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When rumors of a Pixies reunion started to swirl a few years ago, it seemed impossible. After all, those guys hated each other, right? But sure enough, the rumors turned into a full-blown tour that's turned into an ongoing—and by all reports, harmonious—revival. So far, Pixies 2.0 has released only two new studio recordings—a track for a Warren Zevon album, and the fun, iTunes-only throwaway track "Bam Thwok." The eMusic.com exclusive release "Hey"—Live Pixies 2004-2005 doesn't change that, but it does offer fans a generous selection of live tracks cherry-picked from reunion dates all over the globe. The sound will be familiar to anyone who caught one of the shows; the band sounds vital but clearly has nothing to prove. It's a collection to warm the hearts of old fans, not win new ones, and it even includes a version of "La La Love You" in which Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering tell each other "I love you." Ahhh…
Over on iTunes, another band revisits a past triumph. Belle & Sebastian Play If You're Feeling Sinister features a complete 2005 London performance of Belle And Sebastian's most famous album. It's already a near-perfect effort, but it sounds even better in this incarnation. The band opens up its intimate sketches of adolescent discomfort and bedroom rebellion, and Stuart Murdoch projects as if he's trying to make all the grown-up teens in the balcony think he's singing directly to them. What's more, proceeds go to help victims of last year's Asian earthquake…
Nellie McKay fans will have to keep waiting for her sophomore effort Pretty Little Head, which was yanked when Columbia unceremoniously dropped her a couple of weeks ago. (Take it from someone who's heard it: It's worth the wait.) In the meantime, they can download McKay's six contributions to the Rumor Has It… soundtrack, which strangely never saw stores in CD form. The set includes both McKay originals, including the disarmingly tender "Face Of A Faith," and a pair of covers, including a playful duet with Taj Mahal on "Baby, You've Got What It Takes"…
Gillian Welch's Black Star EP features just three live tracks (covers, no less), but they're all pretty indispensable. Whether interpreting Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, or—most improbably and impressively, Radiohead—the modern country master brings the songs into her own fully realized world of regret and redemption.