| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| gunner |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 09:52:48
Article from today's Winnipeg Free Press
Cover / The Pixies
Thu Apr 8 2004
Bartley Kives
THIS week, there are two kinds of music fans in Winnipeg: A cadre of indie-rock types obsessing about Wednesday's reunion gig by the Pixies, and a much larger body of music lovers wondering what the heck the big deal is about.
Don't worry if you belong to the second camp. The Boston band was easy to miss during its original incarnation.
Formed in 1986, the Pixies had a short but remarkable career that concluded in April 1992, when the quartet played its final concert at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom.
The killer was a long and unrewarding stint as U2's warm-up band at a time when the rise of so-called alternative rock catapulted less inventive bands to stardom.
It was an ignominious swan song for such an influential group.
But the story of the Pixies didn't end there. Like the Velvet Underground and The Sex Pistols before it, this is one of those rare bands whose stature only increased after its demise. Cited as a major influence on Nirvana and every other modern rock band to utilize a quiet verse/loud chorus song structure, the Pixies are now regarded as one the most influential rock bands of the late 1980s.
This isn't revisionist history: The quartet's mix of absurdist humour, punkish recklessness and surf-rock-inspired college-pop melodies was unique to the point of being revelatory.
Five studio albums, released between 1987 and 1991, were largely ignored in North America when they first came out, but now occupy their rightful place as indispensable components of the essential rock 'n' roll discography.
As new generations of listeners discover the band, Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, Trompe le Monde and several posthumously released compilations continue to sell respectably, years after the band's official breakup on New Year's Day 1993.
Yet the Pixies remain a so-called cult band, with little public profile to match their considerable influence.
The reason for this is simple: Commercial radio stations, music video networks and the increasingly irrelevant music-retail sector never celebrated the band, whose musical achievements arrived before the Nirvana-led alterna-rock revolution. But this cult status is about to change, as the original Pixies put aside their differences and prepare to reconquer the world.
In February, following several years of speculation, lead singer Black Francis, guitarist Joey Santiago, bassist Kim Deal and drummer David Lovering announced a reunion tour. It was slated initially to begin next Wednesday at Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg, the city the band never played during its original run. But days later, a Tuesday concert in Minneapolis was added to the schedule.
Many of the 12 concerts -- a prelude to a more extensive tour of Europe and North America -- sold out in minutes, proving the Pixies finally have a North American fanbase to match the European audience that made it a top-selling act in the U.K. a decade ago.
In retrospect, lead singer Francis -- or Frank Black, as he's been calling himself since the Pixies' breakup -- has few regrets about the band's status as a highly influential act that wasn't widely celebrated in its time.
"There's nothing to say but, 'Ah, the ancient, old cycle of inspiration continues,'" Black told the Free Press prior to a solo appearance at Le Rendez-Vous last spring. Currently, the band's management has declined all interview requests.
The Pixies' inventive sound grew out of unlikely origins. In 1986, California-born University of Massachusetts student Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV got tired of studying Spanish in Puerto Rico and decided to fly to New Zealand to see Halley's Comet -- or maybe start a band.
Boston was closer than Auckland, so Thompson moved back to Massachusetts and looked up his former college roommate, Joey Santiago, a wealthy immigrant from the Philippines.
In a now-famous move, the duo placed a newspaper ad looking for a bass player who was into the exceptionally heavy Hüsker Du and folkies Peter, Paul and Mary.
Only one person responded: Kim Deal, an Ohio native with no musical experience. She knew a drummer named David Lovering, and the band was off and writing songs: Loud, raw but very wacky, thanks to Thompson's twin obsessions with astronomy and Spanish. Within a year, Thompson became Black Francis and debut EP Come On Pilgrim was a hit in the U.K., where listeners were astounded by an American band that sounded like it came from a different planet. A big factor was the sense of the absurd, a rare quality among the typically earnest indie-rock and hardcore bands in the U.S. at the time.
"That sort of humour was something I always heard in great music when I was growing up, so I just assumed it was part of the whole vibe of rock music. Not every song, but it's there," says Black. "If you listen to The Beatles or even Bob Dylan, there are a lot of absurdist things going on."
The Pixies' second album, produced by Chicago heavyweight Steve Albini, would launch the band into the hearts and minds of indie-rock geeks around the world. The menacing-wacky genius that was Surfer Rosa was followed up by Doolittle, a slightly more polished masterpiece of nihilistic weirdness melded to an unerring sense of what makes a great pop song.
Frank Black says the secret to these first three releases was not having any preconceived ideas about music.
"Being successful early in your career is good because you just do what comes out naturally. It's not too contrived.
"It has a lot to do with naiveté. You just do it because that's what people are demanding. You don't have time to (second-guess) yourself. It's just an explosion of music."
The Pixies' final two studio albums, Trompe le Monde and Bossanova have moments of brilliance, but sound more heavily produced and pre-planned. Reviews from fans and critics alike were mixed, but that likely played no part in the band's impending demise.
The Breeders, Kim Deal's side project with her sister Kelly and Tanya Donelly from Throwing Muses, was selling better than the Pixies in the U.S.
Nirvana exploded on the scene, and all the attention was on them and the other hairy men of Seattle, particularly Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. "They were virtually ousted from having a competitive shot once everyone went Nirvana-crazy," says David Bowie, a big Pixies fan, who would later cover the group's Cactus on his album Heathen.
"Nirvana, God bless them, but they lifted so much of the Pixies, in terms of how you control your sound -- from very soft to very loud, basically.
"It was a Pixies concept nobody else had exploited in any way. Nirvana kind of did Pixies-lite. It was a more obvious, more straight-ahead kind of writing, and the themes of the songs were the usual teenage angst, whereas the Pixies were writing from an extraordinary stance.
"Some of the things going through Charles's mind were quite impressive. Lyrically, he was way ahead of anything that was happening."
Bowie says he was baffled by how successful the Pixies were in Europe and how poorly they drew at home in North America. He also couldn't understand why radio ignored the band.
The Pixies toured with U2 in 1992 in an attempt to gain some of that elusive exposure. But the decision turned out to be the final nail in a coffin, as audiences treated the group like a warm-up band.
After the breakup, Black Francis made the name change to Frank Black and released a series of solo albums, developing a loyal cult following on his own and with his band The Catholics. Kim Deal recorded sporadically with The Breeders and The Amps.
Several posthumous Pixies compilations were released and sold well enough to spark reunion talk. It seemed inevitable last year, when Black incorporated as many as a dozen Pixies songs into his live show and hired Lovering -- performing a sort of standup comedy/magic act -- as his opening act.
The reunion tour coming through Winnipeg next week is not just a warm-up show. It's part of a sophisticated marketing blitz that also includes a new best-of compilation, Wave of Mutilation, and a DVD package entitled simply Pixies. The band is also taking the unusual step of recording its forthcoming live dates and selling the board tapes as freshly burned CDs right at the show. For $22 US, you can pre-order a document of each night's show at www.disclive.com. Up to 500 copies are available for pre-order (these are already sold out for the Winnipeg show), with another 500 available for sale right at the venue 15 minutes after the show. They'll be burned behind the theatre in a truck outfitted specifically for this anti-bootlegging measure.
How the band feels about the hoopla is unknown. The decision to decline interviews suggests the reunion may be sensitive.
Last year, however, it sounded as if Frank Black was ready to be Black Francis again.
"When you're in a band, you play the same songs for five years and you're kind of sick of them. You come around when you're not sick of them any more."
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
http://ca.geocities.com/kpgordon17/ |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| fumanbru |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 20:06:42
great article. i picked up a copy of the free press today. had some cool picks of the band. the mrs. was surprised to see that charles lost some weight and grew some hair. on the front page lovering is wearing the killer b's boston jersey. nice to see the bruins lay the boots to the habitants last night :)
the free press also had a review of the bowie concert. 4/5 stars and some good comments on the polyphonic spree.
 "I joined the Cult of Frank/ and I got a free t-shirt with this dude on it." |
| NimrodsSon |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 19:49:34
quote:
Originally posted by Carolynanna
Takin my moms to see Bowie tomorrow,
if I kiss my bro's ass enough he'll give us his backstage passes.
Hmmmm, maybe I'll ask Bowie about Cactus.....
:)
What does your brother do that allows him to give you backstage passes? He couldn't for me could he?
ˇViva los Católicos! |
| havinganyfun |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 13:08:02
i was at the bowie show, and the rendition of cactus was spectacular, as was his entire set, bowie was in fine form and put on one of the best shows i have ever seen.
give them blood and they'll love you for it |
| Carolynanna |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 11:19:36
Takin my moms to see Bowie tomorrow,
if I kiss my bro's ass enough he'll give us his backstage passes.
Hmmmm, maybe I'll ask Bowie about Cactus.....
:) |
| NimrodsSon |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 10:42:44
quote:
Originally posted by jackanapes
Bowie covered CACTUS last night. I wasn't there but I assume it was friggin' awesome.
I think he does it in practically all of his shows. I get to see him May 8! I'm so excited!!
ˇViva los Católicos! |
| solace |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 10:29:15
great article! thanks
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| jackanapes |
Posted - 04/08/2004 : 10:09:13
Bowie covered CACTUS last night. I wasn't there but I assume it was friggin' awesome. |
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