I don't really care that much for the Pixies, so that probably puts me one level above a child eater around these parts. I shall now move to an undisclosed location for an unknown length of time.
― Andy, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
(pun unintended.)
obv. one of the best bands of the 80s, and i lurve, lurve lurve em. but i know we've done this.
― jess, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Tim Hopkins thinks they're atrocious.
― Tom, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dave225, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ian, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Tom: "...being a Pixies agnostic leaves you NOWHERE TO HIDE."
Almost done packing. Now where's my razor?
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― william harris, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
The docu stimulated - even moved - me. Sense of PERIOD, mainly. We can't ultimately separate the Pixies from their time (late 80s / early 90s) - is that right?
So - I like them in the way that I like Steady Mike's SNUB TV video: A LOT - BUT thoroughly 'conditioned' and 'historical'.
Most of what was said by rockers went way OTT. It's great to see Bowie and certain others talking (but not the utter tosser Coxon - he'd be OK maybe if he never spoke) - but no, no, they overrated.
Period, this is the key. We need to understand the Pixies in History. No?
And in Space, too. This is the thread I didn't start, but intend to.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
When I was a kid, yeah they were fantastic. I'm starting to realize that kids really like music that makes them feel at odds with everything in an abstractly alienating way that is somehow a comforting cacoon. It's kind of a depressing feeling that's hard to identify as "depressing". It sounds passionate and interesting, with dissonance and screaming and yelling, lyrics that identify no real problem but are delivered with a sombre tone and offset with just the right amount of cutesy tongue-in-cheekiness. That stuff bores the piss out of me now.
― Nude Spock, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
well, duh.
(pinefox and alex in NYC in agreement shocker)
(me too shocker, come to that, tho i often agree with em separately) (also secretly)
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Luptune Pitman, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Oliver, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Lindsey B, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Mrs. Daria Murphy, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alacran, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Nick, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Andrew L, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I'll be quoting that for as long as I'm writing about pop I think. But you can't have any performance royalties.
― Tom, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
He seemed far more charitable towards them in the C4 documentary that sparked this thread - but then I missed the first 20 minutes... perhaps he was slating them then. Strange docu - the only footage they had was from the Town & Country Club show (supporting Throwing Muses) in '88, so by the time they moved on to "Bossanova" and "Trompe", there was no illustration of the music at all. Maybe it's difficult to get the rights to the (never very interesting) videos.
"Monkey Gone To Heaven" changed my entire perception of loud-guitars- and-shouty-voices and I really did Buy The Record The Next Day. "Doolittle" remains my favourite. They may have quickly lost the intensity, but there are still traces of the ol' magic as late as '93 (4AD's last good year) with "The Last Splash", and FB's solo thing. However, the high regard in which "Teenager of the Year" is held by a certain forum contributor baffles me like few other of his opinions.
― Michael Jones, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dr. C, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― jess, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― fields of salmon, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Nude Spock, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ian, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― scott p., Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― JM, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― daria gray, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I love the Pixies dearly (and the doc made me want to dig out Come on Pilgrim again). But here's the thing: when I first heard Surfer Rosa, in a small, cold student flat in Norwich 1989, I thought it was abysmal, shouty, formless and stupid. One year later, driving around downtown Portland, Oregon it all made fantastic sense. Which makes me wonder: how does location and geographic cultural space affect the way you hear music? As an English box bedroom boy I grew up favouring the intimate confessional indie (Smiths) and domestic disco (Pet Shop Boys) one would expect, and I'm not sure the Pixies could ever make sense to me in that context. However, blasting out of a car stereo on an open Oregon highway there was suddenly *room* for the music. Maybe only a certain type of uptight, claustrophobic Englishman needs to actually go to the US to understand rock, but it puts me in mind of something Gertrude Stein said - what makes America what it is "is that there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is". And I think I heard something like that in the sound of Surfer Rosa.
― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
The only Pixies album I ever had was Doolittle. Now I want it back again!
― youn, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
What is "guitar tone", and should I know about it?
― the pinefox, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I mean, she herself described it as firing..
https://preview.redd.it/interesting-exchange-v0-5vdzmtmsupmc1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=891238057aa3f22f5cb0f94f76cfb4c0f8aa254d
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 7 March 2024 17:32 (one month ago) link
(fwiw she appears to have since deleted that one and her public statements have been more balanced)
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 7 March 2024 17:34 (one month ago) link
ahhhhh, nm
― birdistheword, Thursday, 7 March 2024 17:52 (one month ago) link
lots of rumors circulating that she's a right wing loon, but these seem to be based off her Pink defense plus she posted something when javier milei won in Argentina that some took as support. But there doesn't seem to be any other evidence.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 8 March 2024 14:24 (one month ago) link
lol at losing Paz damaging the Pixies permanently. You can't kill what is already dead!
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 March 2024 14:29 (one month ago) link
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, March 8, 2024 8:24 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
yeah but there's always more, i can't think of one time when an artist had some little flirtations with right wing/terf whatever stuff and it didn't end up being worse
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 March 2024 14:36 (one month ago) link
Barbara Motchan@barbara_motchan·Mar 5Replying to @PIXIESPaz made the Pixies who they are today!! The Pixies will be nothing now without Paz. Just tell the truth.....
BLACK FRANCIS, YOU FIRED PAZ!!
lmao
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 March 2024 14:38 (one month ago) link
I mean, I will say the two studio albums she played on were miles better than any of the other reunion era studio stuff, but I'm not sure how much credit she takes for that.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 8 March 2024 14:53 (one month ago) link
she wrote a bunch of stuff on beyond the eirie or whatever it's called, but it's still not like, great. It's ok.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 8 March 2024 15:37 (one month ago) link
Neil Young, but that was the '80s - most of America was crazy for Reagan.
― birdistheword, Friday, 8 March 2024 19:10 (one month ago) link
But yeah, I can't say it's a big loss. I can't see anyone getting nostalgic for the Paz-era of the Pixies 20 years from now.
― birdistheword, Friday, 8 March 2024 19:12 (one month ago) link
maybe they'll hire a third Kim
― alpine static, Friday, 8 March 2024 19:45 (one month ago) link
Jong Un
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 8 March 2024 19:49 (one month ago) link
nah the band already has a dictator
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 8 March 2024 19:50 (one month ago) link
They shouldn't hire but they should back Kim Carnes for an album, how random and awesome would that be?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 March 2024 20:17 (one month ago) link
ha ha ha
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 8 March 2024 20:33 (one month ago) link
Kim Gordon joins and they reinvent themselves as mumbletrap.
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 8 March 2024 20:36 (one month ago) link
As long as it isn't Kim Mitchell.
― MarkoP, Friday, 8 March 2024 20:40 (one month ago) link
Thought the thread revive was for the BBC Sessions album which came out today and rocks super hard. Version of “In Heaven” is brutal and beautiful.
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 8 March 2024 20:58 (one month ago) link
It's just the vinyl reissue of the same one from 1998, right?
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 8 March 2024 21:00 (one month ago) link
As long as it isn't Kim Mitchell.― MarkoP, Friday, March 8, 2024 3:40 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― MarkoP, Friday, March 8, 2024 3:40 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
might as well go for a broken face
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Friday, 8 March 2024 21:01 (one month ago) link
Oh, wow, never mind. I see that it is, but with more material. Going to have to check it out then, I was under the impression it was just a straight vinyl reissue.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 8 March 2024 21:01 (one month ago) link
sounds like it's time for a zwan reunion. paz & billy can patch over their personal issues with whatever weird conspiracy stuff they may be into
― ufo, Saturday, 9 March 2024 01:03 (one month ago) link
I was thinking that, lol
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Saturday, 9 March 2024 01:16 (one month ago) link
wait can someone gimme the cliffs on the timeline of the kims, and departures of each?
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 02:28 (one month ago) link
Zwan gets back together, then Frank Black hires D'arcy and Billy's head explodes
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 9 March 2024 03:24 (one month ago) link
xposts: no, it's all tracks they recorded for 6 complete sessions at the BBC 1988-1991.. 3LP/2CD/digital. The previous release was just a selection.
― StanM, Saturday, 9 March 2024 03:31 (one month ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rdLiTQRP0o
I think about this interview a lot, about him painting to clear his mind after a concert, the bit where the interviewer brings up Lynda Barry (which led me down a rabbit hole) and also about him saying he doesn't care if he seems a shadow of his former self, that keeping away from a day job is his top priority. I guess like a lot of older rock musicians he doesn't have the luxury of spending several years writing and recording.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 00:39 (one month ago) link
Always considered the idea that he shouldn't keep Pixies going without Kim Deal laughable
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 10 March 2024 00:55 (one month ago) link
Trompe Le Monde is the best album album Charles / Black etc ever made, Kim wasn't really involved. She did other great stuff.
― kraudive, Sunday, 10 March 2024 01:18 (one month ago) link
I read that oral history about the Pixies, which was illuminating. Yeah, Charles was pretty high strung, but Kim seemed like a tremendous pain in the ass. Iirc she was barely involved in either of the last two records. There's something to be said for bands that burn bright but fast. CCR, Smiths, Pixies, VU, even the Beatles, just this compressed productivity with a huge impact.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 March 2024 01:35 (one month ago) link
I kinda always thought the reason she did not have any tunes on the later records was more they were not really welcome.
Never really got it myself as I thought the real pixie dust was when both of them sang on a tune. Oh well…
― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Sunday, 10 March 2024 01:45 (one month ago) link
I was quite shocked when I found out how she doesn't actually have have any of her own songs on Doolittle, not even as much singing as I recalled, but what is there is memorable
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 01:56 (one month ago) link
i would like to register my discontent with this line of Kim dismissal itt i have nothing to add except that it’s gross and i hate it that is all
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 10 March 2024 02:05 (one month ago) link
Kim of course has nothing to prove to anyone, but even "Gigantic," that was a co-write based on I think Charles's repetitive bass riff and maybe he had the chorus too, at least the repeating title. She really didn't have much creative input in the Pixies, which no doubt led to some friction, but if the book is much indication I think it was more her unpredictable behavior and unreliability that ticked him off. Like, skipping sound checks, being late to places, vanishing on tour, that sort of thing.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 March 2024 02:08 (one month ago) link
That said, I can't imagine the band without her, she rules and is of course a key component of what makes that band so great.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 March 2024 02:10 (one month ago) link
Who is dismissing her? Most people thinks she has the most vital longevity of all the band members but she was kind of sidelined from Doolittle onwards.
I finally listened to Frank Black's Oddballs, it's fun and worthwhile but not really up there with the best of his early albums.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 02:12 (one month ago) link
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 10 March 2024 02:36 (one month ago) link
Some listings say that's a co-written song. Is there any handy listing of all the Pixies songwriting credits? Did Joey write "Levitate Me"?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 03:27 (one month ago) link
"silver" and "gigantic" are credited to deal/black (though deal is responsible for most of "silver" at the very least), "levitate me" is black/lovering/jean walsh (black's then-girlfriend i think), lenchantin co-wrote a few tracks on head carrier and beneath the eyrie and santiago co-wrote a few on doggerel
― ufo, Sunday, 10 March 2024 03:43 (one month ago) link
"Into The White" is all hers?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 03:56 (one month ago) link
black is the sole writer on that despite deal singing lead
"bam thwok" is the only pixies track that's credited only to deal afaik
― ufo, Sunday, 10 March 2024 04:51 (one month ago) link
I love "Bam Thwok", strange that she'd get a sole credit so late on. Seems like only months later that she left
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 10 March 2024 05:02 (one month ago) link
Worth mentioning the recent unearthing of "Go Man Go" that was stapled onto the Last Splash reissue which gives a co-credit to Black Francis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcYCyzvNY1M
(sounds like a stepsibling of "Where Is My Mind?"/"Caribou"/"Velouria")
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 10 March 2024 05:16 (one month ago) link
and here is the "Silver" demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH_g46UfHVQ
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 10 March 2024 05:26 (one month ago) link
"bam thwok" was the first and only reunion song the original lineup made back in 2004, and i guess deal/black relations were pretty decent at the time since he let her write it
― ufo, Sunday, 10 March 2024 06:44 (one month ago) link
they also did Ain’t That Pretty At All for a Zevon tribKim had Bam Thwok sitting around intended as a Breeders song and Charles suggested recording one of hers as an olive branch for excluding her writing the previous time around
― bae (sic), Sunday, 10 March 2024 09:25 (one month ago) link
Thwok shows that a whole album of Deal songs backed by the Pixies blokes could have been great, but Bam / Ain’t is a great imaginary A-side / B-side commemoration of their whole reunion. She was right to quit rather than risk blowing their legacy; whatever the name has done since, it’s fine to think of as a different band.
― bae (sic), Sunday, 10 March 2024 09:29 (one month ago) link