Pixies, Surfer Rosa : Having been in Boston for 9 years now, I’ve listened to and seen a lot of local live music — and none of it seems as good as it must have been in the late 80s. Rosa was the Pixies’ first LP, and though the followup Doolittle was more polished, I prefer the rawer debut.

Recorded in Boston, at Q-Division by Steve Albini, there is something special about this record — the way the drums thud, and the mismatched vocal harmonies of Frank/Charles & Kim, it just seems so intimate… like you can sense the space where it was recorded.