Pixies Praise Witchery on ‘EP-2’
Four months after the release of their comeback release, EP-1, indie rockers Pixies posted a similarly titled shortie release, EP-2, for sale on their website this morning. Like its predecessor, the EP is available as either a download or limited-edition 10-inch and it contains four songs: “Blue Eyed Hexe,” “Magdalena,” “Greens and Blues” and “Snakes.” The band, which has undergone further lineup changes following the departure of Kim Deal (not that frontman Black Francis minds), included a video for the track “Blue Eyed Hexe” with the announcement that displays grotesque visuals that could easily have been culled from death-metal cover art or maybe Pixies’ inspiration for the song “Debaser”, the surrealistic film Un Chien Andalou.
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The group recorded the songs in Wales with producer Gil Norton in October 2012, and it has been performing some of the songs live on their recent tour. And because they were recorded between the departure of Deal and the arrival of recently dismissed bassist Kim Shattuck, the recordings feature the work of bassist Simon “Ding” Archer, who also played on EP-1.
As with the previous EP, the group has posted track-by-track commentary for EP-2. In those notes, Black Francis calls “Blue Eyed Hexe” a “witch-woman kind of a song” and guitarist Joey Santiago recalls that Norton “wanted a swagger, so it sounds like you’re going to have sex. . .” Of “Magdalena,” Francis claims they wanted a “ZZ Top kind of zone” and says that its lyrics are self-referential to Pixies. The frontman said “Greens and Blues,” in his mind, was “a better ‘Gigantic,'” referring to the band’s 1988 single. And Santiago likens the final track, “Snakes,” to the works of minimalist classical composer Steve Reich.
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In two weeks, the group will begin a coast-to-coast tour that will take them from Toronto to Austin, Texas. It will be the first to feature new bassist Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle), who joined the group in December following Shattuck’s ouster for alleged overenthusiasm. “We are really looking forward to playing with [Lenchantin] on these dates,” drummer David Lovering said in a statement. “Working with different bass players is very new for the band, but we’re having a great time doing it.”