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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2004 : 06:33:52
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Maybe they have been reading the forum?
http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/04-11/08.shtml
Zach Vowell reports:
For a band without a record label, the Pixies have been sickly productive in this the year of their reunion. The list of accomplishments is staggering. First and foremost, they've been incessantly touring since early spring-- only an eight-show whirling dervish finale at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom can stop it. They released a new song via iTunes (the Kim Deal-penned "Bam Thwok") and a cover for a forthcoming Warren Zevon tribute album ("Ain't That Pretty at All"), and even made "offical" bootlegs available of most of their North American shows. The live releases, of course, sold out their 1,500 copies rather quickly-- but now the newly energized quartet has a plan to proliferate them even further. So, who needs a record label anyway? Certainly not the group's legion of fans.
With the help of Musictoday.com, the Pixies have made recent shows from their tour available via mp3 format. The shows, starting with their September 30th performance in Denver, can be downloaded for 12 bucks a piece, and each show contains approximately 30 tracks (curiously divided into "Disc One" and "Disc Two"). As for sound quality, message boarders at Pixiesmusic.com have virtually unanimously conceded that these tracks were recorded straight from the soundboard. Also according to that site, the Pixies plan on making every show available from the slew of dates still remaining on the fall tour. With all due respect to Pearl Jam, we'd say this is a much more feasible, fan/environmental-friendly way to go about things.
Meanwhile, after a planned three-week hiatus, the second leg of the Pixies' North American tour will be kicking off tomorrow night in Milwaukee, with dates being added as demand continues to increase. As mentioned, there are now eight dates planned for New York, as well as five for Chicago, and three for Detroit. The all-star cast following the band around in the guise of opening acts includes not one, but two bands who've achieved notoriety by covering the Pixies: The Bad Plus and TV on the Radio, for "Velouria" and "Mr. Grieves", respectively.
There's a healthy mix of openers from the past and present, as well, with The Datsuns playing a good portion of the tour, and The Walkmen and Broken Social Scene chipping in; veteran badasses include Mission of Burma and Mike Watt. All this, and more, will continue to be available in those limited edition, digipak bootlegs from Disclive.com and, presumably, through the band's Musictoday.com outlet. Catch 'em live in concert, on CD, or on your computer:
In related news, Black Francis has revealed plans to again equip his trusty solo-artist cap in the spring of 2005, as he prepares a new solo record-- or rather, records. The forthcoming album-- not to be confused with his recent Frank Black Francis double CD, which featured new reworkings of Pixies songs as well as a collection of Black's pre-Pixies demos-- has a working title of Honeycomb and may well be spread across two CDs.
Planned to be his first solo album recorded without assistance from his longtime backing band The Catholics since 1996's The Cult of Ray, Honeycomb is tentatively scheduled for a March 2005 release-- so long as it doesn't balloon to a four-disc rock opera before then. Honeycomb producer Jon Tiven, who worked with Black on several of the B-sides for Black's "Headache" singles in 1994, has revealed that members of the Small Faces, The Band, Free, Cheap Trick, The Funk Brothers, Lucinda Williams, Al Green, and "some guys who played behind Van Morrison" are involved in the recording
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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Pitchfork: Honeycomb and Pixies news
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