Difficult one this, piece of history and all that, but judged on its own merit this collection of raw (no, very raw) demos for early Pixie’s songs like ‘The Holiday Song’, ‘Caribou’ and ‘Subbacultha’ is a fairly testing 40 or so minutes for any listener. I don’t want to say ‘for fans only’ but it’s very difficult not to, amounting as it does to very little more than audio notes for the band’s recording of ‘Come On Pilgrim’ in 1987 and asked for specifically by the band’s then producer, Gary Smith as some kind of structural guide to the planned three day session paid for by Black’s father. It was never meant to be released, and as Black concedes on the characteristically frank and unpretentious sleeve-notes, he was a little uncomfortable in releasing material that was ‘very bootleg’ in terms of sound-quality. But spurred on by his manager, Ken Goes, this little time-capsule recorded on a cassette walkman in Smith’s apartment has indeed seen the light of day. So here we have Frank strumming and a crazying along to all manner of early Pixies classics. And to his credit, an extra disc of revamped ‘hits’ like ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’, ‘Velouria’ and ‘Wave Of Mutilation’. They’re not brilliant. They’re not entirely justified. They’re not entirely dislocated from the current frenzy of Pixies-revisited CD and DVD releases – and so they’re not entirely legit. But they’re far from boring either, even if it’s just to see the doctor totally let freak with his monster again. ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ is skewed, psychedelic and childlike, ‘Velouria’; tender and melancholic. Never really ‘got’ the words before? Now’s your chance. Wondered what they’d be like with trumpets? Now’s your chance..
Anyway, makes interesting marginalia, if nothing else.