PIXIES Poll: The best track on Doolittle

Fair. I disagree (re: "better songs". Pixies never bettered songs like Debaser, Tame, Hey, Monkey, Mutilation etc) but at least I know what you mean now.

I too love In Utero way more than Nevermind.

xp

xp It was 'Doolittle' where Frank Black justified the song length mentioning Buddy Holly :)

dunno think motorway to roswell is as good as anything on Doolittle

Also 'Wave of Mutilation' was robbed, obv, because it is the best song in the universe.

(And Nevermind is SO much better than In Utero it's not in the same universe.)

I was a Bossanova stan for a number of years—partly because I truly thought it was better, but also to be contrarian—however, at some point within the last 10 years, I've looked deep within myself and made peace with the fact that Doolittle is their most well known and best selling album for a reason: it's perfect.

A lot of people consider Surfer Rosa superior to Doolittle which mystifies me, I think it's probably a function of SR (or that era) being your first exposure to Pixies

I kiss you JF, if you allow me to do that with full consent, because you are otm.

I heard Doolittle first fwiw (in the late 90s). When I later discovered Surfer Rosa, the extra noisiness and amateurishness struck me as a more optimal take on their overall aesthetic. And despite its overexposure, I still stand by 'Where Is My Mind?'.

I think Albini's "recording" has aged far better than Norton's "production," but for an album in 1989, Doolittle still sounded pretty rock n roll.

Incidentally, I do love Doolittle as well, I just feel like it tends to sanitise the bedlam a little too much in spots. I mostly blame the production, once again (I am a bit of an Albini junkie, though).

xp

Scott Ian like Norton's production on the Pixies albums so much, he hired him to produce an Anthrax album.

No need for any Pixies album to be 40 mins; their tradition of 2 min songs/repetition/fast/loud - 30-35 minutes is enough and would improve basically any album they did

That... says it all, really? (Sorry.)

xp

88-93 was a weird time, dude.

Never mind. Apparently my brain completely fabricated that factoid. I thought he produced Sound of White Noise, but that was Dave Jerden. Not Gil Norton.

<offtopic> Look at those votes! ILX was a busy place eleven years ago.

Jerden kind of sounds like Gil Norton.

There was a concert video posted on another Pixies thread recently which must have been recorded around the time of Doolittle and I was surprised how close it sounded to the album, so I don’t think it was Norton changing their sound so much as they were changing it themselves.

Gil Norton elevated the Pixies from pretty great to really great (exhibit A: the Purple Tape) but the bassline on Gouge Away alone, or the screaming of F. Black on Debaser, or the second verse-to-chorus movement of 'Wave of Mutilation' show the band's uniqueness. No producer could have elevated that, nor destroyed it.

xp That's interesting, I'd like to see that.

You guys have seen the 30th anniversary SR/Pilgrim reissue splurge I take it?

http://pixies.4ad.com/

Concert video is here:

Pixies: Classic or Dud

No producer could have elevated that, nor destroyed it.

"Which producers could have destroyed 1987-1989 Pixies and how?" is kind of an interesting question actually.

I heard Doolittle first fwiw (in the late 90s). When I later discovered Surfer Rosa, the extra noisiness and amateurishness struck me as a more optimal take on their overall aesthetic. And despite its overexposure, I still stand by 'Where Is My Mind?'.

― pomenitul, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:18 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not having a go, but 'Where is my mind?' to me always sounded like it should/could have been a Doolittle song. Should rather than could.

ty O. Nate!

"Which producers could have destroyed 1987-1989 Pixies and how?"

Shep Pettibone

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine a Stock, Aitken & Waterman take on "Wave of Mutilation" now and it isn't pretty.

I could also imagine Phil Spector forcing them at gunpoint to go loud-loud rather than quiet-loud.

Trying to imagine a Trevor Horn led Pixies in the vein of Welcome to the Pleasuredome FGTH.

Oh God! Jeff Lynne.

There's that aborted early REM session with Stephen Hague that shows what happens when you pair an indie rock band with the wrong producer.

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine a Stock, Aitken & Waterman take on "Wave of Mutilation" now and it isn't pretty.

― dorsalstop,

uh it would be awesome and sound like Stephen Hague's work on Pere Ubu's contemporaneous Cloudland.

xp I'd never listened to that Stephen Hague version of "Catapult" before, but... I kinda think it's ok?

just ok.

Bit lifeless.

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde

Hague/REM sounds just like The Cars.

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde

― kraudive, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:03 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. While I disagree that Surfer Rosa is a better collection of songs than Doolittle (as someone mentioned above), Trompe le Monde crushes both IMO. They should have never recorded another note of music as the Pixies after that, as it was a perfect album to go out on. Bossanova is the worst of their original run, but two thirds of it was still up to their then usual high standard.

Thirded.

Yeah the Hague "Catapult" is in no way good, too much chorus, too many ridiculously dinky keyboard figures. I mean, it's an unimpeachable song, I'm sure I would still have liked it if it had come out this way!

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde
― kraudive, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:03 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

absolutely, what a perfect run at the end of the record too!

I think it's perfect front to back. I still play TLM lots and I've barely played the others since the initial reunion gigs probably. So much heart and soul.

And I think it's amazing how TLM's reputation has totally changed recently.

I can only guess Albini's dismissive remark about them being a boring bar band was fueled by some personal animus because that is just wrong

Yeah, he's totally walked that comment back (like 15 years ago iirc). He and his wife are very tight with Kim now, plus he engineered the recent Breeders record.

He *loves* Kim.

I have no problem believing that Steve loves Kim and dgaf about the Pixies

who doesn't?

30 years old

wow! i still remember my brother getting mad at me for stealing his cassette and taking it with me to summer camp that year.