Pixies: Classic or Dud

yeah she rules. saw her playing bass for RTX in a tiny club about 10 years ago and she was awesome. killer stage presence.

her performance on the new Pixies album is really pretty good. i like her duet w Frank on "Bel Esprit". and her helping write "All I Think About Now", a song about looking back on The Pixies, is cool.

but Albini's "bar band" comment has never been more appropriate. it's very generic.

also i'm pretty sure they aren't singing "Um Chagga Lagga" but "Boom Shacka Lacka", a reference to Ali G

wow i've never read about zwan's dissolution before. the corgan quotes on the wiki page are pretty crazy.
also didn't know that paz played on the first brighblack album.

haw, come on billy, this is just good clean fun: "Sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders."

There are a few duds on here, and the idea of having Kim Deal's replacement sing a song addressed to Kim Deal is beyond misguided, but by and large this album is better than I could have hoped. Plays like a slightly above average Frank Black solo LP; it's the best thing he's done since Svn Fngrs.

I like how cranky and peevish Frank Black sounds. He's at his best when he's not trying to be funny or weird, but when those qualities seem almost unintentional.

Bluefinger would have made an excellent Pixies record

also i'm pretty sure they aren't singing "Um Chagga Lagga" but "Boom Shacka Lacka", a reference to Ali G

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, October 7, 2016 4:26 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or Apache Indian.

Bluefinger would have made an excellent Pixies record

― PaulTMA, Sunday, October 9, 2016 12:49 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree!

Aside from "Captain Pasty" and "Threshold Apprehension" I think Bluefinger sounded like a regular more recent Black Francis album.

i agree bluefinger is really good but even better was the svn fngrs ep.

I mean the Pixies should have recorded it (and Svn Fngrs)

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14572158_10157677727350571_2824272774505465435_n.jpg?oh=b13860a33b77bb073d70a721ea9ffaaf&oe=58AB9AD3

https://twitter.com/lucyandamysdad/status/785199542853570560

Pretty sure that McLusky and et al. took over for the Pixies in the smartest way. The Beatles also had followers who improved on them...

Mclusky, give me a break

http://concert.arte.tv/fr/berlin-live-pixies

is Head Carrier any good?

i don't know why i feel more open to giving it a chance than the first post-reunion album.

it was pretty good, it was better than the previous one anyway. I gave it a listen again recently after kind of forgetting it existed and I liked it. That boom shaka laka song is great if stupid.

i kind of grew to like it. it really feels like a Pixies album at times. there are some really nice melodies throughout and it kind of has a Trompe Le Monde feel to it at parts. like the whole build-up intro to "Bel Esprit" feels very TLM. obviously its not anywhere close to the heights of the first run albums but it's good, certainly better than Indie Cindy.

Paz is pretty cool too. i know this is a difficult thing for people to get over, cos Kim Deal was such an important part of the original band, but Paz is really great. that song she sings and had a hand in writing, "All I Think About Now", is kind of an interesting way to deconstruct "Where Is My Mind". she also directed a cool music video for "Classic Masher".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDJayVhhdA

Really enjoyed that. Surprised how good the sound quality is.

impressive mullet on Charles

Thanks for posting that, LG. I was there! First festival I attended, it was a very wet day..
Pixies were the highlight (but then they were my favorite band back then), other performances I can recall that were great: Elvis Costello (solo) and Nick Cave (in awesome striped pants) & the Bad Seeds.

They are like children in this video!

so young.

glad you enjoyed it as I did

I'm a big fan of Kim Shattuck and the Muffs, and some things I've read about her (short-lived) experience in tha band did not seem too positive. Nu-Pixies seems a little depressing on the whole but I hope I'm wrong

I interviewed Joey once, and it was either in that interview or some other one I read, back when the band reunited, where he conceded the money he was going to get from the reunion was the difference between a good school district and a bad school district for his kid. I totally understand, but that's still pretty mercenary.

The Pixies were once my favorite band, but thanks to 18+/21+ laws in Philly I never had a chance to see them live during their heyday (save their opening slot for U2 at the Spectrum, but I couldn't go to that one). I still regret seeing them on the first reunion tour, because it was just so ... bleh. They totally didn't care. Saw them a couple of more times since that, incidentally, maybe once with a dude on bass (can't remember) and once with Shattuck. They still couldn't have cared less, and neither could I.

What's weird is that I saw Frank Black a few times, and a couple of those shows were great. I guess the chemistry of the Pixies was sort of off from the start and only got worse over time.

I saw them live once in their heyday, in late 1990. They didn't seem to enjoy playing live at all...or just playing music, period, or being in a band. Apart from a single Joey feedback solo, they all seemed like they'd rather be anywhere else.

I interviewed Joey once, and it was either in that interview or some other one I read, back when the band reunited, where he conceded the money he was going to get from the reunion was the difference between a good school district and a bad school district for his kid. I totally understand, but that's still pretty mercenary.

It was, I think, in a Spin profile early in the reunion where Kim said that the reason she agreed to reform - after several refusals to Charles - was that Joey called and told her the school district thing.

Yeah, maybe that was it?

I did interview Charles around the time of the reunion. It was a great conversation, and at some point he started complaining about reunions, and how they're all so lazy, especially the ones that aren't playing any new songs or anything. Then he pauses and adds "OK, so I'm a big hypocrite."

hey this new pixies album is pretty good.

It's like a solid Frank Black album, unfortunately I'm not really interested in solid Frank Black albums.

Still need to get Oddballs and Black Sessions someday.

I'm trying to decide which is the more lighting-in-a-bottle band, the Pixies or the Smiths. Right now I'm thinking .. Pixies.

Given that the pixies wrote most of their best song within the span of about a year, I'd say Pixies too.
(also, these days I just feel too conflicted listening to anything that Morrissey had a hand in, so)

🏈 Joey & Dave help predict the 2021 @NFL Season - for the @nyjets and the @Patriots respectively.

Check them out with @SPIN here:https://t.co/s9XbvdvbS0 pic.twitter.com/z6arEPwdFM

— PIXIES (@PIXIES) September 10, 2021

Joey is a Jets fan? Wow, guess I don't like Pixies anymore.

lol I just chuckled because I scrolled past this and assumed it was like an NFL promoted tweet or something, took me far too long to put all the pieces together

And this I know
The Jets 16 and 0

if man is five
(if man is five)
then the devil is six
(then the devil is six)
the the JETS ARE ZERO
THE JETS ARE ZERO

Dave looking totes ready for a woodworking & magic tricks show on PBS.

Ngl, I kind of want that sweater

I got no lips, I got no tongue
I got a broken Gase...

Joey’s Jets commentary in that article is pretty funny

Woke up in the middle of the night with the belated epiphany, with well over 30 years of listening to this band under my belt, that for all the attention the Pixies gets for its loud-quiet dynamics and screaming and guitar squall, its lyrical world-building - the Spanglish, the gruesome imagery, the surfing stuff, the space stuff - remains utterly novel and just as key to its success.

Do the reunion records betray that world that they built, or add to it, or just ignore it?

I don't know if the reunion records ignore that world but I'm definitely ignoring the reunion records

disclaimer: i'm a jerkass.

the reunion records effectively ruined pixies for me. it's self-parody done so well that the it completely and totally eviscerates its source material. i can't even appreciate their initial run anymore. it all sounds like an unfunny joke at this point.

maybe i never liked them to begin with??? idk.

they suck though, those reunion albums. a lot of folks said they were passable but kind of boring "pixies by numbers" but if you really sit with those albums like i could with the older stuff (at one point in time anyway), they will drive you mad. stupid lyrics, plodding musicianship, and just an general overall vibe of bad taste in the air.

anyway. yeah. breeders were a cool band.

sorry for typos. pixie make mad.

Breeders are a cool band, All Nerve was great.

I've never heard the reunion albums but I saw the Pixies with Kim in 2004 and 2010 or 2011 and both were good. Zero interest in seeing them post-KD.

I've successfully ignored the reunion albums, but I wish I ignored the reunion, period. Finally seeing them live, even a couple of times with Deal, left a bad taste in my mouth. I interviewed Charles/Frank/Black once, around the time of the reunion, and after complaining about contemporary country and alt-rock stations pandering to their audiences, giving them what they want and nothing more, I asked:

Me: But don’t you think these reunion shows are in danger of pandering?

FB: Good point. Yes, there is a certain amount of pandering there. We are just playing the A-list. We’re not trying to challenge everybody. We’re trying to satisfy a lot of customers who have never seen us before, who know the records or at least have the best-of collection. They’re curious about the band, and we’re scratching their itch. We sound just like the records. Here we are – ta-dah! We feel like that’s really what people are paying for. We’re not doing the “how’s it going out there!?” and then kicking out a beach ball. We don’t do any of that. We do “La La Love You” and “Tame” back to back. We’re still raw. We’re not trying to be poignant or meaningful. We’re doing our thing, take it or leave it. People are more or less taking it. ... So, yeah, I guess I stand a hypocrite.

I guess good for them for making new music, but also, bad for us.

Personally, still love the records.

Not a fan of most of the reunion albums, but Beneath the Eryie (the most recent) was fine, though still not a patch on the original run. The reunion show I saw in 2004 was great, but to be fair, I never saw them during the original run. The second show I saw five or six years later was pretty meh.