Live From The Fallout Shelter (live album) by Pixies

From Brad1770 12/07/2018 10:58

The 3 year spread of releases by The Pixies between 1987 and 1990 is simply jaw dropping , but unfortunately album quality begins to wain from this point and by 2014's 'Indie Cindy' and 2016's 'Head Carrier' their albums were (lets be honest) pretty awful. So it is for this reason I have viewed any new release with a large degree of scepticism . I'm a massive Pixies fan but oh how the mighty have fallen.

However 'Pixies Live from The Fallout Shelter' is an absolute treasure , a gem that is the most historically significant recording I've heard since the Beatles Anthology Series

What makes it so special ? For starters this recording goes way way back to almost the origin of the band . It's the equivalent of Pixies stepping out of the primordial soup . Think about this for a minute , this recording was made December 15 1986 ! . Lets put that into perspective:

Dec 15 1986: Live from The Fallout Shelter recorded at WJUL Radio Station Boston
March 1987: ‘ Purple Tape’ recorded
Sept 1987: 'Come On Pilgrim' released
March 1988: 'Surfer Rosa' released some 15 months later

Francis Black was 21 yo
Mrs John Murphy was 25 yo
Joey Santiago was 21 yo
and
David Lovering was 25 yo

Secondly , despite their tender years the songs that would form the basis for much of their career were already there in this 1986 performance

"Holiday Song" , "Ista De Encanta" , "Caribou" , "Ed Is Dead" , "Nimrods Son" , "Been Tired" and "Vamos" would appear on 'Come On Pilgrim'

"I'm Amazed" , "Broken Face" and " Vamos" would appear on 'Surfer Rosa'

"Down By The Well" would bob up on 1990's 'Bossanova'

Whilst "Subaculture" wouldn't reappear until some 15 years later on 1991's 'Trompe Le Mond'

"Rock A My Soul"and "Build High": 'Purple Tape'

"Boom Chicka Boom": 2004's 'Frank Black Francis'

and finally the cover song "In Heaven" originally performed by Laurel Near and written by David Lynch (the song is featured in Lynch's 1977 film Eraserhead where it is sung by Neal as the Lady in the Radiator)

Thirdly the performance rocks , the Pixes slash and burn through the set list with an energy and clarity that is quite simply breath taking

Fourthly the band interview at the end of the album is awesome , Kim introduces herself as Mrs John Murphy , Frank introduces himself as Francis Black , whilst the bumbling host completely fluffs his lines . Pure gold

Pixies Live From The Fallout Shelter gets a very very rare 100/100 rating from me

Completely perfect from top to bottom

100/100