Doolittle

Product Information

Their other influences were hard to place, which was unsurprising, given that frontman Black Francis’s tastes ran to Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman, author of Forget Your Hexagram, No More LSD for Me, and Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?

Pixies – Doolittle 25 (2014, Vinyl) - Discogs Pixies – Doolittle 25 (2014, Vinyl) - Discogs

The songs are okay and the album is quite short for a 15 song record; so it makes for a decent album, which I can now cross off my "to do" list. John Davidson: I'm generally a sucker for a great bass riff and there's plenty of chunky baselines in The Pixies songs to get my teeth into, but I'm not really blown away by the discordant garage vibes. It is perhaps "poppier" than its predecessor, but not excessively so, and still has some great tunes. Sleeve and inners have some minor discoloration marks and there is a very small tear on the opening side, inner booklet has no creases or tears. Never mind that the Pixies themselves had released an EP and an LP on the reliably fantastic independent British record level, 4AD.Spare a thought for the poor saps in the US importing this release on some pretence its a sure fire guaranteed better press than their possibly even shoddier US cut. Also let's ignore limited or special editions unless they are the best sounding – don’t care for extra tracks, love the original song line-ups . Their second full-length album, Doolittle, was released in April 1989, towards the end of a startling 18-month period for experimental US guitar rock.

Pixies - Doolittle | Releases | Discogs Pixies - Doolittle | Releases | Discogs

As Gouge Away roars into life, or during Tame’s series of barely-controlled explosions, or at the moment, 30 seconds before the song’s end, when I Bleed suddenly spins off on a completely unexpected melodic tangent, they seemed completely imperious: what rock band wouldn’t want to sound at least a little like that?

Having been properly exposed to rock music for the first time via Led Zep around my 11th birthday, I'd spent the 70s and early 80s not so much listening as virtually absorbing as much and as varied material as possible.

Pixies Reissues (Vinyl) | Steve Hoffman Music Forums Pixies Reissues (Vinyl) | Steve Hoffman Music Forums

Leftfield hit singles like Monkey Gone To Heavenand Here Comes Your Manwere a razor across the eyeball of the rock scene, establishing that nowhere-town misfits could hijack the bloated gloss of MTV. 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. In a decade where, increasingly, image was as important as talent, the heavier end of the rock spectrum had descended almost into self-parody.My favourite track on Doolittle, though, is one that many people skip past or describe as filler, while also being the longest track here - at 3:52 positively prog-like in duration by Pixies standards. Alex Hayes: Like some kind of aural equivalent of Helen of Troy, Doolittle by The Pixies really is the album that launched a thousand imitators. Kim's bass dominates like never before but the drums, guitars and vocals are equally as clear and wonderful sounding.

Pixies – Doolittle 25 (2015, Vinyl) - Discogs Pixies – Doolittle 25 (2015, Vinyl) - Discogs

While the nice heavy weight vinyl plays cleanly and is reasonably dynamic, there’s not much by ways soundstage and instrument separation. They were not arty New York hipsters, nor part of the burgeoning Seattle scene, nor graduates from the punishing US hardcore circuit, although their songs occasionally careered along with the breakneck pace and lockstep rhythm of Hüsker Dü’s New Day Rising. As well as being adept at screaming and shouting, Francis also does a decent leer, employed to good effect here ( there are times when he sounds disturbingly like he might be some kind of serial killer! Out went producer Steve Albini, who’d recorded Surfer Rosa in 10 days, occasionally in the studio toilet; in came Gil Norton, who’d worked with Echo and the Bunnymen and Del Amitri. The Pixies proved so influential that it’s now almost impossible to imagine how bizarre they seemed on arrival in the late 80s.Re-pressed with stampers from 2006 by Optimal Media Production that had used a lacquer cut from 2004. At its best, Doolittle was almost impossibly thrilling, packed with evidence of why alt-rock shifted in the Pixies’ wake. In truth, Pixies got there two years earlier – before Bleach, even – with a second album that combined bristling fury with the hooks to take it overground. The vocalist often sounded like a non-vocalist, mixing screams and shouts with whispered, almost spoken passages, occasionally switching into Spanish for no apparent reason.