Pixies

Pixies – Come On Pilgrim (1987)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 20:30 minutes | 700 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

Amazingly, the Pixies’ 1987 debut EP, Come on Pilgrim, was compiled from the quickly, inexpensively made demo tape — paid for by Black Francis’ dad — the band made at Boston’s legendary Fort Apache studio soon after they formed. 4AD was so taken with the tape that they released eight of the songs as this mini-album. It’s easy to see why they were so impressed: The Pixies’ essential sound — Francis’ unearthly shriek of a voice, David Lovering’s propulsive drumming, Joey Santiago’s insistent, prickly guitar playing, and Kim Deal’s sugar-and-sandpaper vocals and steady basslines — arrives fully formed on songs like the bouncy, yet twisted, surfer-girl ode “Ed Is Dead.” Influences like ’80s college rock peers the Violent Femmes, the Stooges, Lou Reed, and hardcore punk crop up on songs like “I’ve Been Tired,” the group’s surreal take on sexual frustration, and “Isla de Encanta.” Most importantly, the EP introduces the spooky, theatrical vision the group brought to their simple guitar-bass-drums lineup. Francis’ lyrical fetishes for sex, death, and religion and his twisted sense of humor crop up on every track, from the eerie opener “Caribou,” which urges listeners to “Reeeeepent!,” to the final song, “Levitate Me,” which borrows Christian folksinger Larry Norman’s catchphrase: “Come on pilgrim, you know he loves you!” “The Holiday Song” and “Nimrod’s Son” provide voyeuristic, back-to-back glimpses at incest, as well as the priceless lyric, “My sister held me close and whispered to my bleeding head/You are the son of a motherf*cker” (from “Nimrod’s Son”). Gary Smith’s less-is-more production allows the full, primal impact of the band’s combustive sound to blast through, offering what may be the purest version of their perverse punk-pop. An electrifying debut, Come on Pilgrim remains as raw, vibrant, and engaging as the day it was recorded.
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Pixies – Pixies at the BBC, 1988-91 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:44 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

Between 1988 and 1991 – during the band’s 4AD years – Pixies recorded six sessions for the BBC, five for John Peel and one for Mark Goodier. Catching the raw energy of the band’s live performances, these sessions felt immediately noteworthy, timestamping a moment when Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering were motoring out front. Among the twenty-four tracks they recorded in this period (inc. two doubles – ‘Allison’ and ‘Wave of Mutilation’) are favourites from mini-album Come on Pilgrim and three of their four 4AD studio albums. Also recorded were three covers; reworks of The Beatles’ ‘Wild Honey Pie’, Eraserhead’s ‘(In Heaven) Lady in the Radiator Song’ and The Beach Boys’ ‘Hang On To Your Ego’, a track Black Francis covered a few years later on his debut Frank Black solo album. Originally released on CD in 1998, this reboot now sees all tracks from the six sessions included and presented in chronological order. Something fans have been asking for. Coming as both a triple black vinyl LP and double CD, the sleeve is also new with a wonderful black and gold design by Chris Bigg now adorning it. A design that really stands out, Chris pays loving tribute to the band’s late-visual director Vaughan Oliver, using unseen archival Pixies imagery by long-time collaborator Simon Larbalestier.

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Pixies – Pixies at the BBC 1988-91 (2024) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 00:58:44 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Pop, Rock, Alternatif et Indé
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Pixies-Pixies At The BBC 1988-91-24BIT-96KHZ-WEB-FLAC-2024-OBZEN
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 00:58:44 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Alternative
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Pixies – Doggerel (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:10 minutes | 549 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Infectious Music

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 will release their eighth studio album ‘Doggerel’ on September 30th via BMG, 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.

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Pixies – Trompe Le Monde (1991)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 39:05 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

The title might be French for “fool the world,” but with Trompe le Monde, the Pixies weren’t fooling anyone: this was essentially Black Francis’ solo debut. It focuses on Francis’ sci-fi fascination and lacks any Kim Deal songs; even her backing vocals are far and few between. Yet the band sounds revitalized on Trompe le Monde, as if it were planned as their last hurrah. The raucous “Distance Equals Rate Times Time” and the explosive cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” are fairly straightforward, but the lyrics remain quirky on “Planet of Sound,” a song about a Martian who lands on Earth, and “Palace of the Brine,” a tribute to sea monkeys and Utah’s Salt Lake. He even disses hipsters and pretentious students — basically, the Pixies’ fan base — with nasty little digs like “Subbacultcha”‘s “I was wearing eyeliner/She was wearing eyeliner” and “U-Mass”‘ “It’s eduuucaaationaal!” Musically, “Trompe le Monde”‘s psychedelic sheen and “Alec Eiffel”‘s atmospheric keyboards prove that the Pixies’ sound wasn’t defined by Steve Albini-style rawness. There’s also more emotional depth: “The Sad Punk” features the strangely poignant bridge “And evolving from the sea/Would not be too much time for me/To walk beside you in the sun,” and “Letter to Memphis” is a heartfelt, if cryptic, love song. Though Trompe le Monde doesn’t sound quite like the Pixies’ other work, Come on Pilgrim’s spooky beginnings, Surfer Rosa’s abrasive assault, Doolittle’s deceptively accessible punk-pop, and Bossanova’s spacy sonics helped make Trompe le Monde a rousing swan song and a precursor to alternative rock’s imminent success. Whether that means their music remained pure or they missed their chance to cash in is debatable; either way, the Pixies are one of America’s greatest, most influential bands.

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Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1988)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 33:33 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

One of the most compulsively listenable college rock albums of the ’80s, the Pixies’ 1988 full-length debut Surfer Rosa fulfilled the promise of Come on Pilgrim and, thanks to Steve Albini’s production, added a muscular edge that made their harshest moments seem even more menacing and perverse. On songs like “Something Against You,” Black Francis’ cryptic shrieks and non sequiturs are backed by David Lovering and Kim Deal’s punchy rhythms, which are so visceral that they’d overwhelm any guitarist except Joey Santiago, who takes the spotlight on the epic “Vamos.” Albini’s high-contrast dynamics suit Surfer Rosa well, especially on the explosive opener “Bone Machine” and the kinky, T. Rex-inspired “Cactus.” But, like the black-and-white photo of a flamenco dancer on its cover, Surfer Rosa is the Pixies’ most polarized work. For each blazing piece of punk, there are softer, poppier moments such as “Where Is My Mind?,” Francis’ strangely poignant song inspired by scuba diving in the Caribbean, and the Kim Deal-penned “Gigantic,” which almost outshines the rest of the album. But even Surfer Rosa’s less iconic songs reflect how important the album was in the group’s development. The “song about a superhero named Tony” (“Tony’s Theme”) was the most lighthearted song the Pixies had recorded, pointing the way to their more overtly playful, whimsical work on Doolittle. Francis’ warped sense of humor is evident in lyrics like “Bone Machine”‘s “He bought me a soda and tried to molest me in the parking lot/Yep yep yep!” In a year that included landmark albums from contemporaries like Throwing Muses, Sonic Youth, and My Bloody Valentine, the Pixies managed to turn in one of 1988’s most striking, distinctive records. Surfer Rosa may not be the group’s most accessible work, but it is one of their most compelling.

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Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:45 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

After 1988’s brilliant but abrasive Surfer Rosa, the Pixies’ sound couldn’t get much more extreme. Their Elektra debut, Doolittle, reins in the noise in favor of pop songcraft and accessibility. Producer Gil Norton’s sonic sheen adds some polish, but Black Francis’ tighter songwriting focuses the group’s attack. Doolittle’s most ferocious moments, like “Dead,” a visceral retelling of David and Bathsheba’s affair — are more stylized than the group’s past outbursts. Meanwhile, their poppy side surfaces on the irresistible single “Here Comes Your Man” and the sweetly surreal love song “La La Love You.” The Pixies’ arty, noisy weirdness mix with just enough hooks to produce gleefully demented singles like “Debaser,” — inspired by Bunuel’s classic surrealist short Un Chien Andalou — and “Wave of Mutilation,” their surfy ode to driving a car into the sea. Though Doolittle’s sound is cleaner and smoother than the Pixies’ earlier albums, there are still plenty of weird, abrasive vignettes: the blankly psychotic “There Goes My Gun,” “Crackity Jones,” a song about a crazy roommate Francis had in Puerto Rico, and the nihilistic finale “Gouge Away.” Meanwhile, “Tame,” and “I Bleed” continue the Pixies’ penchant for cryptic kink. But the album doesn’t just refine the Pixies’ sound; they also expand their range on the brooding, wannabe spaghetti western theme “Silver” and the strangely theatrical “Mr. Grieves.” “Hey” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” on the other hand, stretch Francis’ lyrical horizons: “Monkey”‘s elliptical environmentalism and “Hey”‘s twisted longing are the Pixies’ versions of message songs and romantic ballads. Their most accessible album, Doolittle’s wide-ranging moods and sounds make it one of their most eclectic and ambitious. A fun, freaky alternative to most other late-’80s college rock, it’s easy to see why the album made the Pixies into underground rock stars.

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Pixies – Bossanova (1990)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 39:46 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

With a keen sense of the absurd, Black Francis’s (now Frank Black) Pixies were the consummate darlings of the music press–no surprise, with their refreshing mix of overblown guitars, discreet nods to the surreal and a vibrant grasp of pure pop that offered a luscious blow to the senses on execution. “Cecilia Ann” stood somewhere between spandex metal and Beach Blanket Bingo, while the deranged singalong of “Is She Weird” sat alongside the first single, “Velouria,” underlining their ability to write timeless singles that filled the head and sent toes tapping incessantly out of time. A recent compilation confirmed their standing.

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