Pixies – Complete B Sides: 1988-97 (2LP)

Continuing the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations, Complete B-Sides: 1988-97 by Pixies is reissued 25 years after its initial release. Having been remastered, the compilation of the band’s timeless “other” tracks sees its first ever official vinyl pressings. Originally released on CD in 2001, while the band were almost a decade into a hiatus, Complete B-Sides contained 19 b-sides from the band’s classic 4AD era (1988-1991) and featured beloved Pixies tracks including “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)”, “Into The White”, “Bailey’s Walk”, and “The Thing”. As Pitchfork said in their glowing 9.6 review, “If nothing else, this release proves that, like Dylan in the 60s and Brian Eno in the 70s, the Pixies were the blinding visionaries of the 80s. Virtually everything they touched was groundbreaking and revelatory, leaving one to wish they could only have touched more.” For Complete B-Sides: 1988-97, all the tracks have been remastered from their original analogue tapes by Kevin Vanbergen – sounding amazingly fresh, it completes his extensive remastering work across the band’s catalogue. With the original tracklisting neatly fitting across 3 sides of vinyl, a fourth side of bonus live tracks has also been added, featuring six tracks culled from latter Pixies single releases including 1997’s Debaser re-release. This new edition works as a companion piece to the band’s recent Live at the BBC compilation reissue, where designer Chris Bigg (v23) has created striking new art, taking photos from Simon Larbalestier’s archive that were originally slated for use by Pixies, but were later shelved. Both long-term collaborators with the band, they worked on both reissues in tandem to remember and honour the band’s late-visual director, Vaughan Oliver. Tracklist A1. River Euphrates A2. Vamos (Live) A3. In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song) (Live) A4. Manta Ray A5. Weird At My School A6. Dancing the Manta Ray B1. Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) B2. Into The White B3. Bailey’s Walk B4. Make Believe B5. I’ve Been Waiting For You B6. The Thing C1. Velvety (Instrumental) C2. Winterlong C3. Santo C4. Theme From Narc C5. Build High C6. Evil Hearted You C7. Letter To Memphis (Instrumental) D1. Planet of Sound (Live) D2. Tame (Live) D3. Debaser (Live) D4. Holiday Song (Live) D5. Cactus (Live) D6. Nimrod’s Son (Live) Tracks 1-3 Taken from the single ‘Gigantic’ (1988) Tracks 4-6 Taken from the single ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ (1989) Tracks 7-9 Taken from the single ‘Here Comes Your Man’ (1989) Tracks 10-12 Taken from the single ‘Velouria’ (1990) Tracks 13-15 Taken from the single ‘Dig For Fire’ (1990) Tracks 16-18 taken from the single ‘Planet of Sound’ (1991) Track 19-21 taken from the single ‘Alec Eiffel’ (1991, US) Track 22 taken from the ‘Head On’ EP (1991, Canada) Tracks 23-25 taken from ‘Debaser (Live)’ (1997)