Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. The album contains many of the elements of Pixies’ earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.
About Surfer Rosa in brief
Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. The album contains many of the elements of Pixies’ earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound. Surfer Rosa was rereleased in the US by Elektra Records in 1992, and in 2005 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Alternative rock artists including Billy Corgan and PJ Harvey have cited it as an inspiration; it was an influence on Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, and the band hired Albini to record their 1993 album In Utero. Only one single was released, a rerecorded version of \”Gigantic\”, and reached number 93 on the UK Singles Chart. 4AD allocated the band a budget of US$10,000. Albini’s producer’s fee was US$1,500, and he received no royalties; Albini has a practice of refusing royalties from records he produces, viewing it as \”an insult to the band. Albini later said that the record could have been completed in a week, but we ended up trying more experimental stuff basically to kill time and see if anything good materialized. The recording process took the entire booked period of ten working days to complete, with extra vocal mixes subsequently added in the studio.
The recording of a conversation held between Black Francis and Albini can be heard at the end of \”Oh My Golly!\”. Albini said that he was trying to get some studio banter going for the album. The track begins with Francis explaining the conversation to Albini, whose voice is not heard on the track, and ends with Deal recounting a story in which one of her former teachers was discreetly fired from the field hockey team. In the US, distribution in the United States was handled by British label Rough Trade Records; however, it failed to chart in either country. The band’s manager Ken Goes and The Purple Tape producer Gary Smith were feuding over who should produce the album, so Pixies ended up looking for a new producer and recording studio. Paul Kolderie, who had worked at Fort Apache Studios with Smith, recommended the Boston recording studio Q Division to Albino. The record was recorded in December 1987, booking ten working Days of studio time in which to record the album and was released in early 1988. The first single was a re recorded version of “Gigantory”, which reached number 95 on the charts. The second single was “Where Is My Mind?”, which was released on 4AD’s independent label, 4AD was an independent label and was not released in the U.S. or the UK. The third single was “I’m Amazed,” which reached No. 1 on the US charts on March 2, 1988.
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This page is based on the article Surfer Rosa published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
