Review

In March 1987, Pixies guitarist-singer Black Francis, bassist-singer Kim Deal, drummer David Lovering and guitarist Joey Santiago entered a studio in Boston and in three days cut a demo reel dubbed "the Purple Tape." If the band had recorded the same set of songs only a couple years later, it would probably have been a full album. But vinyl still reigned supreme, and only eight of the 17 songs made it onto the Come on Pilgrim EP, the Pixies' first release. The rest stayed officially unreleased until 2002, when spinART issued them. Re-recorded versions of most of the songs here would be sprinkled into every subsequent Pixies album, but often after considerable alteration. The original version of "Here Comes Your Man," for instance, has far more emphasis on acoustic guitar and a much more pastoral feel — Francis croons more and shouts a lot less — and "Subbacultcha" was slowed down a little, metalled up and cut by a minute for 1991's Trompe le Monde. It's for the best that these songs got cut from Come on Pilgrim — for the most part, they were greatly improved when the Pixies returned to them later on. But the fact that we can hear these early versions is still something to celebrate.