagged ‘The Pixies’

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The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts – a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies release their eighth studio album “Doggerel” via BMG Records, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.

“Doggerel” is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.

“The only bar that we subscribe to in general is we don’t want to be boring” says Black Francis.

The entire band – frontman and songwriter Black Francis, lead guitarist Joey Santiago, bass player Paz Lenchantin and drummer David Lovering. “You would have thought that I spent a lot of my downtime writing songs but I did not” says Francis.

“In fact, I procrastinated until the absolute last minute. “I finally sat down and informed my children that I would be a bit vacant for a couple of weeks, and I sat up in my attic with a guitar and hoped for the best”.

Procrastination or not – the results were highly productive, feeding into a pile of 40 songs considered for the band’s forthcoming record ‘Doggerel’.

Recorded in Vermont in early 2022, the album’s publicity boasts “a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock”.

Joey Santiago offers a simpler description – “Doolittle Senior” – invoking the band’s 1989 classic.

“It’s a mish-mash of songs like a good radio station. We’re not like… one flavour. We’ll give you twelve flavours! I really love it”. ‘Doggerel’ sees the band reunite with British producer Tom Dalgety, who previously helmed 2016’s ‘Head Carrier’ and 2019’s ‘Beneath the Eyrie’.

“It’s interesting working with him because he has become familiar with the way that we play, and the things that we’re capable of and the things maybe that we’re not capable of” says Black Francis.

“It’s interesting hearing him playing the band like an instrument a little bit. I think that’s maybe the first time I’ve experienced that with a record producer.” “I guess I was in kind of a zombie state, just playing,” Santiago explained. “After I stopped playing, I put it down and went, ‘Well, that was a fucking waste of time, what a piece of shit I am.’ I beat myself up a lot, but my girlfriend, unbeknownst to me, was recording me. She played it back to me, and I go, ‘Fuck! Hold on a second here! This stuff is good!’”

Black Francis also noted that the single is about “living in Los Angeles in the ‘90s with my then-wife, hanging out with Joey and his ex-wife, lots of trips to Las Vegas, a lot of drinking, little bit drug taking, some genuine good times.”

‘Doggerel’ includes some Pixies firsts, including Santiago’s first song writing credits with the band, contributing lyrics to ‘Pagan Man’.

“The last song we did in fact was an unfinished bit of music that the producer kept insisting that we try again” says Black Francis. “I was not in the mood to compose a lyric because I was already spent, if you will. So Joey wrote the lyric.” “Charles had these sounds and it was just a matter of grabbing them and making sense of it” Santiago explains.

“It was a fun puzzle. My version of what looking at a cloud looks like. This is what I see!”

“I finally sat down and informed my children that I would be a bit vacant for a couple of weeks, and I sat up in my attic with a guitar and hoped for the best”. Procrastination or not – the results were highly productive, feeding into a pile of 40 songs considered for the band’s forthcoming record ‘Doggerel’.

Pixies – the new album “Doggerel”, out on September 30th.

Riding out the inevitable backlash against their ultimately brave decision to not just remain a touring museum piece and suddenly start writing new songs, chances are that their new single ‘Hear Me Out’ may actually get the attention that a new single by one of the greatest and most revolutionary guitar bands of all time deserves. Paz Lenchantin – bass player for the last six years – is given full reign to take on duties, her heavenly voice soaring over this and even better is the cover of T Rex’s camp glam classic ‘Mambo Sun’ on the other side. Not at all the done thing any more, we realise, but you might even consider putting your hand in your pocket and buying a copy. 

Hear Me Out taken from Pixies’ new double A side single “Hear Me Out / Mambo Sun”. Once again Pixies were part of musical landscape. With such a prolific catalogue, though, there are inevitably loads of great songs that have slipped through the cultural net. So, to celebrate their new single ‘Mambo Sun’, cover of a T Rex classic.

Guitar, Vocals: Charles Thompson Drums, Percussion: David Lovering Guitar: Joey Santiago Bass Guitar: Paz Lenchantin Backing Vocals: Paz Lenchantin Engineer, Composer, Writer: Marc Bolan

Nation of Language Announce Limited Edition Seven-Inch Single With Pixies Cover

Releasing a cover of The Pixies song “Gouge Away” on all streaming platforms and announcing a pre-order of the vinyl copy, which should ship in November. That sounds far away but, honestly, it isn’t. Summer is winding down folks. Sand through the hourglass and all that. Dark Nights Light mornings.

Anyway, the 7″ copy of “Gouge Away” will come with a vinyl-only Nation of Language song called “One More Try”, which I think is most aptly characterized as “a real bummer.”

So smash this indulge your record-collecting urges so I can keep singing this song to myself, which is something that may or may not, but definitely does, happen with regularity. Speaking of record collectors, for those who haven’t picked up a copy of the full album just yet, Rough Trade is doing a *limited* coloured-vinyl edition of the record, available here. From what I understand, these are moving quite quickly, so make haste. Once again, thank you for supporting us. With all sincerity, this is a tough time for bands to be releasing music, but you’ve given us more than we had ever hoped for. Stay safe out there.
Ian, Aidan, & Mike

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A cover of the Pixies song

Released August 20th, 2020
Written by Black Francis Performed by Nation of Language

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The Pixies have still got it of course. Black Francis and company are on the comeback trail with a brand new song, “On Graveyard Hill.” It’s the lead track from the band’s forthcoming full-length, “Beneath the Eyrie”. The album will be the group’s seventh studio effort when it’s released on September 13th.

“On Graveyard Hill” seethes with the manic energy of classic Pixies, with Black Francis’ vocals as the most distinctive feature. Recorded without any effects or distortion, he sounds like a new man. Beneath the Eyrie arrives with twelve songs about “witches, Daniel Boone, misfits,” and other spooky stuff. Halloween 2019 soundtrack? Signs point to yes. The album was produced by Tom Dalgety, who most recently racked up some Grammy nominations with the band Ghost.

The official audio for ‘On Graveyard Hill’ by Pixies taken from new album ‘Beneath the Eyrie’.

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The Pixies“Doolittle” is to be thirty years old this month, it was the second studio album by American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD Records. The album’s offbeat and dark subject material, featuring references to surrealism, Biblical violence, torture and death, contrasts with the clean production sound achieved by the newly hired producer Gil Norton. Doolittle was the Pixies‘ first international release.

Pixies released two singles from “Doolittle”, “Here Comes Your Man” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven”, both of which were chart successes.  “Debaser” the opener from that classic album, “Debaser” is a lot of people’s favourite Pixies song. When they play it live, it’s a guaranteed catalyst for chaos on the floor. Played live or on record, it’s a song that illustrates the alchemy that the Pixies are capable of at their peak. If you strip it down to its base elements, there’s really nothing to it ,  Black Francis’ nonsense lyrics – nominally inspired by the Buñuel/Dali surrealist film Un Chien Andalou, but essentially meaningless, though well-suited to being barked out by the frontman, Along with Joey Santiago’s four-chord riff and simple finger-picked accents and Kim Deal’s characteristic bassline for beginners.

Doolittle, Pixies’ second album proper, contained so many great tracks it’s inevitable that a few would fail to get their day in the sun. With its weird reggae introduction and Francis sounding more deranged than ever – suddenly transforming into something new and unexpected a good three or four times in the space of a couple of minutes – ‘Mr Grieves’ is not a song you often see cited, yet it remains a prime example of the band at their most schizoid and hyperactive. Definitely worthy of rediscovery.

Of course when it all comes together, driven by one of David Lovering’s best performances on drums and executed with passion and panache and more enthusiasm than a band that’s starting to fall apart should be able to muster, it’s a majestic, superlative, enduring, adrenalized, alt-rock classic. augmented by Kim’s backing vocals. Joey doesn’t have to shred when he’s making such an uplifting, joyous noise and that bassline – well, that’s trademark Pixies.

This album “Doolittle” still sounds sensational three decades on – from Debaser through to Gouge Away. The Pixies, at their best, aren’t so much a band as a group of alchemists.

Despite being issued on hi-res SACD in the past this is the Doolittle‘s debut in 5.1. Kevin Vanbergen has created the new surround mix from the original analogue multi-tracks.

This new edition will also feature an HD transfer of the original stereo mix by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. The album was reissued back in 2014 for its 25th anniversary. The album has been cited as inspirational by many alternative artists, while numerous music publications have ranked it as one of the most influential albums ever. A 2003 poll of NME writers ranked Doolittle as the second-greatest album of all time.

This blu-ray audio of Doolittle was released on 9th December and is on Amazon in the USA and is available to pre-order from the 4AD Records store.

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  • Black Francis – vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar
  • Kim Deal – bass guitar, vocals, acoustic slide guitar on “Silver”
  • Joey Santiago – lead guitar, backing vocals
  • David Lovering – drums, lead vocals on “La La Love You”, bass guitar on “Silver”

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A Big, big day for new releases tomorrow, Pixies re-release ‘Come On Pilgrim’ and ‘Surfer Rosa’ with an unreleased bonus LP!
New Live EP from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds!
New Amber Arcades record!
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs new album – is that enough Pigs for you?
New Graham Parker record – on limited pink vinyl!
A very limited Soft Cell 7″ – hurry, these are going quick!

More new albums out tomorrow from the likes of Alt-J, Blackfield, Gouge Away, Dave Grohl, Hater,Jlin, Ava Luna, Metric, Mini Mansions, Mudhoney, Marissa Nadler, Eddi Reader and Ana Da Silva & Phew.

It’s a bumper reissue day tomorrow as well. With a set of Stereolab reissues. plus the excellent Joe Strummer box set, but with the expensive price tag, there’s thankfully a slimmed down 4LP set as well. The Pink Floyd ‘Best Of’finally makes its way to vinyl, as does a collection of Aretha Franklin singles from the Atlantic label. Throw in new re-releases from U2, John & Beverley MartynHouse Of Love .

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The Pixies  – Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa

30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Pixies’ Debut EP and Album, Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, includes Bonus 1986 Radio Concert Live From The Fallout Shelter. It’s been thirty years since the release of Surfer Rosa – a record made up of rage, religion, gore, incest and superheroes named Tony – a debut album so good that it’s since seen as a masterpiece. A year prior came Come On Pilgrim, an eight-track mini-album released in 1987 which contained cuts culled from their first ever studio session, where they famously recorded seventeen tracks in just three days (in full, this session makes up the band’s much bootlegged and now officially released The Purple Tape). These formative records showed the Pixies to be an alien breed; four oddball outsiders from Boston blending US underground thrash rock, indie surf pop and Spanish-language flamenco with the Biblical mythology of Frances’s childhood. They would go on to record another masterpiece in 1989’s Doolittle but it’s the gruesome glory of Surfer Rosa, and the ruined sexuality of its cover image (a topless flamenco dancer in a crumbling Mexican bar) that set a fresh blueprint for an indie rock dynamism that not only planted the seeds of grunge (Kurt Cobain would admit that he was trying to imitate the record while writing Nevermind) but of much of the best rock music made since. The thirtieth anniversary edition contains Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and Live From The Fallout Shelter, a concert-cum-session that first aired in late-1986 on WJUL in Lowell, MA. In addition to both a three CD and three LP edition, there’s also a super-limited and stunning deluxe clothbound hardbook three LP version, which will be a must for all fans. Like all other Pixies sleeves, Vaughan Oliver returns as designer, stunningly reinterpreting his original artwork with Simon Larbalestier’s iconic photographs remaining these record’s crowning glory.

3LP – Triple Gold Vinyl with Download Card of Live from the Fallout Shelter.

3LP+ – Deluxe Version in Clothbound Hardbook, Triple Clear Vinyl, Lyric Booklet, Art Book and Download Card of Live From The Fallout Shelter.

3CD – Triple CD in Hardbook Wallet Case with Lyric Booklet.

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Nick Cave – Distant Sky (Live In Copenhagen)

Filmed at Copenhagen’s Royal Arena in October 2017, Distant Skycaptured an extraordinary and triumphant live concert from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Performing new album Skeleton Tree’s beautiful compositions alongside songs from their essential catalogue. 4 track 12” taken from the performance

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The Joy Formidable – AAARTH

The Welsh trio (vocals & guitar RItzy / bass Rhydian / drums Matt) release their fourth album. It was recorded in their mobile recording studio with songs created all over the world then brought home to roost in the Welsh hills and made into a lush new album.

A little bit grungy, a little bit hard rocky, even a little bit of metal-tinged chug. Ritzy’s smooth vocals soar and dive over churning, swaying lurching fluttering guitars, grinding bass and relentless drums. It’s not all hard-hitting alt-rock though – a skilful hand on the power-on button means there’s room for a sweeter side and a push me, pull me tug on the dynamics.

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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – King of Cowards

Indeed, not only do psychologists theorise that the human braincan only memorise a sequence of this length, but Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – the Newcastle -based maximalists whose riffs, raw power and rancour have blazed a trail across the darker quarters of the underground in the last five years -have made a second album in King Of Cowards which does its damnedest to take consciousness to its very limits. Moreover, another notable seven is dealt with here -that of the deadly sins. As vocalist and synth player Matt Baty notes “For a long time I’ve questioned how and where guilt can be used as a form of oppression. When can guilt be converted into positive action? After typing all of the lyrics up I realised I’d unwittingly referenced every one of the seven deadly sins throughout the album. That’s my fire and brimstone Catholic upbringing coming into play there!” Building on the momentum this band has built since their January 2017 debut Feed The Rats, this opus sees them entering a new phase as a sleeker and still more dangerous swineherd. The Iggy-esque drive to dementia, Sabbath-esque squalor and Motörhead-style dirt may still be present and correct, yet the songs are leaner, the long-drawn-out riff-fests sharpened into addictive hammerblows and the nihilistic dirges of yore alchemically transformed into an uplifting and inviting barrage of hedonistic abandon.“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” So George Orwell noted at the end of a certain slim volume. King Of Cowards is nothing less than just sucha metamorphosis, one in which -in a blur of primal urges and beastly physicality -this band shows us just which animals are really in charge of the farm.

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Amber Arcades –  European Heartbreak

Dutch dream poppers Amber Arcades return with the elegant and romantic European Heartbreak was recorded and co-produced in LA with Chris Cohen from Deerhoof and in Richmond, Virginia with Trey Pollard (Natalie Prass, The Waterboys, Bedouine), who oversaw horn and string overdubs from Spacebomb. A vast step forward from Amber Arcades’ critically acclaimed debut album Fading Lines, this selection of songs flit around Europe, from Berlin to Spain to the south of France. It’s European not just in lyrical theme but also in the sly sophistication of its music: songs that carry with them the air of open-topped cars on clifftop roads, of cocktails on the terrace at sunset. And then the lyrics undercut that sunny mood, artfully and skilfully. For fans of Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura and the mellower parts of Alvvays.

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Lala Lala  –  The Lamb

“The Lamb was written during a time of intense paranoia after a home invasion, deaths of loved ones and general violence around me and my friends,” says Lillie West, the Chicago-based songwriter behind Lala Lala. “I began to frequently and vividly imagine the end of the world, eventually becoming too frightened to leave my house. This led me to spend a lot of time examining my relationships and the choices I’d made, often wondering if they were correct and / or kind.” West initially started Lala Lala as a way to communicate things that she felt she could never say out loud. But on The Lamb, her sophomore LP and debut for Hardly Art, she has found strength in vulnerability. Through bracing hooks and sharp lyrics, the 24-year-old songwriter and guitarist illustrates a nuanced look on her own adulthood – her fraught insecurity, struggles with addiction, and the loss of several people close to her. Across the album’s 12 tracks, West carefully examines the skeletons in her closet for the first time, hoping to capture honest snapshots of her past selves. Many of the songs show West asking herself agonizing questions about her life with a clever and hopeful curiosity. On the album’s first single and opening track, Destroyer, she reflects on feeling self-destructive and the delayed realization something in the past has irrevocably hurt you. In Water Over Sex, West laments her old precarious lifestyle, while trying to readjust to her newfound sobriety, and Copycat confronts her feelings of alienation and boredom. “Some of this album is about being frustrated that everything is always repeating itself and being bored with your own feelings,”she explains. Copycat in particular is about how everyone talks exactly the same on the Internet and how it sometimes feels futile to try and be yourself.”

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Metric  –  Art of Doubt

Toronto’s Metric emphasize guitars on the band’s latest album, a collection of 12 new songs packed with massive riffs, driving rhythm and raw / smooth vocals that have become their instantly identifiable signature sound. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, Beck, Nine Inch Nails), Metric’s seventh LP addresses a climate of cultural and political anxiety while refusing to give despair the upper hand. In many ways, it’s the most Metric album the band has ever made as Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott-Key rediscover their shared love of music and how good they are at making it together.

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Eyelids – Maybe More

After coming home fired up from their 2017 tours (which included UK / Euro / US dates with Drive-By Truckers, Dream Syndicate, Fruit Bats, The Cribs) Eyelids headed into various studios in Portland to finish up a new batch of songs they had been working on. They ended up with a perfect combination of
the lilting, powerful hooks of their recent Peter Buck-produced album or alongside the spookier, more meditative moments from their debut 854 . Oh and they added in a fiery rendition of The Gun Club’s Sex Beat (with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck of R.E.M. throwing down alongside them) just to hammer the point home. Now Eyelids could always write a earworm of a song (which is why or ended up many best of 2017 lists) and from the minute the needle hits this vinyl, there it is again. With its rolling and
intricate jangle the band (like XTC, R.E.M. and The Byrds— their three biggest comparisons from the press) make their three distinct personalities / guitars become an amazingly powerful whole.

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Jeff Buckley – Live In Pilton UK, June 24, 1995

Recorded in Pilton, Somerset, England at the legendary Glastonbury Festival – running nearly 50 years now, since 1970 – on June 24th, 1995, this is one of Jeff Buckley’s most famous live recordings. Raw, heavy, heartfelt, and deeply emotional, the set is comprised almost entirely of Buckley originals, mostly off of 1994’s Grace as well as one unreleased track and an unexpected cover of the. Required live listening for any fan of this great 90s artist gone way too soon, who left only a small but nearly perfect legacy of recorded music.

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The KVB  –  Of Desire

The fifth album from UK darkwave duo The KVB is released on Invada Records. Of Desire is Kat Day and Nicholas Wood’s second release on Portishead member Geoff Barrow’s Bristol-based label. It follows a string of releases for operations like Downwards, Minimal Wave sublabel Cititrax and Ukraine’s ~taqueOT, most of which explored a moody shoegaze aesthetic. The recording of In Deep saw the The KVB raid Portishead and BEAK> man Geoff Barrow’s synth collection, as well as roping in Sonic Boom to master it. Their most fully formed record and considered in terms of dynamics, arrangements and instrumentation, taking in influences such as Death In Vegas, Scott Walker and Roxy Music, The KVB have managed to create something that is at once familiar and yet inventive and original.

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Hater  –  Siesta

Effortless and assured, the Scandi quartet drift eloquently into well-structured and stunning melodies.

Resolute in their sound, Siesta is the perfect soundtrack for that summer romance and the inevitable break up. Heartbreak has never sounded so sweet!. Produced by Joakim Lindberg (Yast and Hey Elbow) at Studio Sickan within old railway sheds outside of Malmö Sweden. Hater tackle their personal experiences of life, love and relationships yet through their shared songwriting there’s a togetherness. Synth pop earworm It’s So Easy contrasts the slower paced I Wish I Gave You More Time Because I Love You that blends beautiful sweeping sax from Inge Petersson Lindback. Hater boast Marr-esque guitars and vocals reminiscent of fellow Swedes and The Concretes whilst having the pop sensibilities of The Chills, Alvvays, Snail Mail and Makthaverskan.

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Marissa Nadler  –  For My Crimes

The eighth album from Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes, is the sound of turmoil giving way to truth. The songs stare down the dark realization that love may not be enough to keep two people together through distance and differing needs. By asking these difficult questions about her relationships, Nadler has found a stronger sense of self and a sharper voice as both a songwriter and a vocalist, culminating in her most evocative entry in an already impressive discography. The album is released via Bella Union and Sacred Bones. The opening title track is classic Nadler: a sweeping, vaguely Southern drama of voices, strings, and acoustic guitar, that walks the fine line between character song and personal indictment by metaphor. For My Crimes spawned out of a songwriting exercise in which Nadler wrote from the perspective of someone on death row, but the song casts a dark shadow over an album that turns marital conflict into inner reflection. Helping Nadler dig down into the song’s remorseful soul is her old friend Angel Olsen, who serves as a distraught echo from beyond in the chorus. Dreaminess and eeriness have often been two sides of the same coin in Marissa Nadler songs. Where For My Crimes and Blue Vapor come from her dark side, the album has plenty of moments that twinkle in their sadness and sentimentality. I Can’t Listen to Gene Clark Anymore is one of those highly specific songs you’ll get if you’ve ever lost a favourite band to your own broken heart.

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Squirrel Flower – Contact Sports and Bonus Tracks

For fans of Big Thief, Mitski and Sharon Van Etten. Squirrel Flower is the alias 21-year-old Ella Williams adopted for herself when writing and performing songs as a child. Since those early days her movement through music has progressed at a staggering pace and now a reissue of her second EP Contact Sports, available on vinyl for the first time. Contact Sports is a perfectly formed collection of songs about relationships; intimacy, dependency, betrayal and place set to the unique backdrop of the American Midwest. The first three songs represent the push and pull of love and intimacy while the last three are more meditative, more place-based. From the fulsome guitar and visceral, cathartic breakdowns of lead single Conditions to the carefully layered beauty of Hands Melt, this varied collection frequently impresses with its maturity and craftsmanship. Lyrically too, tracks like the fuzzy, dimly-lit euphoria of Daylight Savings are spellbinding in their turn of phrase as Williams sings “I know we’ve gained an hour, but I feel like we’ve lost two”.

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Goggs  –  Pre Strike Sweep

With their second album Pre Strike Sweep, Goggs add a new level of primordial anxiety to their already catastrophic symphony. Recorded and mixed in 2017 by Goggs guitarist and co-founder Ty Segall, the album explores the damaging affects of modern life before blowing them up one by one. Singer Chris Shaw uses terms like “space rinse” and “roadside surgery” to inform the listener that this is a strange and different trip, far and away from the Glendale Junkyard he romanticized in 2016 on their self-titled album. In fact, all expectations brought on by that acclaimed debut are crushed into dust, revealing a new standard by which the Goggs march thumps. Ty Segall side project featuring Chris Shaw (Ex-Cult) on vocal duty and Charles Moothart (Fuzz) on drums.

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Parquet Courts – Wide Awake Remixes

Limited 12″. Standout tracks from Parquet Courts’ latest album Wide Awake! get the dancefloor treatment in a collection of remixes available on 12” vinyl. The A-side features a re-work of the danceable title track by legendary first wave NYC disco pioneer Danny Krivit, who has delivered classic vinyl re-edits of tunes from Visage, James Brown, Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, and many more. The B-side features remixes of two tracks by prolific Australian producer and engineer Mikey Young, known for his work in Total Control and Eddie Current Suppression Ring. “Mikey has always impressed me as a musician and person,” says Parquet Courts’ A. Savage, “but he’s developed a remarkable talent for producing electronic music, as evidenced by projects like Lace Curtain and Total Control. He has a skill of impressing his genius and personality into a track and elevating it to something more.

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Alt J  –  Reduxer

Reduxer is a set of 11 incredible reinterpretations of songs from their award winning third album ​Relaxer, ​reimagined by a host of fans, friends and peers, including a globe-straddling cross-section of some of the world’s most influential and prolific hip hop artists and producers. Putting their own indelible vocals on the songs are, amongst others, Grammy-nominated US hip hop high flyer GoldLink​, platinum-certified Parisian rapper ​Lomepal​, Berlin powerhouse ​Kontra K​, Dublin-born breakthrough rapper ​Rejjie Snow​, Australian auteur ​Tuka​, Puerto Rican rapper ​PJ Sin Suela​ and London’s acclaimed ​Little Simz. The project was first hinted at when Virginia Beach hip hop superstar​ PushaT​ and LA synthpop polymath Twin Shadow both joined alt-J for a surprise performance of In Cold Blood on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, before swiftly releasing the studio version of the collaboration. Another standout is a new version of Deadcrush reworked by legendary producer ​The Alchemist and Latin American production powerhouse ​Trooko​, and featuring the unmistakable vocals of hip hop iconoclast​ Danny Brown​.

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Mudhoney –  Digital Garbage,

Since the late ’80s, Mudhoney – the Seattle-based foursome whose muck-crusted version of rock, shot through with caustic wit and battened down by a ferocious low end – has been a high-pH tonic against the ludicrous and the insipid. Thirty years later, the world is experiencing a particularly high-water moment for both those ideals. But just in time, vocalist Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters are back with Digital Garbage, a barbed-wire-trimmed collection of sonic brickbats. Arm’s raw yawp and his bandmates’ long-honed chemistry make Digital Garbage an ideal release valve for the 2018 pressure cooker. “My sense of humor is dark, and these are dark times,” says Arm. “I suppose it’s only getting darker.”

Digital Garbage opens with the swaggering Nerve Attack, which can be heard as a nod both to modern-life anxiety and the ever-increasing threat of warfare. The album’s title comes from the outro of Kill Yourself Live, which segues from a revved-up Arm organ solo into a bleak look at the way notoriety goes viral. Arm says: “people really seem to find validation in the likes—and then there’s Facebook Live, where people have streamed torture and murder, or, in the case of Philando Castile, getting murdered by a cop. In the course of writing that song, I thought about how, once you put something out there online, you can’t wipe it away. It’s always going to be there – even if no one digs it up, it’s still out there floating somewhere.”

Appropriately enough, bits of recent news events float through the record: Please Mr. Gunman, on which Arm bellows “We’d rather die in church!” over his bandmates’ careening charge, was inspired by a TV-news bubblehead’s response to a 2017 church shooting, while the ominous refrain that opens the submerged-blues of Next Mass Extinction calls back to last summer’s clashes in Charlottesville. Mudhoney’s core sound – steadily pounding drums, swamp-thing bass, squalling guitar wobble, Arm’s hazardous-chemical voice – remains on Digital Garbage, which the band recorded with longtime collaborator (and Digital Garbage pianist) Johnny Sangster at the Seattle studio Litho. The anti-religiosity shimmy 21st Century Pharisees builds its case with Maddison’s woozy synths, which Arm says “add a really nice touch to the proceedings.” Digital Garbage closes with Oh Yeah, a brief celebration of skateboarding, surfing, biking, and the joy provided by these escape valves. “I would’ve really just loved to write songs about just hanging out on the beach, and going on a nice vacation,” says Arm. “But, you know, that probably doesn’t make for great rock.” Mudhoney, however, know what does make great rock – and the riffs and fury of Digital Garbage will stand the test of time, even if the particulars fade away. “I’ve tried to keep things somewhat universal, so that this album doesn’t just seem like of this time – hopefully some of this stuff will go away,” Arm laughs. “You don’t want to say in the future, ‘Hey, those lyrics are still relevant. Great!’”

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Tom Petty – An American Treasure

Reprise Records release An American Treasure – a career-spanning Tom Petty box set. The 60-track set unveils dozens of previously unreleased recordings, alternate versions of classic songs, rarities, historic live performances and deep tracks that spotlight Tom’s remarkable depth and evolution as a revered and tremendously influential songwriter, recording artist and performer. An American Treasure marks the first release of Tom Petty music since the artist’s tragic passing in October 2017. The first single from An American Treasure isKeep A Little Soul—a previously unreleased recording from 1982 sessions that resulted in Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ classic album, Long After Dark. Tom’s daughter, Adria Petty, and his wife, Dana Petty, were the primary catalysts for the commission, creation and release of An American Treasure­ – a tribute and love letter pointing to the music in between the hits, and a strong musical portrait of the person they know in their hearts. Adria and Dana both serve as the project’s Executive Producers, and, together with Tom’s bandmates of 45 years, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and his studio collaborator, Ryan Ulyate, curated the box set’s track list from Petty’s rich song catalog. Campbell, Tench and Ulyate also produced An American Treasure.

2CD – Double CD Set that features 26 career spanning tracks chosen from the Deluxe editions, as well as Bud Scoppa’s detailed track-by-track.

4CD – Four CD set housed in Hard Cover Book Sleeve that features all 60 tracks, plus a 52-page booklet with rare and previously unseen photographs of Tom, his bandmates, family and friends. The booklet also features detailed track-by-track liner notes by noted journalist and Tom Petty aficionado Bud Scoppa, who drew upon his previous interviews with Tom and new conversations with Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Ryan Ulyate, as well as Adria and Dana Petty.

6LP – 6-LP Set that features all 60 tracks and a 48-page booklet containing all of the photographic and editorial elements found in the CD Deluxe Edition. This set also includes the Nicholas Dawidoff essay.

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Joe Strummer  –  001

Joe Strummer 001 is the first compilation to span Joe Strummer’s career outside of his recordings with The Clash.

Joe Strummer 001 includes fan favourites from his recordings with the 101ers and The Mescaleros, all of his solo albums, soundtrack work and an album of unreleased songs. Standouts include It’s A Rockin’ World, produced by Rick Rubin and taken from the ‘South Park’ Soundtrack and London Is Burning (an alternative / early version of Burnin’ Street from Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros final album Streetcore).

All of the formats include tracks that have never appeared anywhere before as well as new remasters. Exclusive to all formats is an album of unreleased material including an early demo of This Is England entitled Czechoslovak Song / Where Is England, a solo demo of Letsagetabitarockin recorded in Elgin Avenue in 1975, outtakes from Sid and Nancy featuring Mick Jones and unreleased songs Rose Of Erin, the biographical and mythical recording The Cool Impossible and London Is Burning one of the last songs Joe recorded. Punk pioneer, singer, songwriter, recording artist, activist, musical and political inspiration for a generation and mighty diamond Joe Strummer was the most charismatic and passionate frontman to emerge from the punk explosion of the late seventies.

After Joe’s untimely death in December 2002 it was discovered that Joe had been quite an archivist of his own work, having barns full of writings and tapes stored in his back garden. There are now over 20,000 items in the Joe Strummer Archive. The archiving of this material and compiling of Joe Strummer 001 was overseen by Joe’s widow Luce and Robert Gordon McHarg III. All tracks were restored and mastered by Grammy Award winner Peter J. Moore at the E. Room in Toronto Canada. On-going through cassettes and recording tapes it was discovered that Joe was rather frugal and keen on hiding tracks. On cassettes he would leave 20 minutes between songs. On the 1” 8 track recordings it was discovered there were hidden tracks superimposed onto each other. For example tracks 1-4 were taken by one song and tracks 5-8 by two other songs which were thought when played back to be caused by tape denigration until the tapes went to Peter J Moore who was able to separate one song from another. The cover of all formats is taken from Joe’s 1990 Californian driving license.

4LP+ – Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set: Quadruple Heavyweight Vinyl, 7” Vinyl Single (exclusive tracks on 7”This Is England(Side A) and Before We Go Forward (Side B), Cassette (previously unheard and unreleased U.S North (Basement Demo) – with artwork replicated from the original cassette recording from Joes’s archive), A4 Book, Enamel Badge, envelope containing a screen print, a high quality image of Joe, two original art prints, and a sticker sheet. The book features rarely seen and previously unpublished memorabilia from Joe’s personal collection as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums. Limited to 3000 Copies.

2CD+ – Limited Edition Deluxe Double CD in A4 Book. Limited to 5000 Copies.

2CD – Double CD in Slipcase.

4LP – Quadruple Heavyweight Vinyl in Slipcase. Limited to 3000 Copies.

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John and Beverley Martyn – Stormbringer!

Originally released in February 1970 by Island Records this is the first and classic album by John and Beverley Martyn. After being rehearsed in Woodstock, NY Stormbringer! was recorded and mixed in only 8 days with engineer John Wood and producer Joe Boyd. John Martyn, inspired by the Band’s Music from Big Pink, worked hard to find a distinctive guitar sound and in two tracks (Would You Believe Me? and The Ocean) introduced his pioneering guitar technique. Levon Helm guested on drums on two tracks while John Simon and Paul Harris are among the other contributors. jazzy undertones, spirit lifting vocals, and buttery folk guitar leads for such a unique and beautiful record.

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John and Beverley Martyn – The Road To Ruin

John and Beverley’s 2nd album, also released in 1970, was Produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood at Sound Techniques, the Island Records studio. Features contributions from Danny Thompson, Dave Pegg and Wells Kelly. Contains the single Primrose Hill.

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Redd Kross – Third Eye

The American alternative rock band Redd Kross reached their peak in the early 1980s by releasing clever punk rock song. Their 1990 album Third Eye shows how much they changed their sound over the years. Their aggressive approaches have been changed to fascinating power-pop and alternative rock songs. The colourful choruses on this genre-defining record gives the album more depth than you’d think on first listen. Positively Beatlesque they sound on Bubblegum Factory, while Shonen Knife is a tribute to the contemporary Japanese rockers. Rooted in 1978 as the punk band The Tourists Redd Kross went on to become a well-known name in the punk and power pop music scene.

The Big news this week is the widely anticipated, ‘The White Album’ from The Beatles is getting a 50th Anniversary reissue. Newly remastered and remixed in stereo by Giles Martin, this comes a regular 2LP set, a 4LP set with The Esher Demos and a gigantic 6CD & 1 Blu-Ray box set that throws just about everything in. The 4LP set looks pretty damn essential in our eyes.

Other news this week
A live Father John Misty album, record by Third Man Records!
New Ty Segall album!
A new Mumford & Sons record
A new Ryley Walker record! Covering Dave Matthews Band But don’t let that put you off.

Also added to the site this week are forthcoming albums from Night Beats, Richard Swift, Vessel, a compilation from the Brainfeeder label, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and another in the series of From The Vault recordings live Rolling Stones 3LP set from the Voodoo Lounge tour. Limited blue vinyl for two early Fleetwood Mac albums. A very limited Aretha Franklin 2LP & 10″ set from Music On Vinyl.

looking forward to next week with new albums from Cat Power, Kristin Hersh, Phosphorescent and reissues from XTC and Television. have a great weekend!

This Week’s Releases

Tony Allen & Jeff Mills – ‘Tomorrow Comes The Harvest’ 10″ EP
Alt-J – ‘Reduxer’ LP
Amber Arcades – ‘European Heartbreak’ blue vinyl LP
Barenaked Ladies – ‘Stunt’ 2LP reissue
Blackfield – ‘Open Mind: The Best Of’ limited coloured vinyl 2LP
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ‘Distant Sky (Live In Copenhagen)’ 12″ EP
Aretha Franklin – ‘The Atlantic Singles Collection’ 2LP reissue
Gaika – ‘Basic Volume’ 2LP
Dave Grohl – ‘Play’ LP
Hater – ‘Siesta’ 2LP
Trevor Horn – ‘Reflection’ limited pink vinyl 2LP
Jlin – ‘Autobiography’ limited red vinyl 2LP
The Joy Formidable – ‘AAARTH’ LP
The KVB – ‘Of Desire’ coloured vinyl LP
Kodaline – ‘Politics Of Living’ LP
Ava Luna – ‘Moon 2’ LP
John & Beverley Martyn – ‘Stormbringer’ LP reissue
John & Beverley Martyn – The Road To Ruin’ LP reissue
Paul McCartney – ‘Egypt Station’ LP

The Meters – ‘The Meters’ LP reissue
Metric – ‘Art Of Doubt’ LP

Mudhoney – ‘Digital Garbage’ limited blue vinyl LP
Marissa Nadler – ‘For My Crimes’ smoke coloured vinyl LP

Graham Parker – ‘Cloud Symbols’ pink vinyl LP

Parquet Courts – ‘Wide Awake: Remixes’ 12″
Peluche – ‘Unforgettable’ 2LP
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – ‘King Of Cowards’ LP
Pink Floyd – ‘A Foot In The Door: The Best Of’ 2LP reissue
Pixies – ‘Come On Pilgrim…It’s Surfer Rosa’ standard coloured vinyl 3LP set
Eddi Reader – ‘Cavalier’ limited blue vinyl 2LP
Redd Kross – ‘Third Eye’ limited purple vinyl LP reissue
Ana Da Silva & Phew – ‘Island’ 2LP
Soft Cell – ‘Northern Lights/Guilty (Cos I Say You Are)’ limited 7″ single
Stereolab – ‘Switched On Vol.1, 2 & 3’ 6LP bundle package
Stereolab – ‘Switched On’ LP reissue
Stereolab – ‘Refried Ectoplasm’ 2LP reissue
Stereolab – ‘Aluminium Tunes’ 3LP reissue

Joe Strummer – ‘Joe Strummer 001’ limited deluxe box set
U2 – ‘The Best Of: 1990-2000’ 2LP reissue
Tony Joe White – ‘Bad Mouthin” white vinyl 2LP

The Pixies (Black Francis, Kim Deal, David Lovering and Joey Santiago) photographed in California in June 1988.

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, The Pixies are releasing a new box set containing their debut releases, titled Come on Pilgrim…It’s Surfer Rosa. Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa is a forthcoming 30th anniversary deluxe edition that brings together Pixies‘ eight-track mini-album Come On Pilgrim(originally released September 1987)and the band’s full-length album Surfer Rosa.  (Released March 1988)

Come On Pilgrim was originally issued in September 1987, its eight tracks taken (in remixed form) from the so-called Purple Tape (which contained 17 early demos). Six months later the influential debut album proper, Surfer Rosa, was issued. This includes Where Is My Mind?,which was memorably featured right at the end of David Fincher’s 1999 film, Fight Club

These special editions will be available as a three-CD box set, a standard edition three-LP box set on gold vinyl that includes a soft-back booklet, both released on 28th September, and a deluxe edition three-LP box set on clear vinyl with a hard-back book, shipping around November 2018.

The Boston-based alt-rock band released Come on Pilgrim, which was an eight-song mini-LP, in 1987 and soon followed it with their first full-length album Surfer Rosa the year after. The new box set will contain both albums, as well as a bonus disc titled Live From the Fallout Shelter, featuring an early radio recording of the band from 1986.

Surfer Rosa combined elements of pop music with grunge, and it has been cited as an inspiration by many of the ‘90s alt-rock artists to follow, including Smashing Pumpkins and Kurt Cobain—Surfer Rosa was so influential in the creation of Nevermind that Nirvana hired the album’s sound engineer, Steve Albini, to work on In Utero.

The standard three-disc or triple-vinyl edition of Come on Pilgrim…It’s Surfer Rosa hits shelves September. 28th, with the deluxe edition to follow in November.

Currently, Pixies have been on tour with Weezer (without original bassist Kim Deal, who left the band back in 2013). the Pixies’ promo video for the new box set is below.

Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa, comes in three formats: a 3CD and a 3LP version pressed on gold vinyl that both come with a soft-back booklet, and a limited edition deluxe 3LP version pressed on clear vinyl with a hard-back book, lyric booklet, art book and more.

To mark Surfer Rosa‘s 30th anniversary, Pixies have scheduled a five-night residency at London’s Roundhouse this October, where they will play Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa in their entirety.

In a strange echo of the discovery of Elvis, it was 4AD’s secretary who kept insisting to label co-founder (and boyfriend) Ivo Watts-Russell that they should sign Pixies, on the strength of the so-called ‘purple tape’, a demo that, with a bit of sonic polishing, gave birth to the mini-album Come On Pilgrim. Watts-Russell apparently eventually scored them after pounding the streets of New York sampling tracks like ‘I’ve Been Tired’, a strange lyrical concoction of dubious sexual liaisons and Bible references. ”I wanna  be a singer like Lou Reed” comments Black Francis’ hook up, sticking her tongue in her ear. Guitar music was never quite the same again.

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Surfer Rosa is one of those perfect debut albums, that lets you know what you’re in for right out of the gate. The blueprint for the album, and for so much of the guitar-based music that followed over the next decade or so, is set within the first minute of the lead track, “Bone Machine.” David Lovering’s spare yet ferocious drums, the sound of them so vast that you wonder if he’s actually playing an oil rig. Kim Deal’s muscular, melodic bassline, underpinning but never overstepping. Joey Santiago drawing blood out of a few crystal-sharp notes of guitar. Black Francis (aka Frank Black) yelping for sixteen bars of agitated verse over a relative lull of music before Santiago yanks the song back into a chorus of blistered lips and “uh-oh!”—the first instance of the loud/soft motif that the band further refine and recalibrate through another dozen frenetic and thrilling songs, most of which combust around the two-minute mark.

The Pixies made Surfer Rosa not long after their formation in Boston, Massachusetts, and just a few weeks after the release of their debut mini album, Come On Pilgrim. Both releases were themselves culled from a March ’87 demo, The Purple Tape, which included embryonic versions of several Surfer Rosa songs: “Break My Body,” “I’m Amazed” and the album’s most straightforwardly hardcore moment, “Broken Face.” At the urging of their British label, 4AD Records, Surfer Rosa saw the Pixies replace Purple Tape producer Gary Smith with a relatively unknown recording engineer, Steve Albini, who was best known at the time for his work with his own band, Big Black. After a get-to-know-you dinner at Lovering’s place, the band and Albini set to work on the record at the newly opened Q Division Studios in Somerville, a few miles north of Boston, which had ironically been recommended to them by the ousted Smith.

Famously opposed to both the title “producer” and the concept of receiving royalties on albums he worked on, Albini was paid a flat fee of $1,500 for his ten days of work on the album, out of a total recording budget of $10,000. He would be similarly forthright in his critiques of the band’s performances, alternately hailing them as “genius” or dismissing them entirely.

In press interviews at the time, the band would characterize Albini as a “brainiac” who loved lo-fi and instruction manuals but had little enthusiasm for “anything human-sounding”—the result of which meant that those ten days of recording were spent honing guitar and drum sounds, with vocal parts left until the very last evening. Special effects were eschewed in favor of an abrasive, unadorned—and soon to be much copied style that found its perfect foil in the Pixies’ deceptively delicate (and often delicately played) songs. Even overdubbing was generally avoided. “He hates overdubs,” Deal had told Melody Maker.

Though the two would later on form a deep friendship (as evidenced by their joint panel at this year’s SXSW festival), Deal was somewhat dismissive of Albini’s methodology in subsequent interviews. But Albini always had a fan in Black Francis. “I like him because he likes loud,” he exclaimed in the same interview. “All the needles were on red. He totally overloaded the tape.”

Assistant engineer John Lupner, meanwhile, was struck by the lengths Albini went to authentically capture the particular sound of Q Division Studios. Not everything was quite so meticulously planned, however. According to John Murphy—Deal’s husband at the time—the abrupt end to “Where Is My Mind?” came about by accident, as a result of the tape running out while the band was playing. “The tape started to go click click click,” he told Frank and Ganz, “and they went, ‘Well, we got most of it.

If there’s an overarching theme to Surfer Rosa, it’s a Lynchian scratching away at the underbelly of modern life to reveal tales of voyeurism, incest, and other deviant behavior. Francis put these preoccupations—that include a rather ahead-of-its-time portrayal, in “Bone Machine,” of a pedophile priest (or “preachy-preach” in Pixies vernacular)—down to his “real hardcore Pentecostal” upbringing. It’s not all about molestation, though. Two songs (“Broken Body” and “Tony’s Theme”) reference superheroes, while several others draw on a six-month period Francis spent as an exchange student in Puerto Rico the inspiration for both the Spanglish lyrics in “Vamos” and “Where Is My Mind?” with its dreamy evocation of snorkeling “in the Car-ibb-e-an.”

Though vocals were left until the final day of recording, they were by no means an afterthought. Indeed, the interplay between the band’s two vocalists, Francis and Deal, would become another Pixies trademark. In keeping with his vérité style, Albini abandoned studio trickery in favor of natural acoustics. Deal’s two most memorable vocal performances—her lead on the bouncing, pop-toned single, “Gigantic” and the oo-oohs that run throughout “Where Is My Mind?”—were recorded in the bathroom, its natural echo proving preferable, as far as Albini was concerned, to any available studio effect. The latter song’s false start jarring and seemingly throwaway on first listen is instructive as to the attention to detail from both band and engineer. Deal’s first ooh, which precedes Francis’s curt instruction to “Stop,” has a sharp rawness to it. When her voice returns in the song proper, it’s engulfed in an underwater haze much more befitting the lyrical reverie.

There are further spoken interjections elsewhere: some within the songs, such as the aforementioned opening to “Bone Machine” and Deal’s similar announcement that “Tony’s Theme” is about “a superhero named Tony,” and some in between. “I’m Amazed” begins with Deal mid-sentence, gossiping about a teacher who’s “into field-hockey players.” “Oh My Golly!” ends with Francis yelling “You fuckin’ die!” at her. He goes on to clarify that he’d done so in jest, in response to her warning that no one mess with her equipment.

Surfer Rosa was released in March 1988 in the UK and remained available only as an import in the United States until late summer, when 4AD signed a North American distribution deal with Rough Trade. Initial U.S. pressings paired the album with Come On Pilgrim. The two works were then reissued separately in 1992, after Elektra Records took on the 4AD catalogue.

Having received largely positive press notices, Surfer Rosa sold solidly in the interim, if unspectacularly—perhaps in part because, like so many landmark albums, it found itself a little far ahead of the curve. Winning the hearts and minds of college radio and Melody Maker (which named the album the best of 1988) would not yet yield widespread success. The album did not go gold in the U.S. until 2005, by which time the Pixies had disbanded, lain dormant for a decade, and then reunited for the first of several deservedly lucrative world tours.

By then, of course, Surfer Rosa had been well and truly canonized as one of the most influential albums of its time, with Nirvana and myriad others taking the Rosa model and running with it, many of them queuing up both to sing its praises and to summon Steve Albini to work his magic to record his own band’s album In Utero . Kurt Cobain listed it as his second favorite album of all time (after Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power)

Among the earliest advocates for the band, meanwhile, was one of rock’s greatest statesmen, David Bowie, who would later lament, “I thought it was a hell of a shame that America didn’t recognize its own with the Pixies.” His 2002 album Heathen includes a well-judged cover of Rosa’s “Cactus,” a short and sweet ballad about a prisoner so desperate for something—anything from his wife that he ends up begging her to smear her dress with blood and “send it to meeee.”

Sam Fogarino of Interpol once opined that the Pixies have been the most influential band in music since they first emerged back in 1988 with their debut album, Surfer Rosa”. Recalling the first time he heard their music, he said: “I felt vile, then I felt violated, then I thought it was the most brilliant fucking thing since sliced bread, and that hasn’t changed because it’s ageless music, and that’s a very rare thing to stumble upon.”

Fogarino’s account is textbook slow-burning appraisal. The Pixies have always been somewhat of an oddity. They somehow exhibit a dichotomous mix of perturbing sounds and iconography akin to the world of death metal breaking bread with the harmonic sensibilities of the Bee Gees. David Bowie aptly surmised this mishmash as sounding like a “psychotic Beatles”. It’s a jarring mix that proves joyously untempered on their debut. You just have to overcome the vile introduction before you can relish the pig thrashing in a plashy mire reverie of its sultry lair.

Another important step in the album’s elevation came a few years earlier, with David Fincher’s clever use of “Where Is My Mind?” in a pivotal scene toward the end of Fight Club. Since then, that song in particular has become so inescapable that you’ll even hear gentle piano renditions in HBO prestige dramas. Surfer Rosa regularly appears on all-time “best-of” lists online and in print.

Pixies
  • Black Francis – vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar
  • Kim Deal – bass, backing vocals, vocals on “Gigantic” (credited as Mrs. John Murphy)
  • Joey Santiago – lead guitar
  • David Lovering – drums

The Pixies play the Boulder Theater and Fillmore Auditorium this week.

Joey Santiago, lead guitarist for alt-rock band the Pixies, was never into playing fast. He says it’s just too much work.

“There were enough people doing it,” Santiago says of the guitar shredders. “I wasn’t going to join that bandwagon at all. I couldn’t remember anything about it other than, ‘Wow, that’s fast!’ Really, that’s all you’re going to say about it. Yeah, it’s fast. But if you listen to the phrasing of George Harrison and other guitar players like that, it’s like, ‘That’s more my speed right there.’ I mean, I try to have a slower hand than [Eric] Clapton. I have a syrup hand. Maple, not corn syrup.”

Since Pixies formed just over three decades ago, Santiago’s angular, minimalist approach to the guitar has been an integral part of the outfit’s idiosyncratic sonic palate. Rather than cramming notes into the songs, Santiago leaves space between the notes, letting his riffs ring and breathe. He says it’s about being patient and not being in such a rush.

“That’s hard for me to do because I’m so manic,” Santiago says. “It’s like, ‘Okay, fucking slow down, goddamnit.’ And when you finally find that out, it’s hard. It’s hard to remember to do that. It works. You don’t have to talk all the time. It’s having a conversation.”

While Santiago has no problem conversing musically, he admits that outside the band, he’s still the worst communicator. “I just am,” he says. “I try not to be such a social misfit. When [people] meet me for the first time, they just go, ‘What the fuck is up with him?’”

That even goes back to his days as a high school quarterback in his home town of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. “I just didn’t talk at all,” he says. “The coach would try to have me talk to him, and it was like, ‘No, please. I already know what to do.’”

Santiago might not be the best communicator, but the same could have been said for the rest the band members earlier in their career. Santiago, frontman Black Francis (born Charles Thompson), drummer David Lovering and bassist Kim Deal released five studio albums from the time the band formed in 1986 through its breakup in 1993. Eleven years later, the band reunited, and some of the reunion tour was captured in the 2006 documentary loudQUIETloud, where Deal’s sister Kelley said, “You guys are the worst communicators ever.”

But since Kim Deal left the Pixies in 2013, during the recording of Indie Cindy, there’s been a different chemistry in the band with the arrival of bassist Paz Lenchantin, who came on board in 2014 as a touring member.

“She’s just brought in a new kind of energy,” Santiago says. “She’s just a very, very positive person. She belonged right away.”

Following Deal’s departure, he says, the musicians didn’t know if they were going to keep going as a band.

“It’s just a miracle that we did just keep going,” Santiago says. “This is what we know how to do best. We don’t know any…I don’t know what else to do. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was, I don’t know, eleven or something. It’s happened. Nothing is going to get in the way of it. Nothing. I’ve paid the dues. We were getting paid by pizzas and beer and gas money. We drove ourselves. And it’s like there’s no fucking way I’m going to… and then we went from tour buses to nice hotels. It’s like, nah, I don’t want to do anything else. Let’s just try to keep this going.”

They kept forging on, indeed. While Indie Cindy, the band’s first album of new material in two decades, was not one of the act’s stronger releases, they more than made up for it on last year’s Head Carrier, which includes tunes like “Bel Esprit,” “Might as Well be Gone,” “Classic Masher” and “Oona” that evoke classic Pixies songs.

“We’re so unique that why fight it?” Santiago says. “I’ve been trying to fight it for a while. When I give up, that’s when it comes naturally. When I just go, ‘Okay, you know what? You’re not that bad. Just do what you know how to do best and just go along with it.’”

While preparing to record Head Carrier, Santiago says, the process mirrored the making of the 1989 masterpiece Doolittle. All four bandmembers sat in a room and hashed out the songs and picked the ones to demo. They took the demoed songs to producer Tom Dalgety, whom the band met in 2015, and he chose the songs that he thought would be good for the album.

Santiago says the new material fits flawlessly into the band’s live sets. ‘It’s part of the language,” he says. “It’s seamless. It’s just totally seamless. You know, we notice some of the kiddos out there singing along with it. It’s nice.”

On the current tour, the band has been drawing from some ninety songs that it’s rehearsed.

“It’s just the way it is,” he says. “I think at this point, a set list would just confuse us. Looking down and, ‘That’s next.’ How do you even know what’s next? You can’t even tell if it’s going to be appropriate for the next song. You don’t even know what our mood’s going to be like at the end of two minutes.”

With their new album and second since reforming in 2004, David Lovering, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Black Francis and guitarist Joey Santiago bassist Paz Lenchantin

“Head Carrier” thrives for one simple reason: it sounds like a Pixies album.” “There are bits of enthralling guitar throughout, and the album as a whole feels like a combination of the catchiness of ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and the futurism of “Bossanova”. If the letdown of Indie Cindy caused you to lose faith in the Pixies, let “Head Carrier” bring you back to the flock. It’s one of the best albums of 2016, and an incredible return to form for an all-time great band”

The indie rock legends’ first album with bassist Paz Lenchantin who has been the band’s touring bassist since January 2014, and played an integral part in the recording of Head Carrier features some of their friendliest, jangliest songs yet.  Though they crafted a signature sound and endlessly copied . Pixies‘ music never stayed in the same place for long. During their early years, the band relished change, moving from the album “Come On Pilgrim” scrappy apocalyptic visions to their classic release “Doolittle” with its gleaming pop to “Trompe Le Monde” riff ridden rock at a rapid pace.

Indeed, it could be argued that part of the reason their 2014 comeback “Indie Cindy” underwhelmed was because it tried too hard to recapture the past.

On new album “Head Carrier” the band have made a few changes, the biggest being bassist Paz LenChantin. Replacing a member may be inconsequential for some bands, but for this one, it’s a big deal (pun intended): Founding bassist Kim Deal departed prior to “Indie Cindy” album and the use of a session player on the album only underscored that a vital part of the group’s appeal was missing. Thanks to Lenchantin the Pixies again sound like a full but if not slightly different band again, whether she’s sweetening “Oona”‘s crunch with her harmonies or helping shape the album’s character in general. The rest of the band’s ease at having her in the fold is audible, and “Head Carrier” is a surprisingly nice album. “Classic Masher” and “Bel Esprit” recall the amiable jangle of “Here Comes Your Man” and the band’s cover of “Winterlong,” and the easygoing vibe continues on “All the Saints”‘  and “Plaster of Paris.” However, the niceness turns strange on “All I Think About Now.” A musical thank-you note to Deal written by Black Francis and with vocals by Lenchantin that shamelessly borrows from “Where Is My Mind?,” it manages to be both jarring and overly nostalgic.

The high-speed chase that is “Um Chagga Lagga” and the roaring title track are in the vein of classic Pixies rockers without feeling contrived. “Talent” is even better, a piece of satirical, snotty garage-rock that reaffirms Black Francis doesn’t need to sing about the Bible or aliens to let loose.

With their new album and the second since reforming in 2004, David Lovering, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Black Francis and guitarist Joey Santiago bassist Paz Lenchantin  thrives for one simple reason: it sounds like a Pixies album.” “There are bits of enthralling guitar throughout, and the album as a whole feels like a combination of the catchiness of ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and the futurism of “Bossanova”. If the letdown of Indie Cindy caused you to lose faith in the Pixies, let Head Carrier bring you back to the flock. It’s one of the best albums of 2016, and an incredible return to form for an all-time great band” –

Limited Pink vinyl edition also available