Pixies (EP)

Pixies is a 2002 EP release of the (mostly) previously unissued material from the Pixies' original 17-track demo tape (known to Pixies aficionados as "The Purple Tape"), recorded at Fort Apache Studios in March 1987 by Gary Smith. Eight of the tracks from sessions were released in 1987 as the band's debut, Come On Pilgrim and the remaining nine were sourced for this release by SpinART Records in the U.S. and Sonic Unyon records in Canada.

Track listing

1. "Broken Face" – 1:23
2. "Build High" – 1:41
3. "Rock A My Soul" – 1:40
4. "Down To The Well" – 2:36
5. "Break My Body" – 2:00
6. "I'm Amazed" – 1:40
7. "Here Comes Your Man" – 2:50
8. "Subbacultcha" – 2:52
9. "In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)" – 1:43

The Purple Tape

The "Purple Tape" was a demo that the band recorded in three days during their first studio session in 1987.^[6] Here is the original track listing.

1. "Levitate Me" – 2:30 †
2. "The Holiday Song" – 2:08 †
3. "I've Been Tired" – 2:36 †
4. "Break My Body" – 2:00
5. "Down to the Well" – 2:36
6. "Rock a My Soul" – 1:40
7. "I'm Amazed" – 1:40
8. "Build High" – 1:41
9. "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" – 1:43
10. "Caribou" – 3:17 †
11. "Here Comes Your Man" – 2:50
12. "Subbacultcha" – 2:52
13. "Vamos" – 3:10 †
14. "Broken Face" – 1:23
15. "Nimrod's Son" – 2:15 †
16. "Isla De Encanta" – 1:42 †
17. "Ed Is Dead" – 2:32 †

† Appeared on the band's debut EP, Come On Pilgrim.

"Down to the Well" and "Rock a My Soul" from this session have been previously released on the Sounds Waves 3 EP, which was given away with Sounds magazine somewhere in 1988.

Several of the tracks on the tape appeared in later albums (albeit rerecorded), such as "I'm Amazed", "Broken Face", and "Break My Body" on Surfer Rosa, "Here Comes Your Man" on Doolittle, "Down to the Well" on Bossanova, and a revised "Subbacultcha" on Trompe Le Monde.^[7] A cover of "In Heaven" (Lady in the Radiator Song), from the surrealist David Lynch film Eraserhead, features on the demo.

The original "Subbacultcha" and "I'm Amazed" both had a different chorus line to later releases, which were both dropped for apparently sounding too weak. The removed chorus from "Subbacultcha" later appeared as the basis for "Distance Equals Rate Times Time", a separate song immediately following the revised "Subbacultcha" on Trompe le Monde.

A version of "Tame" that appears on some bootlegs is purported to come from these sessions, although that has not been confirmed.

References