Pages tagged “Pixies”

The man born Charles Thompson is many things to many people. After five years of bearing the moniker Black Francis as Pixies frontman, he took up the name Frank Black for his staggeringly prolific solo career. Only recently has he decided to reassume the name that brought him acclaim. Paste caught up with Thompson while he was gearing up for a summer of shows with Stone Temple Pilots, and he gave us the skinny on his old band's recent reunion, why he doesn’t really care too much who he tours with, and just what "Black Francis" means to him.

Paste: What made you want to do gigs with Stone Temple Pilots this summer? It seems like an odd fit musically, or maybe that they should be opening for you.

Black: Yeah, I guess I’m not too concerned necessarily with the "fit" of a band I’m playing with. I feel like that’s something that music critics are more concerned about than the musicians. You know, we’re both rock 'n' rollers, we’ve both been around for about the same time. I may not know them personally, but we’ve probably been through the same things—doing shows at holes in the wall, riding in a cargo van to the next gig. We both know where we’re coming from. At the same time, it’s frustrating being the opening act, because you know that they’re there to see the headliners and not you. It pays well, though. Unless it’s a serious mismatch, I’ll never really say no to playing a decent gig.

Well, it appears that any talk of a post-reunion album of original Pixies material was premature. Bassist Kim Deal doesn't want in, apparently, and that's her right. Wait a minute... wasn't this the same tug-of-war that broke up the Pixies in the first place? Ah, whatever. Even if these guys do split again, they'll get back together within a couple of years and be hailed as conquering heroes once more.

But, okay... if we can't have a new Pixies album, how about an eclectic collection of rock artists covering the band's old material? Sounds original. Here it comes, though: Dig For Fire: A Tribute to the Pixes. The album is out digitally today on iTunes with a bonus EP attached. A physical counterpart will arrive Nov. 27 on American Laundromat Records.

The track list's highlights include They Might Be Giants taking on the gorgeous Bossanova closer "Havalina," Mogwai scaling the biblical horrors of "Gouge Away," OK Go switching genders for Deal's "Gigantic" and British Sea Power trying to screech through "Caribou." Here are the full details:

1. Morning Theft - "Ana"
2. The Rosebuds - "Break My Body"
3. Dylan in the Movies - "Down To The Well"
4. Joy Zipper - "Wave of Mutilation"
5. OK Go - "Gigantic"
6. Bedroom Walls - "Stormy Weather"
7. Mogwai - "Gouge Away"
8. Knife & Fork - "Motorway To Roswell"
9. They Might Be Giants - "Havalina"
10. Bunnies - "Alec Eiffel"
11. Elk City - "Monkey Gone To Heaven"
12. Fashion Victims - "Hey" (Double Dragon Remix)
13. The Commons w/ Elizabeth Harper - "Here Comes Your Man"
14. John P. Strohm - "Where Is My Mind?"
15. British Sea Power - "Caribou"

iTunes Bonus EP:
1. David Miller & Castle Arms - “Manta Ray”
2. Elk City - “Number 13 Baby”
3. Charles Douglas - “Bone Machine”
4. Julie Peel - “The Happening”
5. PC Munoz - “I Bleed”
6. Fashion Victims - “Hey (Blue Version)”
7. Joe Harvard Band - “In Heaven (Everything is Fine)”

Related links:
Dig For Fire on MySpace
Paste: Wave of Mutilation - Best of Pixies
YouTube: Pixies - "Dig For Fire"

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Do you like the Pixies? Do you like raucous, loud songs that sound like they’re from Appalachia? Then you’ll definitely want to check out Brooklyn-based O’Death’s new 7", coming to an Internet near you. The 7" will be released digitally on October 30 and in real, wax form on Nov. 6 in honor of the band’s appearances at CMJ.

The disc features two songs, “Low Tide” and “I Think I’m Fine,” as well as a cover of the Pixies’ “Nimrod’s Son.” The digital version of the 7" will include the song, while buying the real, hard disc will get you a free download passcode. Digital or vinyl: you win!

O’Death at CMJ:

October
18 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Sound Fix Cafe w/ The Black Swans and Lewis & Clarke (presented by Skyscraper Magazine, La Société Expéditionnaire, and Solid PR)
19 - New York, N.Y. @ United States of Americana Panel
19 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Union Pool w/ Takka Takka, The Black Hollies, and others (Official Ernest Jenning Record Co. CMJ Showcase)
20 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ The Yard w/ Old Time Relijun, White Magic, and others

Related links:
ODeath.net
O’Death on MySpace
Pixies on MySpace

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

On October 3, 2006, Pixies Live at the Paradise in Boston, was released by Eagle Vision. The DVD highlights an intimate concert by the seminal band that helped define the “alternative” sound during the 1990’s. Cited as an influence by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, the Boston-based band - Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering - plays to a packed house of 200 during the 29-song, 110-minute DVD, reprising much of its most popular material. Bonus material includes a never-before-released 1986 twelve-song set in Boston.

MVD Visual has announced a worldwide Nov. 7 release of loudQUIETloud, a DVD capturing legendary college rock group the Pixies.

After an unexpected breakup in 1992, the Pixies reunited in 2004 to embark on a sold-out tour. loudQUIETloud will focus on the rehearsals and warm up shows for the band’s reunion tour while presenting an intimate look at the less glamorous side of the touring band lifestyle.

To view a trailer of loudQUIETloud, click here.

On Aug. 22, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release Live in Newport, a DVD capturing the Pixies’ live set at the 2004 Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. The disc features the 22 acoustic songs from the 79 minute set performed by the original Pixies lineup of Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering.

Also included is a 21-minute mini-documentary that was caught on film by director Michael B. Borofsky and features clips of the Pixies rehearsing.

Tracklisting

1) Bone Machine
2) Cactus
3) Ed Is Dead
4) All Around The World
5) Subbacultcha
6) Monkey Gone To Heaven
7) Is She Weird?
8) Here Comes Your Man
9) River Euphrates
10) Velouria
11) Wave Of Mutilation
12) I Bleed
13) Crackity Jones
14) Gouge Away
15) Hey
16) The Holiday Song
17) Nimrod’s Song
18) Mr. Grieves
19) Caribou
20) Vamos
21) Where Is My Mind?
22) Gigantic

One of the latest records to go gold (signifying sales of 500,000) isn’t by a new band that’s burning up the modern-radio airwaves. Alt-rock legends the Pixies recently received a gold record for their groundbreaking 1988 album Surfer Rosa.

Although it took seven years for the record to achieve this status, it’s the band’s second release to do so. Doolittle, the 1989 follow-up to Surfer Rosa, also achieved gold standing in 1995.

Best of Pixies? Seven Years of Perfect Pop and Blessed Noise is more like it. But I suppose titles don’t matter much in the end. It’s the music that counts, and it’s a good thing, too. With each passing year, the Pixies sound more and more like they belong on that special pedestal, right up there with Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones—the holiest of holies of rock 'n’ roll.

Hopefully I’m preaching to the choir, but if not, buck up for a sonic sermon.

Since any Pixies compilation—with the band’s amply stacked catalog—is going to be far better than good, I’ll go ahead and recommend from the jump that you do yourself a favor. If you don’t have ’em already, go out and buy each and every Pixies album, preferably in the following order—Doolittle, Surfer Rosa, Come On Pilgrim, Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde. Also highly recommended is Complete B Sides.

But if you’re short on cash, or the type of person who needs to sample a group’s work before you commit to its entire catalog, then you have two compilations to choose from: Death To The Pixies, released in 1997, or this latest retrospective, Wave of Mutilation. The former consists of two discs—the first containing 17 tunes spanning the band’s five studio recordings and the second, a fan-favorite concert recording. While not at all a bad album (like I said, it’s hard to go wrong with these songs), Death To The Pixies doesn’t capture the band’s musical evolution as well as it should and sacrifices a number of excellent songs to make room for the live disc.

Wave of Mutilation is much of the same, minus the show. So, if you already own Death To The Pixies, you won’t need this one. Still, the new 23-track anthology has many advantages over its predecessor. The tracks are mostly chronological—which makes more sense than the scattered DTTP—so you can basically follow the band’s development from the beginning. Also, in addition to having every one of DTTP’s studio tracks (minus one or two), Best of Pixies features more material from each of the band’s full-lengths as well as two essential songs from B Sides—“Into the White” and a laid-back (for the Pixies) cover of Neil Young’s “Winterlong.”

This is infinitely imaginative, hi-octane rock from a band that was “alternative” when the term actually meant something. Along with the likes of Sonic Youth, The Replacements, Black Flag, the Meat Puppets and the Melvins, the Pixies influenced Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and—through him—the entire ’90s grunge explosion that followed, forever altering the course of pop music.

But historical importance aside, one of the most amazing things about the Pixies is their ability to pull out absolute pop gems like “Here Comes Your Man” and “Gigantic” in the midst of stream-of-scream, schizo anthems like “Broken Face” and the breathy “Tame,” and at times they even fuse the two approaches with beautiful precision (“Debaser”). And then there’s all the endearingly wacky Spanglish, including a bizarro obsession with the word “muñeca,” (or “wrist”), not to mention lyrical references to mermaids, aliens, and oceanography (honestly, can you think of another band who sings about the Mariana Trench?). Combine this with a sanctified grasp of melody, some of the most unforgettable guitar hooks ever and a penchant for avant-noise experimentation in a pop context, and you’ve got one of the greatest bands to ever grace modern music. And this greatness is aptly captured on Wave Of Mutilation, making it a proper place to start for someone who wants a taste of each Pixies recording. Still, you should probably just shell out the cash and treat yourself to the whole catalog.