Come On Pilgrim by The Pixies

Come On Pilgrim, the Pixies' debut, is a mini-album: eight songs pulled out of a seventeen-song session the Boston band cut at Fort Apache Studios in March 1987 with Gary Smith producing. That tape was their calling card. 4AD boss Ivo Watts-Russell signed them on the strength of it, pared it down, remixed it and put it out on September 28, 1987. The other nine songs sat in the vault until 2002, when they surfaced as Pixies.

What's here is the original four in raw, twitchy form: Black Francis yelping and crooning his surreal, off-kilter stories over rhythm guitar, Joey Santiago's lead lines stabbing through, Kim Deal on bass and backing vocals, David Lovering on drums. The loud-quiet-loud lurches that would make their name are already in place, and "Caribou" is the eerie, lovely proof. Surfer Rosa came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.