| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| dayanara |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 06:33:34
There are some really funny quotes in this one.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_3219180,00.html
Pixie dust
Like magic, reunited band is suddenly getting its due
By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News
September 30, 2004
It's the reunion that fans thought they'd never get. The shattering of The Pixies a dozen years ago seemed unfixable.
When the alternative band splintered after four groundbreaking albums, the dislike among the members was palpable. Lead singer/songwriter Frank Black announced the end via fax to the other members in 1992.
And no one was looking back. Black's solo career was strong. Bassist Kim Deal's own band, The Breeders, had more success than the Pixies ever had. Drummer David Lovering got out of music and into magic. Joey Santiago played guitar with various people.
But now they have one of the most acclaimed tours of the year, with surprisingly strong sales in a slumping concert scene and blistering sets filled with classic Pixies songs. Was finally giving those long-suffering fans the shows they wanted a big reason for the reunion?
Black laughs.
"I suppose it's nice that we could accommodate that dream or wish for some of the fans. But I'm far too cynical and egotistical to really say that was why," he says jokingly. "I'm just far too mean-spirited to say, 'Oh yeah, we did it for the kids.' That's not who I am."
The Pixies headline Magness Arena tonight.
It's somewhat amazing that this is happening. Black knows it. The Pixies left behind an influential body of work, but hardly a slew of hit singles, and they broke up back when their style of music was still called "college radio" because the mainstream wouldn't touch it. Would a tour sell?
"No one really knew. We knew somebody would come. We knew that it would go OK. But the promoters didn't have any numbers to base their offers on other than what our last numbers were in 1991. There's no new record coming out or anything like that. It really was kind of a crapshoot for everybody," Black says.
It's a crapshoot that's paid off. How unlikely, then, that after a 12-year layoff the band would come back more popular than it was during the six years it existed?
The shows have been rapturously received, and an influential band is finally getting the acclaim - and payday - it deserves.
"It's great to be going out and making money and having a full crew and not having to hump gear and doing a lot of the stuff I used to do with my solo career - which I did with pleasure, mind you, but it was hard work," says Black. "It's nice to be doing this work and have it not be so hard."
Black is speaking via cell phone from his Oregon home as he's making a coffee run for his family; in the background, you can hear the clerk taking the order for his cappuccinos and hot chocolates, unaware that the 39-year-old man he's serving is revered as a rock god in some circles for songs such as Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Goes to Heaven and Cactus.
After spending years away from the Pixies catalog, the band is effortlessly making it sound fresh.
"The Pixies made some very naive kind of youthful-sounding music, and it's still fun to play it and people still like it. I don't know, if we were to continue to record, that it would necessarily sound like that, but hey, I have no problem playing the old songs," Black says.
"I don't feel like I'm in some oldies-revue show. Actually, I kinda like oldies shows. Sure, there are plenty of older rock band that totally are cheesy, but sometimes you see older acts that are still (red)-hot. They still do what they do. Last year I went to go see what's his name, the Town Without Pity guy, Gene Pitney. It was awesome. There was a guy doing his thing. Sure, it got a little shtick-y reading the fan mail onstage. But the show itself was the same way I'm sure it was in '68."
The passage of time and gaining of wisdom have given Black a new outlook on everything - life, his music, his band mates.
"I do have renewed appreciation for it, but other than that it really feels like no time has passed at all, really," Black says. "I guess it sorta feels like we're all older, but I had to keep forgetting that we don't have a new album out. We're on tour. Time to make the set list. Time to get on the bus. Time to play the show. Here comes Monkey Gone to Heaven. It feels good, but it feels the same."
Much of the tension that broke up the band, Black acknowledges, was between himself and Deal. He was the main creative force in songwriting; she was the main focus of the band. Years ago, he says, they simply couldn't handle that. These days, aided by "maturity and abstinence," they're able to actually appreciate each other.
"Obviously we're a lot more chill about everything. I'm a lot more chill. I'm less stressed out. There's a lot more kisses and hugs going around with the band itself than there was with our last tour," he says.
"Being the principal songwriter, then constantly being questioned about it in the past as to whether that was legitimate - I always found that really offensive," he says.
"(Deal) is so beloved by the audience that it probably freaked me out even more. I don't know why. I don't know if it messed with my ego or it seemed somehow 'The audience doesn't get it!' . . .
"It's that thing known as charisma. There is some charismatic connection between Kim Deal and the audience. As opposed to having my feathers ruffled 15 years ago, I kinda get off on it."
It's easier to shrug things off, he says, because of the snowballing critical legacy he left behind. Pixies songs weren't exactly ignored back in the day, but the body of work wasn't revered the way it is now.
He likes that, obviously, but the things he's learned in his solo career for the past decade are just as calming.
"I have a lot more confidence because I've been humbled a lot more," he says. "Being in show business is not about unquestioned adoration at all times. It's about just doing it. Maybe you'll get good reviews and maybe you won't. But that's not what it's all about. It's about being a musician, for better or worse. I'm lucky that there are some people in the world who think I'm halfway decent. It's not about numbers, though numbers are nice, as we all know."
More than anything, Black admires artists who persevere.
"I'm always happy when I see sort of like so-called 'alternative rock' bands who started out around the time I did or even before, like your Sonic Youths and your Yo La Tengos – whenever I see one of those bands still putting out records and putting on shows, that puts me in a good mood," he says. "That's the way it's supposed to be. Those guys decided to be musicians, and they're musicians. They're still doing it. . . . They decided to be lifelong musicians. I love it when people stick it out."
Black and other band members have been circumspect about the prospect of work beyond the tour's end, but Black indicates that a new album is more than likely.
"The band is feeling . . . that we have our careers back, I suppose. Obviously, any one of the band members could, at the end of this tour, say, 'Hey, it's been great, but I really don't wanna make a record.' But I get the feeling that everyone is kind of up for whatever."
The 'Cobain connection'
They're the standard interview-ending questions. Anything we've missed? Anything you want to add?
"Yeah," Frank Black says with a sardonic chuckle. "I don't think enough people have been asking me about how it feels to have been enjoyed by Kurt Cobain. I think people have really overlooked that fact. It's sad. It's sad."
That's been the lazy journalistic shorthand on The Pixies for years now - the late singer of Nirvana was a big fan, thus The Pixies somehow created Cobain's obsession with the soft/loud dynamics of music.
Never mind that long before he heard his first Pixies song, Cobain was obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, which were no slouches in the soft/loud dynamics department themselves. You'd think the fact that Cobain wrote an early song called Aero Zeppelin would be a tip-off as well.
Black is honored, he says, but enough.
|
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| twist |
Posted - 10/05/2004 : 21:22:13
What a relief/breath of fresh air. No hype, no public relations, whew. I'm so sick of the unavoidable deluge of empty entertainment industry products these days. Always a good read is Frank, thanks dayanara. |
| kromkamp |
Posted - 10/05/2004 : 13:29:31
Y'know, I read this, and for the first time thought to myself that maybe we may not ever get anymore solo FB as we know it. That maybe Pixies will become the 'home band' for Charles for a while, and when it runs its course again the next iteration of FB will be something completely different again from FB&C or previous solo FB works...
|
| ShakeyShake |
Posted - 10/05/2004 : 10:42:56
Heh pretty funny interview,seemed a lot more relaxed in that interview than in some of the others I've read,his sarcasm came out a lot more.Good stuff
"I joined the Cult of this guy / 'cause they took my other picture away |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 10:19:32
Thanks dayanara.... that was a cool article... I agree with vilainde.
I am glad he is enjoying not carring everything around all the time too. |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 09:39:11
Great article/interview. One of the best I've read in a LOOONG time. A long time.
 "Join the Cult of Frank 2.0 / And you'll be enlightened (free for 1.x members)" |
| Dallas |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 09:31:37
thanks for the link |
| billgoodman |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 08:40:02
this part is nice:
"The band is feeling . . . that we have our careers back, I suppose. Obviously, any one of the band members could, at the end of this tour, say, 'Hey, it's been great, but I really don't wanna make a record.' But I get the feeling that everyone is kind of up for whatever."
 "I joined the Cult of Serge/'Cause he invented indierock before Frank did" |
| PsychicTwin |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 08:37:45
That last part!
YES! The antithesis of that "standard Cobain mention"... I love it |
| vilainde |
Posted - 10/04/2004 : 06:38:03
Thanks, daranaya. That last part is funny as hell.
Denis
"I do feel sorry for people who don't collect records and obsess about music. Why? Because collecting, consuming and obsessing over music and records is very interesting. That's why." - Johan Kugelberg
|
|
|
