It's impossible to ever get bored with the Pixies. No matter how many times you play Surfer Rosa, for example, it still seems to be fresh and new. However, if you feel you know its twists and turns too well, the BBC sessions from the band from that era retain a spark that is still vital. And now, in somewhat underreported news, the old BBC sessions album from the Pixies has been expanded to include all six full sessions the band recorded between 1988 and 1991, and in chronological order. Out now from 4AD, Pixes at the BBC, 1988-91 is one of the most enjoyable reissues of 2024.
The first session, from May 1988, was recorded as Surfer Rosa was still fresh on the shelves. Oddly, none of the five tracks is from the then-current album. Instead we get a raucous Beatles cover ("Wild Honey Pie"), a punk-y dismantling of a Come On Pilgrim gem ("Levitate Me"), a warm run at a Come On Pilgrim highlight ("Caribou"), an early iteration of a song that would end up on Doolittle a year later ("Hey"), and a cover of a song from the 1977 film Eraserhead ("In Heaven [The Lady in the Radiator Song]"). The session is vital and full of youthful fire. The band still sounds like they are working their way through their own style, and there's a ferocity here that is truly one of a kind.
The second session also from 1988 is even better. Besdies tasters of the upcoming Doolittle in "Tame", "Dead", and "There Goes My Gun", we get the lyrical "Manta Ray", a tune we'd know in 1989 as a B-side on the "Monkey Gone to Heaven" single. The track, bouncing between sweet vocals and a near-collapsing sonic attack, is so good that one wonders why it didn't make it onto an album proper. The following session, recorded in April 1989 the day before the U.S. release date of Doolittle, is only three songs. After a run at "Down to the Well", a selection that would end up on the next year's Bossanova, we get the Kim Deal-fronted "Into the White", a charging number that would surface in another version as a B-side on the "Here Comes Your Man" single, and a stab at "Wave of Mutilation", though it's all twang-y and moderate in pace. it works because the song is a masterpiece of composition, of course, but it's different enough from the studio version as to cause a few eyebrows to raise, I guess.
The sessions from 1990 and 1991 lean on the releases from those two years, and while there's not quite as much here that feels like the band could catch on fire at any moment, there's still joy to be had as a listener. I've always preferred this version of "Letter to Memphis" to the one on Trompe le Monde (1991), and the BBC session version of "Alison" from 1990's Bossanova crams a lot of energy into a track that's not even 90 seconds in length. That Joey Santiago gets off a spine-tingling guitar-run is another reason to recommend this one. A cover of the Beach Boys classic "Hang On To Your Ego" foreshadows Frank Black's eventual solo career and cover of his own, and a 1990 ramble through "Ana" renders that song nearly a neat peer of "Caribou" in terms of mood and nuance.
Stuffed with pleasures for even a casual fan of the Pixies, Pixes at the BBC, 1988-91 rights a wrong by restoring all six sessions from the band to our ears in multiple formats. Heard now in full, in chronological order, devotees can trace the progress of this band, of course, but also hear them playfully up-ending expectations as they rose in stature and power. This is an essential document of the era, and proof that the Pixies could replicate what we heard on studio albums in the right live setting.
Pixes at the BBC, 1988-91 is out now via 4AD.
[Photo: Tom Sheehan, Boston, 1988]