1.Come On Pilgrim (1987)
2.Surfer Rosa (1988)
3.Dolittle (1989)
4.Bossanova (1990)
5.Trompe le Monde (1991)
Come On Pilgrim
Released September 28, 1987, Length 20:28, Label 4AD MAD 709
1.Caribou 3:14
2.Vamos 2:53
3.Isla de Encanta 1:41
4.Ed Is Dead 2:30
5.The Holiday Song 2:14
6.Nimrod's Son 2:17
7.I've Been Tired 3:00
8.Levitate Me 2:37
Background
In March 1987, the Pixies (Black Francis, guitar/lead vocals; Kim Deal, bass/vocals; Joey Santiago, guitar; David Lovering, drums), entered Boston's Fort Apache Studios with Fort Apache owner/record producer Gary Smith to record a demo tape. The resulting 17-song cassette, later dubbed "The Purple Tape" eventually found its way to Ivo Watts-Russell, president and co-founder of the influential British record label 4AD. The Pixies' manager, Ken Goes, was also the manager of Throwing Muses, who had become the first American band to sign to 4AD a year earlier. Despite being initially unimpressed by the demo, Watts-Russell was urged to sign the band by his girlfriend, a secretary for 4AD. After her insistence, he walked the streets of New York listening to The Purple Tape on his Walkman and, in his words, finally "got it."
Watts-Russell hand-picked eight of The Purple Tape's 17 songs to make up a debut "mini album." Expressing regret that some previous 4AD debuts failed to live up the power of their demo versions, he decided to slightly re-mix eight of The Purple Tape's 17 songs for release, rather than have the band re-record the songs. The Pixies later re-recorded and included eight of the nine remaining Purple Tape tracks over the course of their albums and EP releases. The only song not to be re-recorded and released was "Rock A My Soul." This, along with the rest of the nine "missing" Purple Tape tracks were released as Pixies by the Canadian label Sonic Unyon in 2002.
The title of the album derives from Christian rock singer Larry Norman, whose catchphrase was "Come on pilgrim, you know He loves you", which was used as a lyric in the song "Levitate Me".
Content
Come On Pilgrim showcased much of the Pixies' variety and set up the beginnings of many trends in their music. It includes two songs partly sung in Spanish ("Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta") which drew upon some of Francis's experiences in Puerto Rico ("Isla de Encanta" is an alteration of the island's nickname, "Isla del Encanto" meaning "Isle of Enchantment"). Two songs explicitly mention incest—"Nimrod's Son" and "The Holiday Song". "I've Been Tired" refers metaphorically to sex and rock & roll culture, and there are four songs with overt religious references or language ("Caribou", "Nimrod's Son", "The Holiday Song" and "Levitate Me"). Beyond lyrical trends, Come On Pilgrim displayed Joey Santiago's innovative guitar leads, Deal's sunny vocal harmonies, and Francis's vocal range, which varied from screaming to traditionally-sung melodies. A version of the song "Vamos" would appear on Pixies' next two releases: re-recorded with Steve Albini for their first full-length album, Surfer Rosa, and as a live B-side on their first single, "Gigantic".The original 1987 UK release entered the UK indie album chart on October 24, 1987, spending 29 weeks on the chart and peaking at number 5. Come On Pilgrim failed to secure distribution in the United States when it was first released. It was released in the United States in August 1988, when Rough Trade included it on their CD release of their first full-length album Surfer Rosa. At the same time, the two releases were issued on separate vinyl records by Rough Trade. Also in August 1988, 4AD released Surfer Rosa and Come On Pilgrim on CD together in the UK. This has been the standard UK CD release ever since, only being out of print for about six months in 1998. Subsequent U.S. CD releases have split them in two.
In 1992, Elektra Records issued Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa on separate CDs in the US. After 4AD re-acquired the band's US distribution rights in 2004, they were again released on CD separately; this version of Come On Pilgrim was the first CD release to carry the 4AD catalogue number (MAD 709). The album received far more attention from the British music press than in the United States. It was reviewed in Q Magazine, Sounds and NME.
Surfer Rosa
Released March 21, 1988, Length 32:50, Label 4AD
1.Bone Machine 3:02
2.Break My Body 2:05
3.Something Against You 1:47
4.Broken Face 1:30
5.Gigantic3:45
6.River Euphrates 2:33
7.Where Is My Mind? 3:53
8.Cactus2:16
9.Tony's Theme 1:52
10.Oh My Golly! 1:48
11.Vamos 4:18
12.I'm Amazed 1:42
13.Brick Is Red 2:00
Surfer Rosa is the first full-length album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British independent record label 4AD. The album's unusual and offbeat subject matter includes references to mutilation and voyeurism; this is augmented by experimental recording, low-fidelity production and a distinctive drum sound. Surfer Rosa contains many of the themes present in the Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico.
Because of 4AD's independent status, distribution in the United States was handled by British label Rough Trade Records; however, it failed to chart in either the UK or the U.S. "Gigantic" was the only single taken from the release, and only reached number 93 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite this, Surfer Rosa was re-released in the U.S. by Elektra Records in 1992, and in 2005 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Surfer Rosa is often cited as a favorite of music critics, and is frequently included on professional lists of the all-time best rock albums. Many alternative rock artists, including PJ Harvey and Billy Corgan, have cited the album as inspirational; Nirvana's Kurt Cobain frequently acknowledged that Surfer Rosa was a strong influence on Nevermind, and in 1993 hired the album's producer Steve Albini to produce his band's album In Utero.
Background
Before the release of the Pixies' debut mini-album Come On Pilgrim in October 1987, Ivo Watts-Russell, head of 4AD, suggested they return to the studio to record a full length album. The original plan was to record new material at Fort Apache Studios, where the band had produced The Purple Tape and Come On Pilgrim. However, due to differences between the band's manager Ken Goes and The Purple Tape producer Gary Smith, the Pixies ended up looking for a new producer and recording studio. On the advice of a 4AD colleague, Watts-Russell looked to hire Steve Albini, ex-frontman of Big Black, as the record's engineer and producer. Having sent a pre-release tape of Come On Pilgrim to Albini, the Pixies' manager, Ken Goes, invited him to a Boston dinner party at drummer David Lovering's house a few weeks after Come On Pilgrim's release.Recording and production
The Pixies entered Q Division in December 1987, booking ten working days of studio time in which to record the album. 4AD allocated the band a budget of US$10,000. Albini's producer's fee was US$1,500 and he received no royalties; Albini has a practice of refusing royalties from records he produces, viewing it as "an insult to the band." Along with Albini in the studio, Q Division's Jon Lupfer acted as studio assistant. The recording process took the entire booked period of ten working days to complete, with extra vocal mixes subsequently added in the studio. Albini planned to mix the record "somewhere else", but according to Lupfer, "He was unhappy there with it."
Albini used unusual recording techniques. For Kim Deal's backing vocals in "Where Is My Mind?" and her lead vocals on "Gigantic," Albini moved the studio equipment and recorded in a studio bathroom to achieve real, rather than studio, echo; according to John Murphy, Deal's husband at the time, "Albini didn't like the studio sound." Albini later said that the record could have been completed in a week, but "we ended up trying more experimental stuff basically to kill time and see if anything good materialized." An example was "Something Against You", where Albini filtered Black Francis's voice through a guitar amp for "a totally ragged, vicious texture."
Studio banterThe recording of a conversation held between Francis and Albini can be heard at the end of "Oh My Golly!". According to Lupfer, "it was a concept he [Albini] was going for to get some studio banter." As Deal was leaving the studio to smoke a cigarette, she exclaimed "If anybody touches my stuff, I'll kill ya." Francis replied with "I'll kill you, you fucking die, if anybody touches my stuff". The track begins at this point, with Francis explaining the conversation to Albini, whose voice is not heard on the track. Lupfer later admitted that Albini knew "perfectly well what was going on." This encounter would later form the basis of the Beachbuggy song "Touch My Stuff (You Can Die)" which appeared on their 2001 album Sport Fury.
"I'm Amazed" begins with Deal recounting a story in which one of her former teachers who was "into field hockey players" was discreetly fired. Francis finishes Deal's sentences, joking that her response to hearing of the teacher's activities was to try and join the team. Albini later observed the use of studio banter on Surfer Rosa: "It's on their record forever so I think now they are obliged to say that they're ok with it, but I honestly don't know that that idea would've ever come up if I hadn't done it. There are times when things like that are revealing and entertaining and I kind of felt it was a bit gimmicky on this record."
Music
Like Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa displays a mix of musical styles; pop guitar songs such as "Broken Face", "Break My Body", and "Brick Is Red" are featured alongside slower, more melodic tracks exemplified by "Where Is My Mind?". The album includes heavier material, and prominently features the band's trademark quiet-loud dynamic. Frontman and principal songwriter Black Francis wrote the material, the only exception being "Gigantic," which was co-written with Kim Deal. "Gigantic" is one of only two Pixies album tracks on which Deal sang lead vocals.
Surfer Rosa's lyrical content includes examinations of mutilation in "Break My Body" and "Broken Face", while references to superheroes appear on "Tony's Theme". Voyeurism appears in "Gigantic", and surrealistic lyrics are featured on "Bone Machine" and "Where Is My Mind?". Puerto Rico references and Spanish lyrics are found on the tracks "Oh My Golly!" and "Vamos." The latter track was previously featured on Come On Pilgrim, and appears on Surfer Rosa as a rerecorded version of the original song. Many of the themes explored on previous recordings are revisited on Surfer Rosa; however, unlike on the band's later albums, the songs in Surfer Rosa are not preoccupied with one overarching topic.
Other unusual and offbeat subject matter is raised on the album. "Cactus" is narrated by a prison inmate who requests his girlfriend smear her dress with blood and mail it to him. "Gigantic" is an "unabashed praisesong to a well-endowed black man," and borrows from the 1986 film Crimes of the Heart, in which a married woman falls in love with a teenager. Francis was inspired to write "Where Is My Mind?" after scuba diving in the Caribbean. He later said he had "this very small fish trying to chase me. I don't know why—I don't know too much about fish behavior."
Release
Surfer Rosa was released in the UK by 4AD on March 21, 1988, entering the UK Indie Chart the following week. It spent 60 weeks in the chart, peaking at number 2. Until August of that year it was only available in the U.S. as an import. Although the label held worldwide distribution rights to the Pixies, they did not have access to a distributor outside the UK. When 4AD signed a distribution deal with Rough Trade's U.S. branch, the album was released on vinyl and cassette as part of the Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim release. While Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim has remained in print on CD in the UK, subsequent U.S. releases have seen the two released on separate CDs. These separate releases first appeared in January 1992, when Elektra Records first reissued the band's first two albums. After 4AD reacquired rights to the band's U.S. distribution, they released both as separate CDs. Surfer Rosa was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, 17 years after its original release.
"Gigantic" was the only single taken from Surfer Rosa. The track and its B-side, "River Euphrates", were rerecorded by Gil Norton at Blackwing Studios in London, early in May 1988. The remixed single was well met by critics. The single failed to sell, and spent just one week at #93 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite the poor commercial performance of both Surfer Rosa and "Gigantic", Ivo Watts-Russell has said that the response to the album was "times five" compared with Come On Pilgrim.
Cover
Albini's name does not appear on the original record sleeve. The booklet's photographs were taken in one day at a pub opposite the 4AD offices, because, according to Larbalestier, "it was one of the few places that had a raised stage". In an 1988 interview with Joy Press, Francis described the concept as referring to "a surfer girl," who "walks along the Beach of Binones, has a surfboard, very beautiful." When questioned about the topless element, Francis replied "For the first record, I told them I liked nudity. I like body lines—not necessarily something in bad taste, didn't even have to be female, just body lines... like that Obsession ad, you know?" According to Melody Maker, the album was originally entitled "Gigantic," after Deal's song, but the band feared misinterpretation of the cover and changed it to "Surfer Rosa."The "name" of the cover woman, and the album title, comes from the "Oh My Golly!" lyric, "Besando chichando con surfer rosa."
Doolittle has continued to sell consistently well in the years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. 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, and Rolling Stone placed the album at 226 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
In mid-1988, the Pixies began to record demo sessions while on breaks from touring. The band headed to the Boston recording studio Eden Sound, which at the time comprised a small room in the basement of ahair salon. They recorded at the studio for a week, in circumstances similar to the previous year's the Purple Tape sessions. Francis gave the demo tape and upcoming album the provisional title of Whore, though he later claimed his natural father had originally suggested the name. Francis has clarified that he was thinking of the word "in the more traditional sense [...] the operatic, biblical sense, [...] as in the great whore of Babylon." After completing the demo tape, band manager Ken Goes suggested two producers for the album; Liverpudlian Gil Norton and American Ed Stasium. The band had previously worked with Norton while recording the single version of "Gigantic" in May 1988. Francis had no preference, although Ivo Watts-Russell, head of the band's label 4AD, wanted Norton to produce the Pixies' next album. He was hired as producer, with Stasium not even approached for the position.
Production and mixing began on November 28. The band relocated to Carriage House Studios, a residential studio in Stamford, Connecticut, to oversee production and record further tracks. Norton recruited Steve Haigler as mixing engineer, whom he had worked with at Fort Apache Studios. During production, Haigler and Norton added layers of guitars and vocals to songs, including overdubbed guitars on "Debaser" and double tracking vocals on "Wave of Mutilation". During the recordings, Norton advised Francis to alter several songs; a noted example being "There Goes My Gun" which was originally intended as a much faster Hüsker Dü-style song. However, at Norton's advice, Francis slowed down the tempo.
Norton's suggestions were not always welcome, and several instances of advice to add verses and increase track length contributed to the front man's building frustration. Eventually, Francis took Norton to a record store, where he handed him a copy of Buddy Holly's Greatest Hits, in which most of the songs are about two minutes long. He told Norton, "If it's good enough for Buddy Holly..." In a Rolling Stone interview, Francis later recalled that "this record is him trying to make us, shall I say, commercial, and us trying to remain somewhat grungy." Production continued until December 12, 1988, with Norton and Haigler adding extra effects, including gated reverb to the mix. The master tapes were then sent for final post-production later that month.
Surfer Rosa's cover features a photograph of a topless "friend of a friend" of the band, posing as a flamenco dancer, pitched against a wall which displays a crucifix and a torn poster. Simon Larbalestier, who contributed pictures to all of the Pixies albums, decided to build the set because "we couldn't find the atmosphere we wanted naturally." According to Larbalestier, Francis came up with the idea for the cover as he wrote songs in his father's "topless Spanish bar"; Larbalestier added the crucifix and torn poster, and they "sort of loaded that with all the Catholicism." Commenting on the cover in 2005, Francis said, "I just hope people find it tasteful." The cover booklet expands on the theme, and features photographs of the flamenco dancer in several other poses; there are no song lyrics or written content, apart from album credits, in the booklet.
Critical reception
The UK music press reviews of Surfer Rosa were generally positive. Q's Ian Cranna wrote that "what sets the Pixies apart are their sudden bursts of memorable pop melody," and noted that "they could have a bright future ahead of them." NME's Mark Sinker, reviewing the album in March 1988, said "they force the past to sound like them"; he awarded them nine and a half stars out of ten. Dave Henderson, writing inUnderground magazine, gave the album 22⁄3/3, calling the songs "well crafted, well delivered sketches which embrace commercial ideals as well as bizarre left-field out of control moments". Surfer Rosa received positive reviews from American critics. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the album a B rating, and remarked that the band were "by consensus the Amerindie find of the year," and that the album featured "guitar riffs you actually notice." Spin described it as "beautifully brutal," and named the Pixies as their musicians of the year.
Surfer Rosa was included on several end-of-year best album lists. Independent music magazines Melody Maker and Sounds named Surfer Rosa as their album of the year; NME and Record Mirror placed the album 10th and 14th respectively. However,Surfer Rosa failed to appear on the annual Pazz & Jop poll of Village Voice critics, and it did not appear on any end-of-year list in the United States. A number of music magazines have since positioned Surfer Rosa as one of the quintessential alternative rock albums of the 1980s. Rolling Stone gave the album three stars when it reviewed the album in 1992 for Elektra's Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim re-release. However, when the magazine reviewed the album again in 2004 as part of its Rolling Stone Album Guide, it awarded Surfer Rosa the maximum five stars. The album has appeared on several all-time best album lists, and is consistently placed as one of the best albums of the 1980s in any genre.
Legacy
Both Surfer Rosa and Steve Albini's production of the album have been influential on alternative rock, and on grunge in particular. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain cited Surfer Rosa as the basis for Nevermind's songwriting. When he first heard the album, Cobain discovered a template for the mix of heavy noise and pop he was aiming to achieve. He remarked in 1993 that he "heard songs off of Surfer Rosa that I'd written but threw out because I was too afraid to play them for anybody." Cobain hired Albini to produce Nirvana's 1993 album In Utero, primarily due to his contribution to Surfer Rosa. The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan described Surfer Rosa as "the one that made me go, 'holy shit'. It was so fresh. It rocked without being lame." Corgan was impressed by the album's drum sound, and acknowledged that The Smashing Pumpkins used to study the record for its technical elements. Musician PJ Harvey said that Surfer Rosa "blew my mind," and that she "immediately went to track down Steve Albini."
People connected with the band were impressed by the record. Ivo Watts-Russell recalled: "I remember when I first heard Surfer Rosa thinking, 'I didn't know the Pixies could sound like The Fall.' That was my immediate reaction, in other words, incredibly raw." Gary Smith, who at the time was in a disagreement with the band, admitted he "was really happy that they had made such a forceful, aggressive, record." Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, comparing the record to the later Pixies albums Bossanova andTrompe le Monde, said he thought that Steve Albini's production "sounded way better than the other ones."
In 1991, as the Pixies were recording Trompe le Monde, Albini described his impressions of the Pixies during the recording of Surfer Rosa to the fan magazine Forced Exposure: "A patchwork pinch loaf from a band who at their top dollar best are blandly entertaining college rock. Their willingness to be "guided" by their manager, their record company and their producers is unparalleled. Never have I seen four cows more anxious to be led around by their nose rings." Albini later apologized for his remarks, saying, "to this day I regret having done it. I don't think that I regarded the band as significantly as I should have."
Dolittle
Released April 18, 1989, Length 38:38, Label 4AD
1.Debaser2:52
2.Tame 1:55
3.Wave of Mutilation 2:04
4.I Bleed 2:34
5.Here Comes Your Man 3:21
6.Dead 2:21
7.Monkey Gone to Heaven 2:56
8.Mr. Grieves 2:05
9.Crackity Jones1:24
10.La La Love You 2:43
11.No. 13 Baby 3:51
12.There Goes My Gun 1:49
13.Hey 3:31
14.Silver 2:25
15.Gouge Away 2:45
Doolittle is the second studio album from the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. 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, with Elektra Records acting 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 US chart for Modern Rock Tracks. The album itself reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart, an unexpected success for the band. In retrospect, album tracks such as "Debaser", "Wave of Mutilation", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "Gouge Away", and "Hey" are highly acclaimed by critics, while the album, along with debut LP Surfer Rosa, is often seen as the band's strongest work.
Doolittle has continued to sell consistently well in the years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. 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, and Rolling Stone placed the album at 226 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Background
Following their highly regarded but commercially unsuccessful 1988 album Surfer Rosa, the band embarked on a European tour with fellow Bostonians Throwing Muses, before beginning a tour of North American states. During this time Black Francis, the group's frontman and principal songwriter, began to write new material for a future album, with songs such as "Dead", "Hey", "Tame", and "There Goes My Gun" emerging through the course of the year. Versions of the newly composed songs were recorded during several sessions for John Peel's radio show in 1988, while a live recording of "Hey" appeared on a free EP circulated with a 1988 edition of Sounds.Norton arrived in Boston on October 31, 1988, and first visited Francis' apartment in to review the album's demos. The two talked about arrangements, and spent two days intensively analyzing the album's songs. Norton learned to gauge Francis’ reaction to changing arrangements, and later observed that the frontman "doesn't like to do anything twice." Norton spent a further two weeks in pre-production to familiarise himself with the Pixies' sound.Recording and production
Recording sessions for the album began on October 31, 1988 at Downtown Recorders in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time a professional 24-track studio. 4AD allowed the Pixies a budget of $40,000, excluding producer's fees. This was a modest sum for a 1980s major label album; however, it quadrupled the amount spent on the band's previous album, Surfer Rosa. Along with Norton, two assistant recording engineersand two second assistants were assigned to the project. The sessions lasted three weeks, concluding on November 23, with "nearly a song a day" being recorded.Composition
Music
Doolittle features an eclectic mix of musical styles. While tracks such as "Tame" and "Crackity Jones" are fast and aggressive, and incorporate the band's trademark loud–quiet dynamic, other songs such as "Silver", "I Bleed", and "Here Comes Your Man" reveal a quieter, slower and more melodic temperament. With Doolittle, the band began to incorporate further instruments into their sound; for instance, "Monkey Gone to Heaven" features two violins and two cellos. Several tracks on Doolittle are constructed around simple repeating chord progressions.
"Tame" is based on a three chord formula; including Joey Santiago's playing a "Hendrix chord" over the main bass progression. "I Bleed" is melodically simple, and is formed around a single rhythmical repetition. Some songs are influenced by other genres of music; while "Crackity Jones" has a distinctly Spanish sound, and incorporates G♯ and A triads over a C♯ pedal, the song's rhythm guitar, played by Francis, starts with an eighth-note downstroke typical of punk rock music.
Lyrics
The lyrical themes explored on Doolittle range from the surrealism of "Debaser", to the environmental catastrophe of "Monkey Gone to Heaven". The women and whores of "Mr. Grieves", "Tame", and "Hey" share space with the Biblical analogies of "Dead" and "Gouge Away". Black Francis often claimed that Doolittle's lyrics were words which just "fit together nicely", and that "the point [of the album] is to experience it, to enjoy it, to be entertained by it." Francis wrote all the material for the album with the exception of "Silver", which he co-wrote with Kim Deal.The album's opening track "Debaser" references surrealism, a theme that runs throughout the album. "Debaser" alludes to Luis Buñuel and Salvador DalÃ's 1929 surrealist film Un chien andalou, and the lyric "slicing up eyeballs" refers to an early scene in the film. Surrealism heavily influenced Francis in his college years and throughout his career with the Pixies. In 1989, Francis expressed his interest in surrealism and its influence on his songwriting method to the New York Times by stating "I got into avant-garde movies and Surrealism as an escape from reality. [...] To me, Surrealism is totally artificial. I recently read an interview with the director David Lynch who said he had ideas and images but that he didn't know exactly what they meant. That's how I write."
Another of the album's main themes is environmental catastrophe. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" deals with man's destruction of the ocean and "confusion of man's place in the universe". As Francis put it: "On one hand, it's this big organic toilet. Things get flushed and repurified or decomposed and it's this big, dark, mysterious place. It's also a very mythological place where there are octopus's gardens, the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, and mermaids." "Monkey Gone to Heaven" is concerned with man's relationship to the divine, a theme shared with "Mr. Grieves".
Two songs on Doolittle are fashioned after Biblical stories: the story of David and Bathsheba in "Dead", and Samson and Delilah in "Gouge Away". Francis' fascination with Biblical themes can be traced back to his teenage years; when he was twelve, he and his parents joined an evangelical church linked to the Assemblies of God. This background was to be an influence in Doolittle, where he referred to the Devil being "six" and God being "seven" in "Monkey Gone to Heaven".
Other songs explored eccentric subjects, such as in "Wave of Mutilation", which Francis described as being about "Japanese businessmen doing murder-suicides with their families because they'd failed in business, and they're driving off a pier into the ocean." The song's opening phrase, "Cease to resist", is a reference to The Beach Boys' 1968 song "Never Learn Not to Love", their rewritten version of Charles Manson's composition "Cease to Exist."
"Wave of Mutilation"'s sea and underwater themes, which also feature in "Mr. Grieves" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", are explorations of one arena for man's death and destruction. Ben Sisario points out that the album begins ("Debaser") and ends ("Gouge Away") with songs about violence being done to eyes. "Crackity Jones" covers another offbeat subject; Francis' roommate in his student exchange trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, who he described as a "weird psycho gay roommate."
Doolittle also references more ostensibly conventional subjects. "La La Love You", sung by the band's drummer David Lovering, is a love song—though with its "first base, second base, third base, home run" break, it's been referred to as "a dig at the very idea of a love song". Francis gave it to Lovering as a song to sing, "like a Ringo thing"; Lovering at first refused to sing, but Norton said that soon he was unable "get him away from the microphone." As well as lead vocals on "La La Love You", Lovering played bass guitar on "Silver", with Deal playing slide guitar; this arrangement did not occur again.
Packaging and title
The surrealist and abstract images throughout the album booklet are linked to the album's content. "Gouge Away" is represented by a picture of a spoon containing hair, laid across a woman's torso; a direct pictorial representation of Heroin, with the spoon and the hair being horses. "I Bleed" is referenced with the image "As Loud As Hell"; the image shows "a ringing bell," with a set of teeth; this references the line "it shakes my teeth." "Walking with the Crustaceans" is a visual representation of "Wave of Mutilation"'s lyrics. Larbalestier later commented that he was interested in "early Surrealist stuff" at this time.Doolittle was the first album where Simon Larbalestier, the Pixies' cover photographer, and Vaughan Oliver, the band's cover artist, had access to the lyrics. According to Larbalestier, this "made a fundamental difference." The availability of the lyrics allowed the art and photographs to be more closely tied to the content of the album; the cover references the themes in "Monkey Gone to Heaven", and depicts a stuffed monkey, with a halo and the numbers five, six and seven above it ("if man is five... then the Devil is six... then God is seven").
During the recording sessions, Whore was discarded as a potential album title, after Oliver changed the cover artwork idea to a monkey and halo cover. Francis later explained his rationale for the move:
| “ | I thought people were going to think I was some kind of anti-Catholic or that I'd been raised Catholic and trying to get into this Catholic naughty-boy stuff. [...] A monkey with a halo, calling itWhore, that would bring all kinds of shit that wouldn't be true. So I said I'd change the title. | ” |
Francis then named the album Doolittle, from the "Mr. Grieves" lyric "Pray for a man in the middle / One that talks like Doolittle." This was in the tradition of previous Pixies albums; both Come On Pilgrim andSurfer Rosa used song lyrics for the album title.
Release
In the months following Surfer Rosa, the Pixies' management fielded calls from a number of labels. Elektra Records A&R scout Peter Lubin first saw the band in October 1988, when they opened for The Jesus and Mary Chain. He immediately sought to convince the band to sign to his label. Pixies contracted to Elektra Records during a UK spring tour in 1989. Elektra followed by releasing a live promotional album, which contained two songs from their forthcoming album, "Debaser" and "Gouge Away", along with a selection of earlier material.However, Elektra had not yet attained distribution rights to Doolittle while 4AD, then a small British independent record label, held worldwide distribution rights. The problem facing 4AD was the fact that they did not have access to distribution outside of the United Kingdom; up to this point the band had to import all of their previous records from Europe. The Pixies' management sought international distribution; and while negotiations with Elektra and other record companies began in the third quarter of 1988, they were only completed just two weeks before Doolittle's release on April 2, 1989. PolyGram had already secured Canadian distribution rights by that time.
Doolittle was released in the United Kingdom on April 17, 1989 and in the United States the following day. Throughout the States, helped by Elektra Records' major label status, retail displays were constructed for the record, and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", the first single from the album, was released to radio stations for inclusion on playlists. Doolittle's chart performance in the United States was unremarkable; the album entered the Billboard 200 at number 171. However, with the help of college radio-play of "Monkey Gone to Heaven", Doolittle eventually rose to number 98 and spent two weeks in the Top 100. In Britain, the record reached number eight on the UK Album Chart. This chart placing was an unexpected success for the band, as their previous two records, Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, had failed to make such an impact on the British charts.
In June 1989, 4AD released "Here Comes Your Man" as the album's second single. It reached number three on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 56 in the UK Singles Chart. It was not the last single from the album: in 1997, "Debaser" was released as a single to promote the Death to the Pixies compilation.
Reception
Following its release, Doolittle sold steadily in America, and broke sales of 100,000 after six months. By early 1992, while the band were supporting U2 on their Zoo TV Tour, the album was selling 1,500 copies per week. The middle of 1993, two years after the band's last album, Trompe le Monde, saw sales average 1,200 copies per week. Doolittle was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1995. Ten years after the breakup, Doolittle was still selling between 500 and 1,000 copies a week; the reunion tour saw sales creep back up to 1,200 copies per week. At the end of 2005, best estimates put total sales in America at between 800,000 and one million copies.Reaction to Doolittle was positive in general, with the album garnering praise from several major music publications. NME commented that "the songs on Doolittle have the power to make you literally jump out of your skin with excitement." Q, giving the album four stars out of five, said that Doolittle's "carefully structured noise and straightforward rhythmic insistence makes perfect sense." Tim Rolston, of the Daily Telegraph praised Doolittle as "a scintillating rock'n'roll album" and the Pixies' "finest half-hour so far." Other publications also awarded the album four out of five stars, including the British music weekly Record Mirror, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ rating, suggesting that "getting famous too fast could ruin them."
Other music critics gave the album more mixed reviews. Time Out said that "Gil Norton's toy theatre production makes a drama out of what should have been a crisis." Spin ran a hundred-word review of the album, including critic Joe Levy's comment "the insanity less surreal and more silly, and the songs themselves more like songs and less like adventures." Rolling Stone, reviewing the album in July 1989, gave the album three and a half stars. Doolittle appeared on several end-of-year "Best Album" lists; both Rolling Stone and The Village Voice placed the album tenth, and independent music magazines Sounds and Melody Maker both ranked the album as the second-best of the year. NME also ranked the album highly, placing it fourth in their end-of-year list.
Legacy
The sudden loud to quiet dynamic present on Doolittle, most notably in "Tame", has been very influential on alternative rock. After writing "Smells Like Teen Spirit", both Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana thought: "this really sounds like the Pixies. People are really going to nail us for this." Producer Gil Norton usually receives much credit for the album's dynamic, and is sought by bands seeking a similar sound. Former The Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha described Doolittle as less raw than Surfer Rosa but "more listenable" and "Here Comes Your Man" as a "classic pop record." Fellow alternative musician PJ Harvey was "in awe" of "I Bleed" and "Tame", and described Francis' writing as "amazing".
Band relationships
During the recording of Doolittle, tensions between Francis and Deal became visible to band members and the production team. Bickering and standoffs between the two marred the recording sessions and led to increased stress among the band members. John Murphy, Deal's husband at the time, later recalled that with Doolittle it "went from just all fun to work." Exhaustion from touring and from releasing three records in two years contributed to the friction. This culminated at the end of the US post-Doolittle "Fuck or Fight" tour, where they were too tired to attend the end-of-tour party. Soon afterwards the band announced that they were taking a break.
After they reconvened in 1990, Francis began to limit Deal's contributions to the band. He wrote and sang all the original material on the Pixies' two subsequent albums; 1990's Bossanova and 1991's Trompe le Monde (both produced by Norton and mixed by Haigler). This breakdown in the relationship between Deal and Francis, first apparent during the recording of Doolittle, ultimately led to the band's breakup in late 1992 and early 1993.
AccoladesA range of music magazines have since acclaimed Doolittle as one of the quintessential alternative rock albums of the 1980s. Rolling Stone, reviewing Doolittle again in 2002, gave the album a maximum score of five stars, remarking that it laid the "groundwork for Nineties rock." Doolittle has received a number of international accolades and is consistently noted as one of the best albums of the 1980s in any genre.
The information regarding accolades attributed to Doolittle is taken from AcclaimedMusic.net.
Bossanova
Released August 13, 1990, Length 39:45, Label 4AD
1.Cecilia Ann 2:05
2.Rock Music 1:52
3.Velouria3:40
4.Allison1:17
5.Is She Weird 3:01
6.Ana 2:09
7.All Over the World 5:27
8.Dig for Fire3:02
9.Down to the Well 2:29
10.The Happening 4:19
11.Blown Away 2:20
12.Hang Wire 2:01
13.Stormy Weather 3:26
14.Havalina 2:33
Bossanova is the third album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in August 1990 on the English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. All of Bossanova's original material was written by the band's frontman Black Francis; it marked the point where his artistic control over the band became absolute. The album's sound, inspired by surf and space rock, complements its lyrical focus on outer space, which references subjects such as aliens and unidentified flying objects.
Background and recording
After the Pixies finishing touring obligations for their second album Doolittle (1989) in 1990, band members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles. Bassist Kim Deal did not initially move with the rest of her band mates due to the amount of tension that existed within the band at the time. Deal ultimately decided to travel out to Los Angeles with the rest of the group. Lovering stated that he, Santiago, and Black Francis moved to Los Angeles because that's where they intended to record. The three band members lived in the Oakwood apartments, along with comic Garett Morris and members of the band White Lion. Producer Gil Norton also moved into the apartment complex.
In contrast to previous records, many songs were written in the studio and few demo recordings were created. Santiago said that the band only practiced for a two-week period, in contrast to previous practice in Boston where the group rehearsed constantly. Black Francis noted, "So I was writing [lyrics] on napkins five minutes before I sang. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not. That's just the nature of that songwriting."
Trompe le Monde is the fifth and final album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in 1991 on the English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. After the surf-pop of Bossanova, the album saw a return to the abrasive sound of the band's early albums.
Pixies started recording material for Bossanova at Cherokee Studios, where the sessions ran into problems. Norton said that nothing could be recorded after six P.M. because the recording desk would pick up pirate radio stations. Norton decided to work at overdubs somewhere else for a few days until the problem was corrected, but when he returned to Cherokee, he found that any time something was plugged into a guitar amplifier it would generate "this incredible hum". Norton refused to tell 4AD owner Ivo Watts-Russell about the problem until he felt he could address the problems. One day while visiting a bar, Norton and Santiago met producer Rick Rubin, whom they informed of their situation. Rubin had his secretary find another studio for the group, and the band continued recording at Master Control.
Release
The album was released in August 1990 on 4AD in the UK, and jointly by 4AD and Elektra in the USA. After 4AD re-acquired sole distribution rights for the Pixies' back catalog, a re-issued CD (although not remastered) appeared solely on 4AD in the USA in 2004. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a version in 2008 that was remastered from the original analog master tapes.
Critical reception
The UK reviews of Bossanova were generally positive. Q's Mat Snow, in his September 1990 review of Bossanova, said "the Pixies are masters of the calculated incongruity," and commented that "they give other rockers an object lesson in the first principles of how it should be done." NME noted that the album's production "leans towards the harsh garage grunge of Surfer Rosa, although the songs retain the strong melodies of Doolittle," and said that "Bossanova is the composite Pixies LP."
Rolling Stone gave Bossanova three out of five stars. In comparison to the previous albums, reviewer Moira McCormick described Bossanova as "more of a straight-ahead rock album—by the Pixies' standards, meaning it's still safely off the mainstream".
Trompe le Monde
Released September 23, 1991, Length 39:03, Label 4AD
Trompe le Monde
Released September 23, 1991, Length 39:03, Label 4AD
1.Trompe le Monde 1:48
2.Planet of Sound 2:06
3.Alec Eiffel 2:50
4.The Sad Punk 3:00
5.Head On 2:13
6.U-Mass3:01
7.Palace of the Brine 1:34
8.Letter to Memphis 2:39
9.Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons 2:48
10.Space (I Believe In) 4:18
11.Subbacultcha 2:09
12.Distance Equals Rate Times Time 1:24
13.Lovely Day 2:05
14.Motorway to Roswell4:43
15.The Navajo Know 2:20
Critical reception
The album was described by Michael Bonner, writing in Lime Lizard, as "one of the best albums that you may very well ever hear" and "a strong contender for best album of the 21st century". Allmusic writer Heather Phares noted the reduced role of Kim Deal, calling it "essentially Black Francis' solo debut"
Content
The album name comes from the title of the first track, "Trompe le Monde", a French phrase meaning "Fool the World". Unlike previous albums, the title of the album comes from the name of a song (rather than a song lyric), and is a play on the French phrase "trompe l'oeil"—a painting technique in which the painter fools the viewer into thinking objects presented are real.
Head On is a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain track that was released as a single reaching number 6 in the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Chart.
U-Mass is a sneering put down against the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where Black Francis met Joey Santiago before dropping out to form Pixies. Santiago recalls that the original guitar riff was written while they were still enrolled.
