Pixies Celebrate Doolittle Anniversary With Full-Album Tour

On a just-announced European tour, the reunited Pixies will blast through the entire Doolittle album and related B-sides.

Doolittle, released two decades ago, is a blazing mash of stop-start punk and pop that hop-scotches from surreal burners like “Debaser” and “Tame” to biblical thrashers like “Dead” and “Gouge Away” without giving away anything in majesty. The band’s most accessible album, it will form the centerpiece of the upcoming shows.

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“We wanted to do something special for Doolittle‘s 20th anniversary,” Pixies singer/guitarist Black Francis explained in a press release, “and we thought his was a good opportunity to play all of the songs from that album, something we don’t normally do at a regular gig.”

That’s good news, especially for late adopters who aren’t used to the light-speed brilliance of Doolittle‘s songcraft. Even better: The Doolittle-related B-sides on the set list are some of its finest tunes never heard.

Souls lucky enough to score tickets, which go on sale Friday, should keep their eardrums open for the following:

“Dancing the Manta Ray” — This bobbing, old-school shimmy features Francis at his peak, growling, whooping and grinding through a song that is simply about fish that fly. Namely, the underwater UFO known as the manta ray, which has been seen in sizes that span 25 feet. The Pixies released a related tune, “Manta Ray,” on Doolittle‘s “Monkey Gone to Heaven” 12-inch/CD single, but “Dancing the Manta Ray” stands as one of the band’s finest singles to never land on a full-length.
“Bailey’s Walk” — It’s hard to call this tune a song in the conventional sense; it’s more like a weird experience. It opens with Francis’ peerless scream, devolves into a measured stomp, stops on a dime, is torn apart by one of guitarist Joey Santiago’s finest solos, then starts up all over again before fading away into madness. Francis claimed in the Pixies’ must-have Complete ‘B’ Sides compilation that the song was about an obsessive he once saw silently arguing to himself, which explains the song’s chorus: “The method/of stop tap spin/No talk in Bailey’s walk.” The song is that obsessive stalk put into practice, an experiment more than a pop tune. Which is probably why it didn’t make it onto Doolittle, although it could’ve easily replaced “La La Love You.” Pixies die-hards argue that it is one of the band’s greatest tracks.
“Weird at My School” — Sex with nuns? Check. Hot moms? Check. Profaning the sacred? Supercheck. This romp was always a blast, although it was rarely played when the band made the rounds the first time. I saw the Pixies live in the late ’80s and early ’90s about 20 times, and only saw it played once, and only halfway. The band gave up around the middle, when no one could remember the music and Francis muffed the lyrics. It’s still a classic.
“Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” — This lilting, mellow version of Doolittle‘s churning, aggressive counterpart quickly became the predominant version the band played in concert, perhaps because mosh pits at Pixies concerts were affairs only for the brave, or those inclined toward sadomasochism. Or perhaps, because the band at the time just loved hazy surf music more than it loved abrasive rock. Or perhaps because it was the only Pixies song to land on an official soundtrack, for the not-bad pirate-radio flick Pump Up the Volume, during the ’80s and ’90s. Either way, the U.K. surf version of “Wave of Mutilation” is probably the Pixies’ most beautiful, subversive tune, given that it’s about environmental destruction. Dystopia never sounded so cool.

Pixies’ Doolittle-only European tour kicks off Oct. 1 in Ireland and wraps Oct. 15 in Paris. Wired.com asked the Pixies’ publicist whether U.S. shows will happen in 2009 and will report back any amazing, or terrible, news.

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