I just finished reading the excellent book "Fool The World: The Oral History Of A Band Called Pixies." Great book about an outstanding band. Of course I have been listening to tons of Pixies while reading it. I've been a Pixies fan for a long time but find myself enjoying them more and more as time goes on.

It's truly unique music that seems as fresh now as the day it was recorded. The Pixies were way ahead of their time ('87-'92) and have influenced countless bands. Bowie and U2 are big fans, and Nirvana stated many times that their breakthrough hit Smells Like Teen Spirit is a Pixies rip.

For those who've never heard them, they're pretty hard to describe. Their songs can be very weird, dark and surreal but at the same time extremely hook-filled and melodic. There's elements of all sorts of rock in there, from punk to surf to metal to a sort of artsy cut up proto-grunge. And on vocals, Frank Black screams his head off while Kim Deal chimes in with ethereal girl group vocals from an alternate universe. Great, great stuff. Anybody else fans of this band?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-28 05:51 by ohnonotyouagain.

My old avant-garde film prof at UMass, Don Levine, is the Debaser. The jist is this: the class met one night a week for 2.5 hours - Levine would spend the first hour analyzing the hell out of a movie we hadn't seen yet and would then show it, after he'd given away, or debased, all the plot points.

First movie of the semester? "Un Chien Andalou" by Luis Brunel, where they do in fact slice up an eyeball.

Once I ran into Levine on campus and I was wearing a Pixies Bossanova t-shirt - I said hi and he looked at my shirt and said "They wrote a song about me" before he started talking about his mother.

A couple of years later I ran into Black F. at a - get this - Breeders show, went over to him, and asked point-blank, "Is Don Levine the Debaser?" He cracked up and admitted to it.

Just to complete the mental image, The Debaser is actually a dead ringer for Newman on Seinfeld.

JuanTCB Wrote:
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> My old avant-garde film prof at UMass, Don Levine,
> is the Debaser. The jist is this: the class met
> one night a week for 2.5 hours - Levine would
> spend the first hour analyzing the hell out of a
> movie we hadn't seen yet and would then show it,
> after he'd given away, or debased, all the plot
> points.
>
> First movie of the semester? "Un Chien Andalou"
> by Luis Brunel, where they do in fact slice up an
> eyeball.
>
> Once I ran into Levine on campus and I was wearing
> a Pixies Bossanova t-shirt - I said hi and he
> looked at my shirt and said "They wrote a song
> about me" before he started talking about his
> mother.
>
> A couple of years later I ran into Black F. at a -
> get this - Breeders show, went over to him, and
> asked point-blank, "Is Don Levine the Debaser?"
> He cracked up and admitted to it.
>
> Just to complete the mental image, The Debaser is
> actually a dead ringer for Newman on Seinfeld.

That's a fantastic story! I've never heard that one. It should have been in the book. Debaser is one of my top two or three fav Pixies songs, and now I will never be able to listen to it again without picturing a guy who looks like Newman. Which I should hold against you, but I think it's hilarious. Thanks for sharing!

love this band.
Doolittle is up there ,amongst my favourite albums of all time.
Seen them 3 times in the last 2 years, on the reunion tour.

Santiago smokes on guitar, and Lovering is a great, underrated drummer.

Hope to hear new material soon- but apparently Black, has shelved these recordings, and has deemed them, as not good enough.

Here three even more underrated bands:
Dag Vag, Omega, Hobo Blues Band.
But Pixies should be more spread, no doubt.

Bro, is Dag Vag the band that sings "Pop-Op-I-Top"? If so, yeah, they should be on there.

Underrated? You are kidding me! Overrated more like. Yeah they did some good songs, Hey, Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven etc, but thats all. Frank Black is very talented and has a great voice, but the band just does'nt do it for me.

Yeah, Elmo - that's them.
Undersigned will meet them next week.

Cool. Have you thought of coming to the US for a fall show this year (if any)?

Adrian-L Wrote:
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> love this band.
> Doolittle is up there ,amongst my favourite albums
> of all time.
> Seen them 3 times in the last 2 years, on the
> reunion tour.
>
> Santiago smokes on guitar, and Lovering is a
> great, underrated drummer.
>
> Hope to hear new material soon- but apparently
> Black, has shelved these recordings, and has
> deemed them, as not good enough.


I haven't seen the reunion tour and am now kicking myself because I may have missed out. They are playing a few dates this summer in Europe but I don't think anyone knows if that's it or if there are more dates down the line. At least I've seen Frank Black three times and got to briefly met him twice.

I'd also read that they tried to record a new album but it didn't work out. Too bad. Maybe they should try doing an album of covers - they always did great covers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-28 17:02 by ohnonotyouagain.

ohno, you should be getting your package. Let me know if it doesn't arrive soon. Mailed last week. Hell, Georgia to Kentucky ain't too far, we could have just met in Nashville and swapped! Snail mail, indeed.

Big Al Wrote:
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> Underrated? You are kidding me! Overrated more
> like.


Yeah, they certainly arent underated by the critics..
And Smells Like Teen SPirit is hardly a Debaser rip. It's a million times cathier, for one. Pixies may have been a huge influence on Cobain, but he could do melody a lot better, hence became more popular.

i've never heard the pixies and never will. i'm closed-minded, but i do have a strong opinion about this band: they suck.

since when were the Pixies 'underrated' ?

they've been critically acclaimed from the start and namedropped by tons of cool bands as a major influence

underrated they certainly aint!

StonesTod Wrote:
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> i've never heard the pixies and never will. i'm
> closed-minded, but i do have a strong opinion
> about this band: they suck.

For shame. Frank Black always says such nice things about you!

andy js Wrote:
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> since when were the Pixies 'underrated' ?
>
> they've been critically acclaimed from the start
> and namedropped by tons of cool bands as a major
> influence
>
> underrated they certainly aint!

Under rated in the sense that the average music fan still doesn't know who they are, and in the sense that their songs never get played on classic rock radio.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ohno, you should be getting your package. Let me
> know if it doesn't arrive soon. Mailed last week.
> Hell, Georgia to Kentucky ain't too far, we could
> have just met in Nashville and swapped! Snail
> mail, indeed.

Got it, thanks. I thought Handsome Girls was two discs, not four. Shows how much I know about bootlegs - very little. So I figure I owe you two discs. I'll send you a selection of MP3s, including ones from StonesTod's favorite band, The Pixies. Also a little gem I discovered, Ron Wood's 1-2-3-4