| · You’re so pretty when you’re faithful to me.
It’s hard for a cynic like me to think that these recent releases from The Pixies are anything more than a cash grab by the band and their old label 4AD. The fact that the album Come on Pilgrim has been reissued on its own when it used to be packaged along with Surfer Rosa points to this conclusion as well.
The latest best-of collection contains all the songs any self respecting Pixies fan owns already and is only marginally different than the previous retrospective, Death to the Pixies, only this one doesn’t come in a limited edition version with a bonus live album. For that you have to purchase the Pixies DVD separately. Aside from all their videos (which are alarmingly bad with the exception of "Alec Eiffel"), the disc features The Pixies live in London in 1989. The low-res, hand-held video footage is nothing special, but the performance is, if only to see how little the band has changed in their current incarnation.
This is made more apparent by listening to the recording of The Pixies live performance in Calgary. Compare it with the concert DVD and the live material from Death to the Pixies and you will find few differences. In all cases, bassist Kim Deal’s harmonies and on stage demeanour are the unqualified musical highlights. In fact, aside from the music, the only thing that is amazing on any of these releases is a 30-minute documentary on The Pixies entitled Gouged. Interviews with the cream of the British music scene (David Bowie, Radiohead, Badly Drawn Boy, Travis and many others) try to get to the bottom of the Pixies mystique. The eloquence and reverence brought by these superstars and music fans says more about the power of the Pixies than any of these reissues do.
BEST OF 3/5
DVD 4/5
LIVE 3/5
CONCEPT 3/5
MUSIC 5/5
JASON LEWIS
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