Pixies B-sides collection gets the canon treatment

The Pixies compilation Complete B Sides: 1988-97 (Remaster) drew a fresh review on October 30, a reminder that the band's leftovers now get filed as catalogue. Twenty-five tracks: eighteen previously released B-sides and seven concert recordings. Most of the material lands between 1988 and 1993, give or take.

The set earns its keep on the specificity. It opens with "River Euphrates" from the Surfer Rosa sessions and reaches from there into three covers: Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting for You" and "Winterlong," plus "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" from Eraserhead and "Theme from Narc" from the 1980s game. The cover art appears to be a coelacanth.

Steve Albini once called the group "a patchwork pinch loaf from a band who at their top dollar best are blandly entertaining college rock." He may have sold the value of these twenty-five cuts slightly short. Nothing else about the release is announced.