| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| that means soda |
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 10:53:31
Well this must have been discussed before, "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”, but how did you, and when did you, first make contact with mr. Black here.
I first saw him in my TV and was pretty blown away... 'was that headache video. I was so exited I had found something that I finally liked, I cried. I tell you, I'm a sensitive guy.
That was in 2003. June, 2003.
Montreal, October 1st 2002 |
| 35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| that means soda |
Posted - 06/23/2007 : 14:57:04
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
Bought that CD and then over the next couple years, it became one of my favorites as I listened to it while I rode my bike alone through some hills outside of town for hours and hours. It was like Frank became my friend on those bike rides. The DNA of those songs mixed with the DNA in my own body.
 Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
Well this thread has bloomed since I last was here. Good to see all these ufo stories.
Had a similar experience with that album, man, only a good 11 years later. I used to live in a small town where I felt very lonely, and at night I would put on my roller blades and roam the streets and the deserted-for-summer school yards listening to that CD. Knowing you're probably the only one in a 100 miles radius to have ever heard these songs is a lonesome, yet very intense feeling. Like an alien guy catching radio waves of a great tune in the deep, deep space a million years from now.
Montreal, October 1st 2002 |
| langdonboom |
Posted - 06/18/2007 : 10:09:56
I never get tired of telling this story....
In 1989 I was just getting introduced to music beyond rap (RUN DMC and the FAT BOYS were kinda running their course with me...) and my uncle who had played me Elvis Costello and the Pretneders (and who always has been into good, integral music and who would frequently bemoan to me how lame popular music had gotten since those two guys came out) one day sent me a tape-to-tape copy of Dolittle while I was away at summer camp, saying "THIS IS THE BEST THING I'VE HEARD IN YEARS" - turns out he was at the local 'indie' record shop in our town of Akron, OH (Quonset Hut) and overherad the album playing on the store stereo, and immediately asked for a copy - on tape, of course (this was 89, so tape was still the norm). So I get the tape and asked around the camp to all the 'cool' kids if they had heard it - and nobody had! (these were they kids that turned me onto REM, Violent Femmes, and other college rock staples) So I played that tape every day for the next four weeks, and then when I got back home, I went out and bought my first CD player. And what did my uncle get me as a present? My first CD - the Pixies' Dolittle. The rest is fucking hisotry as I quickly searched out Come on Pligrim - first on tape, then on the double CD with Surfer Rosa (the single albums weren't available yet) and suddenly Bossonova came out, then Trompe Le Monde, and by that time I was the biggest pixies fan I personally knew. The saddest thing in my life was that all those high school years I couldn't go see the pixies because they played too far away on a SCHOOL NIGHT! Opening for the Cure - nope. Playing with Love and Rockets - nope. Playing with Pere Ubu in Cleveland - sorry, school tomorrow. So it was with much anticipation that I got in line for my wristband to go see them open for U2 (admittedly not my first choice of venue - a giant coleseum) on March 25th, 1992. But as fate would have it, that day would turn into the worst day of my life as I moved away from my childhood home of 12 years and was forced to miss the show.
Of course it was made a bit nicer when I moved back to Ohio just in time to see Frank and Joey Santiago play in Cleveland with the Rev. Horton Heat on the first Frank Black tour. The music lives on. |
| Luis Bunuel |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 17:03:26
My dad had Death to the Pixies and Teenager.... I got really into the Pixies first, and bought all of their albums, then when I had exhausted those I moved on to Frank's solo career, and, was of course blown away by it, and picked up everything I could find. This was in my freshman year of high school, 01-02.  |
| kelladwella |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 10:51:05
In late 80s early 90s my old schoolfriend and later roommate Martin used to listen to this weird, dissonant sounding bands, among them Pixies, Breeders and the first two Frank records. Whereas I would mainly listen to good sounding rock music that made sense, like Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd.
The next decade or so moved on to all those grunge bands and later the Trip Hop scene. I got into Hip Hop records mostly. During these years I had a feeling from time to time that I should give this one band he was so crazy about, The Pixies, another chance. Sometimes I did, mostly not. But I kept on thinking about them. Don't know why. I was fascinated and pushed away at the same time.
And of course I loved the ending scene of fight club for the song that was playing. Without digging any deeper.
The beginning of 2004 was a pretty gray and musicless time of my life. But one day there was this poster on the street that said the Pixies would do reunion tour with a show in Berlin. On an impulse I bought a ticket and decided that this would be the chance to really check out their stuff in preparation of the show. Martin gladly helped me out with the necessary records.
And from the first listen I was completely blown away. It just had clicked and I was sent into a state of euphoria, It felt like a spiritual experience. Or an awakening of some thoughts. Another way to listen to music. I don't know.
Then of course I got obsessed with the Pixies. Had to have all their records, check out their respective solo projects. The concert was the best concert experience I had so far.
So, April 2004 for me.
This thread has an AA like feel to it. In a good way. |
| Jose Jones |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 09:22:02
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
This thread gives me chills. Especially trobriander's post. Yeah, we all realized something was up, didn't we? Something more than just "Hmmm, I like these guys" or "Wow, this is kinda cool."
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
i second that. there is something about these songs (i swear that was an unintentional subbacultcha reference) and this man that is so unique that it seems to transend "music." it's like a whole other hobby.
"what do you like to do?"
"well, go camping, listen to music, read, cook, listen to frank black/ pixies..."
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they were the heroes of old, men of renown. |
| gyaneshwar |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 07:38:16
The Pixies were kind of a soundtrack constantly running in the background of my high school life. I knew them - "Planet of Sound" in particular stands out - and my friends were avid listeners, but Pixies were just something I heard in the car while we drove around. I wasn't involved in them, per se. I even remember my friend Craig writing a horror script in high school titled "Ed Is Dead" - clearly influenced by the band. This was - um, 1992 or so. I didn't own any albums at that point.
I remember very specifically hearing "Los Angeles" in 1993 on a compilation stupidly entitled Generation X. It also had Belly's "Feed the Tree," Juliana Hatfield's "My Sister" - stuff like that. Anyway, I loved "Los Angeles," and very quickly bought the Orange album. I was hooked. Almost simultaneously, The Breeders "Cannonball" was playing non-stop on MTV, and I fell in love with them as well. For some reason, though, the Pixies catalog was unintentionally ignored by me until around 1998, when I heard "Planet of Sound" again on some Dutch compilation CD and went nuts with nostalgia and purchased Trompe Le Monde. A year later in grad school, I was up late playing cards and my friend J.B. kept playing an album where some freak was screaming, "YOU'RE SO PRETTY WHEN YOU'RE UNFAITHFUL TO ME!!!!"
"Holy shit," I said. "Who is this?"
"Pixies, you jack ass," he replied.
After that I think I listened to Pixies and Frank non-stop for about two years. My obsession has not since ebbed. I'm as impressed now as I was then.
|
| Jose Jones |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 06:17:59
i was in 5th grade when weezer became my favorite band. i was obsessed. in 1999 they made a then rare appearance on a tribute album for some band called "the pixies." never heard of them, but new weezer recording? i'm there!
i got it as soon as it came out. i immediately skipped to the bands i knew i liked on the album: weezer, superdrag, local h, nada surf. what struck me was that weezer's cover sounded like an actual weezer song, superdrag's cover sounded like an actual superdrag song, and so on. how was this possible? how could one band make songs so diverse? i HAD to hear the originals.
a week or so later i was at a used cd shop at a mall. the only pixies they had was Death to the Pixies. "jackpot!" i thought. 2 discs, a best of, songs i recognized from the tribute album all in one place! i popped it in and was blown away. every song was infinitely better than the covers! and this guy's voice! what was WRONG with this guy?! it was the weirdest, most refreshing thing i had ever heard.
i forced my brother to listen to them. he soon became hooked as well. i set about collecting every pixies album/b-side.
i was obsessed. they're just about all i listened to for the next year and a half.
then, after exhausting the pixies (and the breeders), we realized that the lead singer went to make solo albums. for christmas of 2000 my brother got me TOTY, FB&theCs, and Pistolero. we dove in.
then, of course, DitS was released just a month later, at which point my brother bought it and Orange/Yellow.
i'll stop there. anyway, frank's a special man. he changed the way i look at music/space/local history/ the list goes on.
-dan
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they were the heroes of old, men of renown. |
| Waiting for Godot |
Posted - 06/15/2007 : 05:37:36
Was 13 or so and remember reading a band namedropping the Pixies in an interview (Radiohead maybe?). So my Dad bought me Dolittle. Didn't really get it, only liked damaging my ears by listening to Gouge Away turned up to 11.
At that time I was having problems, so my very strict, very religious Mum appropriated all my music CDs. (I also had a Bryan Adams album, so maybe that was a good thing.) Don't really like the Pixies now, so maybe there's a weird Freudian thing going on there.
Soaked my boots and my attributes, began to diminish |
| moonruler |
Posted - 06/12/2007 : 19:04:47
not sure when doolittle came out, but that was the year. my first impression was it was metal with high pitched voices. it was also when i realized that one listen was not enough for a decision to make.
while i have changed very little, i have never been the same since. |
| lackflag |
Posted - 06/12/2007 : 15:07:28
In the 80's my older brother was a disc jockey at a college radio station in California. I am quite a bit younger than him, so much so that while he was hanging out at keg parties, I was hanging out at pajama parties. Once I got old enough to have my own stereo, however, he would make me mix tapes. It was for this reason that I grew up listening to David Bowie rather than Vanilla Ice. He never bothered turning me on to the Pixies, but on Christmas 1994 I unwrapped Teenager of the Year, by some bald guy named Frank Black. I listened to the first two tracks a few times and let it gather dust. I didn't get it. However, a few months later I found myself listening to the album obsessively. It was the only record I thought I'd never get sick of, then I discovered the Pixies via Fight Club and added a couple to the list. |
| Barty |
Posted - 06/12/2007 : 04:35:18
In 1988 Bone Machine and Gigantic both received a fair amount of airplay at KROQ in Los Angeles. I loved both songs and taped them off of the radio, proud of myself for saving the 8 dollars it would have cost me to buy the tape at the record store. The next year, when Doolittle came out, they played Monkey Gone to Heaven. I only had to hear it once to know that I HAD to buy that album, a cheap radio copy would not suffice. I went right out and bought it and spent the rest of the night listening to it. They were instantly my favorite band and a few days later I finally bought Surfer Rosa. After repeated listenings, I wanted to kick myself for not buying it the previous year. I had really cheated myself. I soon added Come on Pilgrim to my collection and then waited eagerly for their next release. When Frank came out with his first solo album, I was a little disapointed because I had been hoping for more of a Pixies sound, but there were a few songs I felt were good, so I kept listening. I eventaully grew to like FB's solo work for its own merits, and though the Pixies are still my #1 all time favorite, FB's solo material is also among my favorites. |
| MajorKey |
Posted - 06/04/2007 : 02:00:51
In the case of both The Pixies and Frank Black, I had the misfortune of hearing songs that were not entirely representitive of their sound. The first Pixies song I ever heard was "Here Comes Your Man." It was 1989 and I had just seen the video on MTV. I thought the song was a little twangy, but fine. A friend of mine (who was into groups like Depeche Mode and New Order at the time--ugh!) had just bought the Doolittle album and asked me if I wanted to borrow it. I passed. Two years later I was given the Trompe Le Monde CD and I was actually thinking of trading it in at the used CD store around the corner--but I thought I'd give it a listen first, just to be sure. The first track immediately grabbed me. "Holy Crap! Is this what the Pixies sound like?!" I skipped to the next track, "Planet of Sound," and I was blown away. Before I even heard the third track I already knew the CD was a keeper. After a few more songs I knew I was listening to one of my favorite albums for the first time. I was speechless. Trompe is still my favorite Pixies album, and a top ten favorite album overall.
Two years later I was working at a radio station and the music director, knowing I was a huge Pixies fan, told me he'd just gotten a new single by the guy from The Pixies who was now going by the name Frank Black. We listened to the song. It was "Hang On To Your Ego"--and I didn't much like it. I remember asking, "Is this the Dance Mix Version?" Black Francis seemed to be going for a completely different sound than the Pixies--at least that was my first impression from that one song. A year goes by and I see that first solo album of his in a used CD store. I figured I'd get it just to be a Pixies completist. I didn't expect to love the album, but I did. I had misjudged what it would sound like on the basis of "Hang On To Your Ego," but it sounded like Trompe Le Monde Part Deux. And since I got that album so late, it was only a month later--the brilliant songs from the first album still swimming in my head--that TOTY was released. I've eagerly anticipated each new release since.
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| johnnyribcage |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 17:08:47
Spring 1998, the guy that was playing bass in my band had Doolittle. We were BSing about Nirvana and I mentioned the associated Pixies references, although I'd never heard them. We listened to it that night while passing around a.. uh... tea. I was totally blown away. I borrowed the CD and listened to it all summer long. Bought my first copy of it that fall and wore it out. Eventually I heard Surfer Rosa at a party somewhere, and although I'd never heard the album, I knew instantly who it was. Picked it up too, then it was all downhill from there. Picked up the other Pixies albums and lived off that until I bought BLD the week it came out on a whim. Within a year I had everything FB had ever done.
I love this part... Yeah, we did it! |
| jezza |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 16:51:50
1988 "Where is my mind" on John Peel's Radio 1 show. I couldn't believe my ears. I remember trying to imagine what this band looked like - when I actually saw a picture of them is was nothing like I was imagining! |
| stymie |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 16:04:28
When i saw the here comes your man video on MTV 120 mintues in '89 or '90 |
| cassandra is |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 09:25:01
'87 too, by my brother
pas de bras pas de chocolat |
| remig |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 09:09:00
1994, I was listnening some random CDs at the local store and got hooked by TOTY and never stopped since that day.
that's why I'll allways consider people that came back to Frank since they were rumours on the Pixies reunions newbies.
They'll never know what it was to be a Frank fan when Pistolero came out.
"un jour tu connaitra cette detresse de pres ou de loin, je peux te le jurer" - Ofabsis |
| Srisaket |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 08:51:52
I heard Mark Goodier play 'Dig for Fire' on his Radio 1 show in 1990,loved it and bought Bossanova first then all the back catalogue and TLM on the day it was released.
The Pixies were big in the music press in the UK in the late 80's and early 90's but I can honestly say that I only ever met one other 'real' fan at the time. If you lived in Nottingham and said you liked the Pixies more than Guns and Roses you would be either laughed at or thumped. |
| PixieSteve |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 05:54:21
2002 i think
"I'm an editor of a major publication" - coastline |
| cptnpasty |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 03:18:46
'87 |
| phys |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 03:10:17
1988: sitting in the back of a friend's car, drunk, somewhere in Bavaria around 2 o'clock in the morning i heard "Where is my mind?" for the first time- the sawing guitars (dida dida dida dida dida didada didada - dida ...) and thought the singer was a woman.
i was startled, irritated and then addicted very soon until this day. |
| benji |
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 01:47:08
think it was 93 or 94. my sister came back from university with surfer rosa and last splash. i was about 15 at the time and apart from led zep and the floyd, my musical taste amounted to being a big fan of dire straits.
i remember thinking what the hell was this stuff, but something about it clicked with me. i used to get up early every day of the summer holidays so i could sit in the lounge, put the cd's on and listen to them for hours before anyone else woke up.
ended up buying everything i could on tape, and the cult of ray was my first ever cd i bought.
was actually not fussed about franks solo mwork until dog in the sand came out. actually i never followed to that closely, but was a rabid pixies and breeders fan. it's evened out more these days.
all i can say, thank god for polio! brian |
| coastline |
Posted - 05/30/2007 : 14:35:44
Hey, Erebus. Nice to see you.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| Erebus |
Posted - 05/30/2007 : 14:33:53
Round about ‘93 I accidentally channel-hopped into the “Cannonball” video by the Breeders, which blew me away and sent me off onto an AllMusic search of all things Deal, via, pre-internet days, a paperback AMG guide, and then on to the Pixies. Of course I bought “Last Splash”, and then “Surfer Rosa” and “Doolittle”. I didn’t get Frank at first, but after a year or so I circled back to my AMG to read about the significance of TOTY and then bought it. TOTY opened my ears to the pop-genius of it all, and then when I revisited Rosa and Doolittle I was able to hear it was my same TOTY guy, cloaked in rougher guise. From there I was hooked and sought out everything in the back catalog I could get. It was only with the opening notes of “All My Ghosts” that I got current with Frank, and it’s been a sleigh ride ever since.
|
| hammerhands |
Posted - 05/29/2007 : 20:41:10
I know I've put this down before but I couldn't find it, so, here is what I think is a rather common story.
It was 1988 or 1989 and I heard a song on CBC's Brave New Waves (can't remember which one, maybe Debaser, maybe Levitate Me?).
I rushed to the store where they had 2 Pixies albums, I couldn't remember the name of the song I had heard so I (typically) picked the one with the topless dancer on the cover.
I shoved it in the cassette player and I was assaulted, I thought it was just about the worst music ever, sloppy and ill conceived. I listened all the way through and I couldn't decide which song Brave New Waves had played and I couldn't imagine what I might have liked about it.
It sat unplayed in the cassette slot of my car for about a month when I concluded that I must have missed that one good song for all the noise. Well, the first few tracks sounded a little odd, but really quite good, and the last few tracks were pretty awful.
So I played it again and I was in love. |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/29/2007 : 20:12:55
1988 or 1989 saw the Pixies on 120 minutes....the rest is history.
bluefinger |
| Llamadance |
Posted - 05/29/2007 : 14:21:26
1988, a friend of mine, Duncan, lived in the same halls of residence played me Doolittle. Loved it. Bought Trompe on release day, loved it. Devastated at the break up, but bought the Yellow album - pretty soon after release I think - and hated it. Didn't buy another album until DiTS, which was amazing, so I worked my back. Still found the yellow album hard to get into.
No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God George Bush snr |
| bedrock_barney |
Posted - 05/29/2007 : 13:26:03
I think it was about 1988 and highly likely to have been via John Peel's radio show.
Remember positively salivating before the Doolittle release.
 The humble apple |
| Don Eduardo |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 21:09:59
Gotta give most of the credit to my brother, shared a room with him and he was always listening to Frank, I had a copy of FB & the C's for ages and liked it, got Pistolero but didn't really get into it but never ventured further than that, then one day (in 99 i think), I spotted TOTY in a store and flipped over the back and realised I recognised 7-8 of the song titles from hearing them over the years, so bought it. A week later i found the Death To The Pixies (with the live disc). Within a month i had all the Pixies and FB stuff up to Pistolero (except for the orange album which i didnt locate for about another year) and its been a love affair ever since. And now Pistolero is my 2nd-fave Frank album!! After TOTY of course. |
| danjersey |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 18:22:49
i heard the pixies tribute cd with bands like reel big fish samiam weezer ect on it and when in got to the get up kids cover of alec eiffel my ears stood up. my friend said you know this guy (the pixies singer) has alot of albums out both pixies and solo and i think you'd like the solo stuff. bought the then new pistolero then toty. woke up singing abstract plain ever since
Signature checkbox
checked by default? |
| The King Of Karaoke |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 18:05:56
i bought Doolittle used in 89 or 90 I think. Maybe earlier Hooked after that. Frank almost lost me with his first solo effort but then one day I was in Newbury Comics and me and this guy started talking about Teenager which had just come out. i picked that up and was addicted. I love Franks first solo album now. His stuff just takes a few spins sometimes. |
| blip |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 14:18:03
1994,cousin of mine gave me the orange album...enough said.
(Frank Black-Frank Black)
 |
| Carl |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 14:05:19
It became a running joke with my friends that I was obsessed with The Pixies and FB. Still is. Although you're more likely to see Pixies/FB in the media now than say ten years ago, I still get a thrill out of seeing them in the press and on TV. |
| Czar |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 09:46:40
Hey Nick, a local too. Hope you'll join the MFFBBFC (Montreal Fans of Frank Black/Black Francis Clique). Fees are just a round of beer when he's in town.
___________________________
Do you think the Pixies were a brouillon of Black Francis? |
| Nick |
Posted - 05/28/2007 : 09:17:46
1991 I was at McGill University in Montreal and had tickets to see U2. Pixies were opening for them. Some friends I was going with were more into seeing the Pixies than U2 and loaned me Doolittle and Trompe le Monde.
I was listening to these albums constantly in the weeks leading up to the show. Since then, I've been really into Frank and Kim's work. I bought up everything they've done and had to buy multiple copies of Pixies albums as they got scratched/lost/stolen over the years. I just wish Kim would do more stuff. I really miss hearing her voice. |
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