Customer Reviews

Surfer Rosa//Come on Pilgrim

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You know how your dad stopped listening to new music in 1972 or so after he got all those Beatles, Aretha, Neil Young, Marvin Gaye, Stones, and early Zeppelin albums? He knew that Bad Company and Foreigner didn't have anything to add. Lots of intelligent people quit buying records for a while after this band broke up.

The Pixies were a highwater mark that college rock still looks up to -- melodic genius drenched in bone-breaking noise. "Surfer Rosa" rocks like Meet the Pixies. This CD gives you the excellent 8-song EP "Come On Pilgrim," which includes the sublimely beautiful "Caribou" and seven other tooth-loosening hits. "Surfer Rosa" is brilliant from end to end -- I caught my refrigerator repairman singing along to "River Euphrates." "Cactus" and "I'm Amazed" are bedrock. And "Brick is Red" is my secret favorite -- an incomprehensible sing-song.

Surfer Rosa must be one of the greatest alternative rock albums ever recorded. Its abrasiveness takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're over the hurdle, it's an exhilarating album. The Pixies had everything a rock band could possibly want- their music is a thrilling adrenaline-fuelled ride- a perfect blend of melody and noise, characterised by a free-wheeling eclecticism, a much-imitated sound of lurching rythmical dynamics and, to top it all, a crazy front man with inspired lyrics. Steve Albini's production is equally impressive- the snare drums crack and the guitars fizz (they were recorded in a toilet cubicle!)- giving the album an irresistible energy.
Come On Pilgrim lacks the punch of Surfer Rosa, and isn't as well recorded, but its worth having for Caribou, Ed is Dead and I've Been Tired, for its amusing lyrics ("I said I wanna be a singer like Lou Reed/I like Lou Reed/she said, sticking her tongue in my ear..")

It amazes me when people laud albums like White Light/White Heat, Loveless and Daydream Nation, when this album clearly wipes the floor with all of them. It's even got a classic sleeve, with some gratuitous female nudity and a surrealism-inspired guitar head protruding from the wall. What more do you want?

Surfer Rosa and Come on Pilgrim together represent a critical distillation of the most interesting aspects of American punk-rock-pop in the 1980s. With precedents ranging from the Velvet Underground through to Leonard Cohen and less familiar points of reference (Peter, Paul and Mary; Mexican pop music; UFO conspiracy theories), the Pixies proved to be (alongside the Talking Heads, Tribe Called Quest, Violent Femmes and bands like Sonic Youth) the most genuinely original music in a sea of utterly indifferent American noise/bilge - catchy tunes buried under mounds of buzzing, screaching guitar, dead-simple bass lines, rackety vocals, and woven together with (by turns) ominous and hilarious words, ungratuitously gratuious.

This truely is the best Pixies, if not the best album, of all time. It really is a perfect example of the raw talent the Pixies encompassed. Highlights include Break My Body, Bone Machine, and Where is my mind? as well as a taste of what Kim Deal can really do in the song Gigantic. Buy it and you won't regret it.

from "bone machine" to "levitate me," frank and the rest of the pixies give you their best. highlighted by tracks like "where is my mind" and "oh my golly," this is best pixies album out there.

This compilation of SURFER ROSA and COME ON PILGRIM is wonderful! The songs on Pilgrim are absolutely Pixies high lights, mixed with the magic Surfer Rosa creates a perfect collection of Pixies begginings! Wonderful album!

Pixies' debut Come on Pilgrim is one of my favorite CDs of all time, and of course Surfer Rosa is excellent as well. This disc, which includes both albums in full, is the perfect way to become familiar with one of the greatest alternative bands of all time. Since both are worth owning, this is definitely the most inexpensive way to get them. Highly recommended.

About a couple of weeks ago I saw a documentary on this band on ABC 2 [Australia] called, I think, "Pixies: Gouge". Previously I'd come across articles mentioning this band's influence on Nirvana [hmmm, bands which influenced Nirvana...that must be one Hell of a long list, it seems!]. Anyway, hearing snippets of songs from this band made me go out and get this album.

I'd describe this band as hardcore pop/rock/indie/alternative/punk. Which is to say that at their best, the band delivers melodic songs in a hardcore kind of way. What do I mean by "hardcore"? Topics which conventional commercial music stations would run miles from, like incest, for starters; or language-some songs have very strong swear words in them; singing which is, at times, extreme-the lead singer screeches lyrics at times. In "Gouge", lead singer 'Frank Black' mentions how an old man speaks to him after a concert and says [something like] "You sure can holler". Black knows exactly the significance of what the old man says-he's got every angle covered; lastly, the sound of the music can be hardcore at times too...grinding guitars which can thrash out songs at a breakneck pace, on occasion.

At their best, the band produces some really good pop songs, albeit unconventional ones. Kim Deal, the band's bass player [inexplicably listed as "Mrs John Murphy in the credits, for some reason!], is a real positive for this band. The Pixies are a band where the bass guitar doesn't hide its light under a bushel. If you like pop/rock music with bass guitar getting a look in, this is the band for you. Furthermore, Kim is a wondeful vocalist-whether taking the lead, or backing up. She has an ethereal quality to her voice. The best evidence of that is her work in the song "Where is my mind?". In that, her voice has a ghostly, haunting quality. If any horror movie makers are looking for a ghostly voice to creep people out, Kim's your woman!

Now, to the songs on this two for the price of one offering: my main problem with the cd was the sound-it sort of sounds digital if you know what I mean. By that I mean the sound lacks impact-if Surfer Rosa had a cleaner and purer sound to it, I'd give it 4/5. It sounds a little 'distant' in quality...as if the microphones were a little to far from the singers and instruments. For that reason I'd give that album 3.5/5. I'm giving the entire package an extra half a star for the second cd, "Come on Pilgrim", as it has a couple of tracks that I particularly like.

Best songs from the album? Well, I've had a look at the band's "best of" compilation: "Wave of mutilation", and I thought that it was missing some songs from this collection. The songs I would include in a best of from this particular cd would be: "Bone machine", "River Euphrates" [not on their actual compilation] and "Gigantic". "Caribou" [now looking at songs from "Come on Pilgrim"], "The holiday song", "I've been tired" [not on their compilation] and "Levitate me".

Although I think this band is "hardcore" in many ways, I do think that they are a fun band, with a great sense of humour...sort of schoolboyish humour [this is where my comparison with the B52s comes in]. At least I hope there is humour there...I'd hate to think that any of their songs are autobiographical! E.g. on "Bone machine", Black sings, in a sort of retarded way "You buy me a soda and you tried to molest me in the parking lot". Funny, no? Well, you gotta listen to it I suppose. In case Frank, as a small boy, was offered a soda by a Catholic priest in a parking lot, I unreservedly apologise!

In "River Euphrates", Black moves on from sounding retarded to sounding absolutely insane...and it doesn't half work effectively! This is the song I have in mind for the heading I gave this review-Sex Pistols meets B52s meets The Exorcist.

A telling comment from the docu "Gouge" came from one of the famous musicians being interviewed about the band-not sure if Bono from U2 or David Bowie made this comment, but he said words to the effect that The Pixies alternate within songs from quiet to loud, or some such. The song that best illustrates that is "I've been tired", I think. It's a quality that makes it worthy of inclusion in a "Best of" compilation. This song also mentions Lou Reed. On their later album "Dolittle", I think you can hear the influence of Lou Reed there.

If Frank Black's histrionic [at times] vocal delivery is a bit much, check out Kim Deal's turn at lead singing with "Gigantic"-a fun, 60's sounding bit of indie girl pop. And Kim is very funny when she sings on "Tony's theme"-a song about a superhero...who isn't particularly super.

There is one particularly confusing thing about this compilation-the track listings and actual tracks don't co-incide. It's clear what's going on if you check out the Amazon listing for "Surfer Rosa" itself [at least on the 2003 issue of that album]...there is a bonus track on this album-it's track 11, and is really a funny, short interlude of Frank, I think, swearing. Fortunately, for Frank, he finally says something which explains why he's talking drivel, thus alleviating the perception that he just plain mad.

As the band are often said to have influence other bands, I'll just mention some songs here which I find echoes too in other songs, or where I think the band echoes earlier music:

"Bone machine"-bluesy rhythm guitar/"Break my body"-has a 60s sound to it...sort of similar in melody to the song "Bus stop", I think that is the song I have in mind/"Something against you"-I'm guessing that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' song "The impression that I get" was influenced by a melody in this song...this Pixies song has what sounds like a demented melody which the Bosstones' refined. This song also illustrates best the sound issues with this cd-it has a wall of noise feel to it, but the lyrics start off being barely audible. Wall of noise can be good, but you want the sound to kick you in the head, which this cd fails to do/"Cactus"-reminded me of T Rex's "Get it on"/"Oh my Golly"-Australia's indie pop/rock band The Hoodoo Gurus had "Wipe out", I think, which had a similar drum sound or pattern to this Pixie's song/"I'm amazed"-XTC's "Senses working overtime" has a similar guitar sound [dampened strumming]/"Brick is red"-reminded me of "Bus stop"?/"The holiday song" also sounded a bit 60s-ish.

A couple of the songs have Spanish lyrics, and it works well.

Having bought "Doolittle" a few days after buying this compilation [yes, this band is interesting enough to warrant further exploration of their catalogue], I can say that this cd doesn't have a "killer" track like "Monkey gone to Heaven", but it's probably stronger overall, with better "album" tracks-songs that are good, without having "greatness" stamped all over them.

If you think pop sucks, this album might ignite or re-light that fire. This is hardcore pop that demands your attention.

P.S. as I went beyond the well trodden path to find this band, can I suggest a hidden gem of a heavy metal band? Coldseed. Debut album called "Completion makes the tragedy". I think I am the only person in the world who knows this band. Like Pixies, they do a good job mixing hardcore with catchy hooks.

I'll never forget the day I first bought and heard 'Sufer Rosa (& Come On Pilgrim)', it was one of those moments in life when the music really does provided a soundtrack to life. It was a Friday afternoon, I was at college, it was a cool autum day with clear blue skies, I'd just broken up with my girlfriend of almost a year that week because she'd cheated on me, and right that moment I was waiting for my computer skills class to open in about half an hour. With a big break in between morning classes and afternoon ones I'd popped into to buy some albums that day kind of to cheer me up. As I sat outside the room on the second floor over looking a court yard I popped 'Surfer Rosa' into my portable cd player and from the opening strains of 'Bone Machine' things in life started to look up. It was my first pixies album and I'd only really picked it up because one it had previously been recommended to me, and two it was cheap. I was lucky that day (the other albums I'd bought were Mogwai's 'Happy Music For Happy People' and Black Flag's 'First Four Years' comp, both great as well might I add).

Everything about the album was right to me. It was catchy without being typical pop. The guitars buzzed but weren't heavy, they were light and spidery but still packed a punch. The whole album was and still is weird and wonderful, manic and crazy, but most importantly it was fun, how can you not feel good listening to this its postively bursting with life and engery. By the end of 'River Euphrates' I was out of my blues and feeling pretty damn good. As much as I love some other albums I don't think any other band or ever album could swing my mood around from so depressed to on to of the world in just seven songs. That was the magic of the Pixies on thise album to me. Sure its an important album in the scheme of indie music and all, big influence on Nirvana ectera, but for me 'Surfer Rosa' will always be a personal album. By the time my class opened I didn't want to take my head phones off an go in. So as soon as I could I put the cd in one of the computers and played it out loud for everyone to hear, which annoyed the girl the who sat next to me who was into hip hop and the teacher who eventually told me to put my headphones back on or turn it off.

So I'll recommend this album to everyone, its brilliant and possibly life altering, if you're at the right spot in your life when you hear it I guess. But I'll also say get the version with this version with the 'Come On Pilgrim' EP add on because I can't imagine listening to this without hearing 'The Holiday Song' or 'I've Been Tired' and ending with 'Levitate Me' and heck all the rest either. It might cost you a little more, but you'll probably find its worth every cent of it.

Most people consider Doolittle the definitive Pixies album, but to me, the raw Surfer Rosa is the best. Together with the Come On Pilgrim EP, they chronical the birth of one of the great American bands. Power-pop and punk influences abound, much like they do on the albums of contemporaries the Replacements. But where the Replacements reveled in sins of the flesh, the Pixies inspiration was creeping madness. "The Holiday Song," a highlight of the CD, unleashes two minutes of warnings against evil and incest. "Nimrod's Son" comes out and explicitly lays evil and incest out for all to see. Within seconds of the album's opening, Black Francis is spewing forth soliloquies on molestation with manic joy in his voice. When Kim Deal takes over the vocals, on "Gigantic," it to tell a tale of voyeurism and teenage sexual discovery. All in all it's a joyous, disturbing collection of songs that formed the first blast of energetic music from the Pixies and paved the way for later journeys into Black Francis's twisted mind. Enjoy!