| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/08/2004 : 12:27:00
This was brought up in another thread, but I thought I'd repost it here (since we have a lot of new users since this time):
Back when we (well, Vovat) used to run Survivor contests for Pixies tracks, we did each album individually. From that, we took the top 5 chosen from every album and made an all-time best Pixies track survivor. Here are the results and some user comments. What do you think?
http://forum.frankblack.net/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=3178
And the results just to save 'ya some time:
1. Motorway to Roswell
2. Gouge Away
3. Velouria
4. River Euphrates
5. Alec Eiffel
6. Bone Machine
7. Mr. Grieves
8. The Happening
9. Hey
10. Debaser
11. Wave of Mutilation
12. Subbacultacha
13. Break My Body
14. Trompe Le Monde
15. Where Is My Mind?
16. Allison
17. All Over The World
18. Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons
19. Ana
20. Broken Face
 "Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| 33 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/17/2004 : 15:16:16
Don,
That ranking sounds like fun! I am going to pass this idea on to some of the Minneapolis people to see if they are interested.
If other people think it would be helpful, would be happy to do the top 10 songs that hold top of mind awareness poll. |
| Don Eduardo |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 15:06:47
heres a countdown me and my brother did last year:
www.geocities.com/gobravechief/FrankBlack230603.html
(forgive the incompleteness of the site)
3rd Annual Australian Frank Black Countdown August 2003 - all involved parties rank EVERY released FB song from FB self/titled to the present - average ranks are calculated - beer (or suitable substitute) is added (mostly in drinking-game form - ie. rate a song well below its average and you drink a punishing amount), then sit back and enjoy a day of frank black....the only problem is quite often memory of the top songs is somewhat limited the next day |
| Don Eduardo |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 15:04:45
I guess it depends how seriously you wanna take it
3rd Annual Australian Frank Black Countdown August 2003 - all involved parties rank EVERY released FB song from FB self/titled to the present - average ranks are calculated - beer (or suitable substitute) is added (mostly in drinking-game form - ie. rate a song well below its average and you drink a punishing amount), then sit back and enjoy a day of frank black....the only problem is quite often memory of the top songs is somewhat limited the next day |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 14:31:03
Double post...sorry  |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 14:30:01
quote:
Originally posted by The Holiday Son
I already find it difficult to say which is the best song from each album, so ranking them all in order: impossible.
I've started a thread in the game section, if you want to follow me (or not) ...
I definatly think at some point that respondants might make arbitrary decsions and that filling out such a survey might be a difficult for people to fill out.
Here are just some things to brainstorm while we are thinking of.
Don Eduardo, what kinds of trends do you see in your data? Are the responses widely distributed...meaning that do the favorite songs seem to be random or are most of the resopnses grouped around the same data??
An alternative approache we could take to the ranking system is we could take is to rank the Pixies Studio albums. We would only include Pligrim, Surfer, Doolittle, Boss. and Trompe...this would give us an idea of which grouping of songs are the most popular. Similar to Hoiliday Son's point about ranking all this songs, this ranking doesn't determine the degree to how the fans truly view these songs. For example, someone could rank the albums Pligrim, Surfer, Doolittle, Boss beause they like all the albums almost equallly. Another person could use the same ranking but really be into the first two albums but really doesen't like the last three. This survey would not be able to pick out differences such as this.
I guess another kind of survey we could do is top of mind awareness, unaided recall...where we instruct people not to look at any CDs or lists of Pixies songs and just give us their favorite songs off the top of their head. We could then tally them and this would also give us a pretty good idea of what the popular song is. Actually, the more I think about it I think this would give us a better read. The downside to this is that this test only reflects perceptions, not reality. But this is a good tool used by alot of companies and it would be free to execute. It would also probabably get a higher response rate than ranking all the songs becasue it would take less time to fill out.
Also, if we do the top 10 ranking now and that goes well, we can do some other survey types down the road. That will give us the best picuture overall.
What do you guys think? |
| The Holiday Son |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 13:57:02
I already find it difficult to say which is the best song from each album, so ranking them all in order: impossible.
I've started a thread in the game section, if you want to follow me (or not) ... |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 09:16:25
If you guys seriously want to do a survey, then by all means, let's try it!
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| Don Eduardo |
Posted - 05/16/2004 : 00:46:08
Once a year here in Australia me and a few mates do a Frank countdown and a Pixies countdown - scientifically done, we have a template excel file we use - all you have to is copy and paste the songs in and rank them - great fun.....ranking the songs from 1 to 80 or however many pixies songs there are, then averaging them and counting them down backwards on an mp3 playlist. Matter of fact we have our Annual frank countdown slated for next month....Always inspires arguments and vigourous debate
If anyone wants a 'forum countdown' i'd be happy to compile it
3rd Annual Australian Frank Black Countdown August 2003 - all involved parties rank EVERY released FB song from FB self/titled to the present - average ranks are calculated - beer (or suitable substitute) is added (mostly in drinking-game form - ie. rate a song well below its average and you drink a punishing amount), then sit back and enjoy a day of frank black....the only problem is quite often memory of the top songs is somewhat limited the next day |
| VoVat |
Posted - 05/15/2004 : 14:38:48
I think a survey would be pretty cool. Maybe if people ranked each song, and then we averaged them out. That would probably turn out more accurately than either a Survivor or just a "list your five favorites" kind of thing.
Cattle in Korea / They can really moo. |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/15/2004 : 11:21:57
Get back in your x-wing.
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| Cheeseman1000 |
Posted - 05/15/2004 : 11:14:37
Screw you Dean, I want a scientific survey!
You don't speak for us, Dean! You crossed the line!
 "Everywhere I go I want to travel by X-Wing" |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/15/2004 : 11:05:31
Yeah, we're more concerned with just having a little fun, not an actual scientific survey.
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/15/2004 : 10:49:04
Volvat,
I think if you relaunch the survivor...we would see it as fun. It's a great way for fans to talk about the songs and have a blast with the contest. But it can't be taken as representation of the overall fan prefrerences.
I think the way to go is to do a survey like the way I mentioned above and offer prizes...a free t-shirt...a signed dvd...etc. You invite people to take the quiz though the email mailing list and publicising it on the major Pixies web sites. That would get the particpation up. You need particpation to be at least 100 or so to make it work... there is an online survey I have worked with in the past that can use 25 people or so and make it statistically signigicant...but that would probabably cost around $2000 USD vs. free or $30USD. If you do the internet survey...it will probably be less time intesnive and it will definately give you a different read vs. what you have seen in survivor.
If the objective is to get a true sense of what the fans really want, a ranking survey is the best way to go. But if the goal is just to be cool and have fun...the survivor is the way to go. |
| VoVat |
Posted - 05/14/2004 : 20:14:30
My favorite is probably "Velouria," but "Motorway To Roswell" definitely comes close, and I love the keyboard part at the end. I don't think it drags at all. A lot of these would make my personal Top 20 list, but I would, of course, have a few differences.
As for redoing the Pixies Survivor threads, I'm up for it, but would anyone participate? I'm currently running a Pixies at the BBC Survivor, and each round tends to get 10 or fewer votes. The same seems to be true for a few other Survivor games that I'm not running. (There still hasn't been a winner for the album covers one, has there?)
Cattle in Korea / They can really moo. |
| IceCream |
Posted - 05/12/2004 : 20:01:25
I used to dislike Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons. Now I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the song and everything from Trompe. I can totally understand why Bossa and Trompe are underrated, the whole "spanish lyrics/extreme dynamics/male-female intertwining harmonies/simplicity" thing seems epitomized on the first 2 1/2 albums and somewhat neglected on the last 2.
I think I read a critic say something like "TLM continued in the space theme, but the spark was gone."
Well, I think I know what they mean by "spark" of the first 2 1/2, and I understand and comprehend. But the Last 2 albums had a different kind of "spark" - the surf rock is awesome on Bossanova, and the production of TLM is Fantastic.
TLM is the best-sounding (production-wise) album ever.
So densely layered - so energetic (Distance Equals Rate Times Time is insane). Such a great feel - everything is right in your ear - listen to that accoustic guitar on Motorway to Roswell. Best dang sounding guitar in the world. |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 05/12/2004 : 17:57:12
If you guys want help, let me know. I have a background with stats and consumer feedback. Basically, the survior issue is definately the best "quick and dirty" way of getting a feel of favorite songs. The only thing, as you know is that it also has the possibility of knocking off popular songs out of contention.
Probabably the most accurate way of doing this is a ranking of all Pixies songs from #1 to #X.
There are sites that can do it, but as far as I could see something like this would not be provided for free. One site that looked like it could shttp://www.surveyconsole.com/?hilite=quickPoll&siteRef=350001ite. It costs $29/per month. If some one will pay for it, I will go for it. There might be other sites out there too, but I couldn't find any that would allow for such a long survey for free in my couple minutes of surfing.
Off the top of my head a sample size of about 250 would be accurate within about 5% of representing the "average" fans song ranking. If you wanted we could increase the sample to 500 or so, but that's definately the biggest we would need to go. We would also want to see if pixiesmusic.com and A.E. also rank the songs to get the most diverse sampling of all Pixies fans in general.
Another way that you could do it for free but it would be a complete pain is you could give people access of an Xcel spreadsheet listing Pixies Songs...Each member could rank each song from #1 to #X. Each ballot could be copied into the master workbook. Tabulate and then average the results for each song. Use the sort function to rank the numbers from high to low. This will reveal the winners...there might be ties but this is the cheapest way to go.
This might be waaaay more technical that you wanted, but if you want help, let me know. |
| The Holiday Son |
Posted - 05/12/2004 : 01:59:08
quote:
Originally posted by Cult_Of_Frank
So everybody votes their favourite off, and the one with the most votes is the best, and then the next, etc?
well that's not exactly what I had in mind but why not?
I thought of a much more simple version of the survivor game:
we each give our fave for each album and then we compute the results and we compare them with the survivor's results to see if they differ. |
| porkbone1 |
Posted - 05/11/2004 : 18:58:43
One more note about that poll, it hasn't been updated in 6 years. Dang! It would be nice to see a new poll now, or see if the fanatics over at AlecEiffel.com could update this one... I think like a fine wine the Pixies albums (especially the final 2) have aged well!
_______________________
The joke has come upon me |
| porkbone1 |
Posted - 05/11/2004 : 18:57:06
I also love everything on AlecEiffel.net, especially their poll.
http://aleceiffel.free.fr/poll.html
Okay fine, their top 10 are the top songs being played on the tour so far. With the exception of "Alec Eiffel" and "Dig for Fire", the top 19 are still all in their setlist. Except check out this interesting fact: If the Pixies just took the top 27 songs from this list and played them, they would be playing 11 songs from Bossanova and Trompe, not only 2 per show.
_______________________
The joke has come upon me |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/11/2004 : 14:01:59
So everybody votes their favourite off, and the one with the most votes is the best, and then the next, etc?
Interesting idea. I leave this up to Vovat, but that's a cool idea...
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| The Holiday Son |
Posted - 05/11/2004 : 13:46:15
We should do an "anti survivor" : we give our fave from each album - to see if it differs from the survivors... |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/11/2004 : 07:45:20
Maybe VoVat should start the Pixies survivor over again? Old timers? Newbies? It'd be interesting to see how consistent they are especially since the flood of users since the reunion.
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| DrGoon |
Posted - 05/10/2004 : 23:50:30
As a necomer here, all I can say is - ouch.
1. I've Been Tired
Gouge Away would be 2nd for me, so good score there. No. 13 Baby is a top 10 for me.
And I think you need to redo this with non-album tracks because:
1. Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) - and it doesn't get any better than the vinyl played through tubes that have warmed for a couple of hours. Simply magical mastering.
The Thing and the cover of I Can't Forget are top 20 gems. |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/10/2004 : 23:13:56
I'm not really the man. Here's the FB.Net hierarchy:
1) FB = The King
2) Dave = The Man
3) Dean = Uber-pleasant whipping boy
So you see, I'm powerless, but very friendly about it. :)
For the record, the way this worked was that the top 5 from the survivors of each album were put into a list and voted on to see how those songs ranked against each other, so half being from Bossanova/Trompe was just the way it had to go. But if you look at the top 5 and see that 2 of those songs (including the track voted best Pixies song, Motorway) are from Bossanova and Trompe, that should be suggesting that FB play 'em.
I expect some interesting additions by the time they hit Europe, but I don't think Motorway will be one of them unfortunately.
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| porkbone1 |
Posted - 05/10/2004 : 19:33:10
Okay Dean, you're the man. If anyone can do it, you are our only hope. You, armed with your list of songs that the uber-fans at FB.Net have voted the finest songs of all Pixie-dom, can make a difference.
I know that you know people!! Sure, most of them are all Saskatoonians, but through your network of Frank Black insiders I know this list will become known to Mr. Francis, and he will realize that Bossanova and Trompe do not suck. Why is it that half of the top 20 are off their last two albums? Because we love the songs, that's why!!
On behalf of all Pixies fans who love all 4 and 1/2 albums equally (depending on the mood we are in that day) please help us! 
_______________________
The joke has come upon me |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 05/10/2004 : 07:27:35
I dunno, as much as I love The Happening, Break My Body, and Broken Face, there are probably more deserving songs than these three. Funny how they're not playing two of the 'top 5' songs on the tour. :)
Here's the ones they need to add to their roster:
1. Motorway to Roswell
5. Alec Eiffel
8. The Happening
13. Break My Body
14. Trompe Le Monde
16. Allison
17. All Over The World
18. Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons
19. Ana
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
| klikger |
Posted - 05/09/2004 : 22:20:09
That's a great top 5 and a good list altogether. I'd like to see No. 13 Baby and Letter to Memphis up there, but there's no songs that I'd want to move down. |
| whoreatthedoor |
Posted - 05/09/2004 : 06:24:21
I'm not agree with this list, but I'm sure everybody have their list. With so many great songs it's impossible to choose a greatest hits compilation.
 "Join the Cult of the whore at the door / And You'll find no answers, but real fun" |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 05/09/2004 : 03:05:49
quote:
Originally posted by PixieSteve
i agree, but it does get a bit boring at the end. could be cut short, easily.
Well they sorted that out on the single version.
Hansel and Gretel have formed a band, .....And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Breadcrumbs!!! |
| ShakeyShake |
Posted - 05/08/2004 : 15:32:25
Same goes for motorway to roswell
"I joined the Cult of this guy / 'cause they took my other picture away |
| PixieSteve |
Posted - 05/08/2004 : 15:08:33
i agree, but it does get a bit boring at the end. could be cut short, easily. |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 05/08/2004 : 15:03:31
I have never understood people's problem with Gigantic. It's a great song.
Hansel and Gretel have formed a band, .....And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Breadcrumbs!!! |
| benji |
Posted - 05/08/2004 : 14:16:17
well all i'll say is that i am suprised that motorway to roswell won, and that break my body was anywhere up there.....
anyone made a cd of these tracks in this order?
work well?
there was a similar poll on the throwing muses board a while ago, and i made a cd in order of the final rankings and it worked really well.
somehow i think broken face wouldn't work to well as a clower....
"I joined the Cult of Frank / I think that man deserves a DB!" |
