Los Pixies, de retorno previsto
Era bastante evidente que los Pixies estaban preparando algo grande, atendiendo a las confirmaciones que poco a poco iban llegando de varios festivales internacionales, entre ellos, claro, su ya conocida inclusión en el próximo Primavera Sound. (además de en el Primavera The Pixies están confirmados ya como cabezas de cartell en los Loollapalooza de Brasil y Argentina). La banda vuelve a la carga una vez recuperadas las buenas sensaciones con EP-1, trabajo al que dan continuidad ahora con EP-2.
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El EP cuenta con 4 nuevos temas, Blue-Eyed Hexe, Magdalena, Greens & blues y Snakes, y cuenta con un un nuevo vídeo promocional, centrado en el último de los 4 temas señalados. La grabación se llevó a cabo el pasado mes de Octubre, tuvo lugar en los estudios Rockfield de Gales y han contado con la producción de Girl Norton. El art-work, por último, corre a cargo de Vaughan Oliver.
La banda ha confirmado además que el EP se puede obtener de manera exclusiva en su página web, en modalidad de descarga digital, descarga lossless y edición imitada en 10». La banda corona esta publicación desglosando el significado de cada tema, texto que reproducimos íntegro por su interés:
Blue-Eyed Hexe
JOEY SANTIAGO: I think this was inspired by a girl in the audience at one of our reunion shows. I don’t know – maybe I’m making that up. My main contribution, though, was the solo. Gil just wanted a swagger, so it sounds like you’re going in to have sex with this… blue-eyed hexe. That was the intention of the solo.BLACK FRANCIS: The song took on different forms, different music and different sets of lyrics. It went through a lot of changes before it settled where it is now. It’s a tale from the northwest of the country and it’s a witch-woman kind of a song. That’s what a hexe is. And she’s a blue-eyed hexe!
DAVID LOVERING: That was on the spot that we came up with that. I wanted to record that as quickly as possible. We rehearsed it and I had it in my head and I just went in – and it’s a really simple track, kick drum and a snare and a hi-hat – and it was the quickest track for me to record. It kind of reminds me of “UMASS” because of the cowbell in it; so I’ll be using the cowbell again since the cowbell goes through the whole song.
Magdalena
BLACK FRANCIS: We all like the song as it is right now, but I think we really want to play it in a big room with a loud P.A. We really want to get it to a ZZ Top kind of zone. We’re kinda waiting for that moment. It’s basically a blues-shape with a couple of left turns that I’m quite proud of. To me it’s a blues song with a Beatles-esque left turn. There are a lot of self-referential words. Like many of the lyrics (I write) they’re self-referential to the Pixies.JOEY SANTIAGO: This song is where I featured my Moog guitar. It was just so atmospheric and we had these weird Moog pedals that sounded like water. We were just going for it: we were just going for the atmosphere on that one. It was a very mood-based sound, not based on any lyrics or anything.
DAVID LOVERING: One of my favorites, maybe tied with “Indie Cindy.” It’s cool the way it flows; and, again, a very simplistic song. Going back to the early days, like on “Come On Pilgrim,” that’s when I was trying to be Neil Peart and just all over the place. As time went on there were less and less fills and I think with this song you can hear that I’m just playing the beat and accompanying the song for what it is and this song exemplifies that. It’s about being true to the song, and this is pretty, simple, cool and moving.
Greens and Blues
BLACK FRANCIS: As with all my songs, I would prefer people add their own interpretation to it. But, in this case, let’s just say that we had done “Gigantic” as the closer for many years at our reunion shows and it worked really well. But I could see that we were going to grow weary of that and I felt like we needed a better “Gigantic,” basically. It was my attempt to come up with another song that would – musically, emotionally and psychologically – sit in the same place that “Gigantic” has sat. Not that I could ever replace that song: you write songs and they come out the way they come out. So perhaps it can be said that this song fills the emotional niche that “Gigantic” occupied. Another show-closer. I think the lyric alludes to that, the fact that it’s the end of the night, the end of something. And a separation if you will, between the band and the audience. So I guess it’s kind of a goodbye song. A goodbye song, but really more of a “good night” song.
JOEY SANTIAGO: That was with my Les Paul and it was one of those songs that I just got right away. It was almost like “a one-take Charlie” kind of thing. There’s a lyric in there, with the word “strange” and I just latched on to that one word and I hit the chord… but then I made it really, really strange. I hit the whammy and the wah pedal and made it really, really strange. I think guitar players will appreciate that. It’s just total ear candy.
DAVID LOVERING: This is another case of four-on-the-floor and bass drum and very easy to record.
Snakes
JOEY SANTIAGO: I just jumped into it. I’m not a jammer, but (Black) Francis and I started jamming it out. I had this little idea and I did that sliding guitar just to emulate a snake. There’s a counterpoint on the two guitars the intro, and I thought, “Cool, we finally sound like Steve Reich!” I’m just a big fan of his. It was one of those rare moments where it just so cool and I thought, “Great! This is a good song!”BLACK FRANCIS: This one was totally written at the studio session. It proved to be a little bit difficult to play and a little bit difficult to record, sonically. We stuck with it and I like the result. I guess it’s a song about our “lawn days.” People out at what I call the coppice stool, or a tree stump. A tree stump is an ancient place, where a tree once was; and people meet there. They sit on it. They lie down on it. They eat food on it. They do other things on it. The coppice stool.
DAVID LOVERING: This is one we worked up in the studio. It’s pretty simple, a little fast, and in the end, an easy one that was very cool sounding