Pixies

In 1987, back when alt-rock was called "college rock," the Pixies loomed large, like a
bizarre crossbreeding of pop sensibilities, art-rock conceptualism and nasty guitar riffs.
The elements of their sound - songwriter Black Francis' shrieking vocals, bassist Kim Deal's
predatory bass lines, guitarist Joey Santiago's piercing leads and drummer David Lovering's
unforgiving beats - were discernible, but they added up to something unpreced... More >

Up until Doolittle in 1989, when the tunes blossomed, I pretty much missed this band. Put off by Black Francis's feyness, I sensed what is now clear, that he's a pomo sociophobe of a familiar and tedious sort. Where in retrospect his philosophical limitations seem harmless annoyances, they portended many regrettable developments in irony, junk culture, sexual eccentricity, and other folkways that deserved better. But that wasn't reason enough to resist the music. In such cases, the recommended m.o. is in the destructive element immerse--understand its attractions from the inside, the better to combat or, what fun, succumb to them. Now Surfer Rosa and the Come On Pilgrim EP seem audaciously funny and musically prophetic. I like the way the elements form a whole without coalescing, and the brushed-aluminum patina they got on their punk-pop-art-metal amalgam. I guess these nine Come On Pilgrim outtakes are a little looser and wilder than the stuff they put on the market, but in retrospect once again they're every bit as much a galvanic hoot. (Grade - A-)