A SECOND BATCH OF MATERIAL FROM PIXIES’ OCTOBER 2012 SESSIONS WITH FAVOURED PRODUCER GIL NORTON HAS BEEN RELEASED THIS WEEKEND.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios in South Wales during October 2012, EP2 follows up last autumn’s EP1, and contains four new songs.
Notional lead track BLUE EYED HEXE is followed by MAGDALENA, GREEN AND BLUES and SNAKES.
A video for BLUE EYED HEXE has been released (above) and, speaking about the song, frontman Black Francis reveals it to be “a witch-woman kind of a song. That’s what a ‘hexe’ is, and ours is a blue-eyed hexe”. Guitarist Joey Santiago adds “Gil wanted the guitar solo to sound like you’re going to have sex with this blue-eyed hexe.”

Of the epic GREENS AND BLUES, Black Francis says “We’d done GIGANTIC as the closer 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 basically needed a better GIGANTIC. It was my attempt to come up with another song that would – musically, emotionally and psychologically – sit in the same place that song has sat”. Both MAGDALENA and SNAKES seem to be the result of in-studio jamming or experimentation: “We had these weird effects pedals that sounded like water. It was a very mood-based, atmospheric sound, not based on any lyrics or anything,” says Santiago of MAGDALENA. And, of SNAKES: “I had the idea to do that slide guitar to emulate a snake.” Black Francis adds “This one was totally written in the studio session. It proved a little bit difficult to play and a little bit difficult to record but we stuck with it. I like the result”.
EP2 is available as a download direct from the band here, and also as a package of download and hoodie. The highly collectible 10″ vinyl, with a sleeve designed by Vaughan Oliver and limited to only 4,000 worldwide copies, sold out within a day. In addition, in December the band released a new video for ANOTHER TOE IN THE OCEAN from EP1, with animation by Liviu Boar.

In June last year, news broke that founder member Kim Deal had left the band to concentrate on The Breeders, who’ve toured for the 20th anniversary of THE LAST SPLASH. She was replaced by Simon ‘Ding’ Archer (The Fall, PJ Harvey) on recordings and Kim Shattuk (The Muffs) for gigs. Shattuk toured with Pixies in 2013 and believed herself to be in negotiations for further dates this year, though was fired in November. She has been replaced by Paz Lenchantin (Entrance Band, Zwan, A Perfect Circle).
Pixies are about to begin an extensive tour through Canada and the US which will run until 1st March, before performing at a handful of festivals in South America during April. In May, June and July the band returns to Europe.