A very unique choice today with the debut album from the Pixies, “Surfer Rosa”. I listened to this album twice, and although my first reaction was something like “What did I just listen to here?”, I truly enjoyed the irreverence, the completely wandering tracks with dialogue and whatever else it was I heard, I enjoyed the male-female vocal dynamics, and when they get down to it, this band could definitely rock. It isn’t punk music per se, but it has some of that attitude and a thicker, fuzzier guitar sound that worked its way into the world of grunge rock in the 1990s. This album is rated #390 on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
If I had to pick four favorites from the record, I would go with the one single from the album, “Gigantic” which features bassist Kim Deal on lead vocals. My other three favorites are “Tony’s Theme”, with the inspired lyrical opening, “THIS IS A SONG ABOUT A SUPERHERO NAMED TONY… ITS CALLED TONY’S THEME!”, as well as “Oh My Golly!”, which has a peculiarly catchy drum opening, and “Brick is Red”, which has some great guitar work.
Some of the absurdities of their sound reminds me of what we would eventually hear from Sublime, but it is really hard to put a label on this band. They rocked hard, they did something different from anything I had heard before, and they appeared to remain true to this mindset throughout their long and successful career. That’s a lot to appreciate… which I did.
A Lifetime-Plus of Music 