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Pixies’ Surprise ‘EP-2’ Brings More Cowbell and a New Video

Pixies, "Blue Eyed Hexe," video, 'EP-2,' release

The recently revived Pixies aren’t slowing down. This past June, the alternative-rock trailblazers released their first new song since almost a decade earlier, when they first reunited. Then the Black Francis-led group announced a career-spanning world tour, released a four-song EP titled EP-1, and shared, well, a whole bunch of videos. There has also been a bit of lineup turnover, with founding bassist-singer Kim Deal quitting and her touring replacement, Kim Shattuck, being replaced by A Perfect Circle’s Paz Lenchantin (says Black Francis: “Big woop-dee-doo”).

Now, without further buildup, the Pixies have released a second EP, this one titled EP-2 (get it?), and shared a video for “Blue-Eyed Hexe,” a howling, cowbell-bolstered rock stomper you might imagine being sampled by Rick Rubin. Directed by Mount Emult, the clip is a dark, collage-like trip — this “hexe” is being cast by a bad witch. They debuted “Blue-Eyed Hexe” live in Los Angeles last year, and Black Francis teased it in a Vine video.

The EP also includes “Greens and Blues,” which Black Francis has provocatively likened to “a better ‘Gigantic,'” referring to the Deal-fronted classic from their 1988 debut album Surfer Rosa. “Not that I could ever replace that song: you write songs and they come out the way they come out,” he said in a statement. “So perhaps it can be said that this song fills the emotional niche that ‘Gigantic’ occupied, another show-closer.” Guitarist Joey Santiago described the EP’s “Magdalena” as “so atmospheric,” and he said closer “Snakes” came about from “jamming it out.”

The EP is available digitally and on limited-edition 10-inch vinyl via the Pixies’ website.

EP-2 track list:

1. “Blue-Eyed Hexe”
2. “Magdalena”
3. “Greens and Blues”
4. “Snakes”