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Peter Walker
- FB Fan -
United Kingdom
189 Posts |
 Posted - 05/18/2007 : 03:41:23
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Apols if already posted, but....
The BBC is doing a new series looking at rock music through the years, and one of the shows is on alternative rock. So obviously, the Pixies are featured.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/artists/the-pixies/
There are a couple of films, about ten minutes in total, with Frank being entertainingly Frank, and Kim being hysterically Kim. And when they inevitably get to the "influence on Nirvana" bit, you're totally disarmed by Kim demonstrating how much Teen Spirit sounds like Boston's "More Than A Feeling"..... |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2007 : 04:53:54
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I saw this advertised last night. Think I'll watch it this Saturday.
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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fbc
-= Modulator =-
United Kingdom
4903 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2007 : 06:28:11
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| The vid has just perked me up for the rest of the day. I think I'm going to dust off my doolittle and give it a spin. |
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kelladwella
= Cult of Ray =
Germany
729 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2007 : 07:28:21
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| How does one watch the videos? Seems like you have to be in the UK in order to be allowed to watch (embed?) them. |
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Srisaket
= Cult of Ray =
Thailand
313 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2007 : 23:10:04
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The Guardian (who else?) have an article on this series:
The new rock of revolutions
A new music series traces rock'n'roll's evolution over seven steps. But where might the eighth age of rock spring from, asks Will Hodgkinson
Saturday May 19, 2007
The Guardian
"If you keep your eyes open and leave your prejudices in the hallway," says Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Records, "you will discover great talent from the most unlikely sources. Rock has a capacity to reinvent itself. I am optimistic for its future."
Considering he discovered the Smiths, the Libertines and Arcade Fire, Travis's optimism is not unfounded, but rock music, still a white, male-dominated form in an increasingly cosmopolitan world, is long past its salad days. By its very title the BBC's exhaustive documentary series The Seven Ages Of Rock implies that this musical style could be facing its final curtain. Ignoring the multiracial birth of rock'n'roll when Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley added a dash of country to the blues and sped the whole thing up, the series takes the arrival of Jimi Hendrix as rock's year zero and moves through art-rock, punk, heavy metal, stadium and alternative rock before concluding with indie, which brings us up to Arctic Monkeys. But now that globalisation is a reality and the internet has made the entire history of 20th-century music available to anyone that wants it, where will rock go from here? Optimistically clinging to Geoff Travis's dictum that talent springs from unlikely sources, here are a few places where rock's eighth age could just take root.
Primary School Rock
Considering the best rock music is about rebelling against figures of authority - parents, teachers, lollipop ladies - we should be looking to the very young for the eighth age of rock. Consider Brooklyn, New York's the Tiny Masters Of Today, in which 12-year-old Ivan and his 10-year-old sister Ada play punk-pop songs about cellphones, playground cliques and being told off for riding their bikes in the park. How did they learn to write songs so young? "Everything is recorded on our computer with GarageBand, which is pretty easy to use," says Ivan. And the Tiny Masters are positively ancient next to the Rock Guys (www.myspace.com/rockguys), whose lead singer Mara, six, sounds truly menacing on We Hate School. Tomorrow belongs to the young.
Apocalypse Rock
The end of the world is definitely near so what is going to herald the kettledrums of the apocalypse? A 12-strong troupe of faceless automatons in metallic monks' habits combining white noise with Funkadelic rhythms, of course! Enter Chrome Hoof, whose demonic vision (pentagrams and goat's heads with flashing red eyes are part of the stage set) certainly portents all manner of horrors for the future. "We want to create a dark futuristic disco, possibly on another planet, complete with science-fiction, satanism and a touch of Spinal Tap," claims lead Hoofer Leo Smee. Jarvis Cocker, always one to know which way an ill wind is blowing, has booked them to play at Meltdown at The Queen Elizabeth Hall on June 18 with fellow harbingers of doom Sunn O))).
Rubbish Rock
All of a sudden, rubbish is everywhere. Recycling is a moral barometer, rubbish collections look set to go bi-weekly, and how long before a dustmen's strike fills the streets with stinking black bags, their innards spewing out after being ripped apart by foxes? Who better to reflect this unsavoury age than the Rubbish Men, two bearded Soho tramps who play instruments that are actually made of rubbish? Bertrand and Garcia claim to live in a wheelie bin, will perform for gin, and are, in their own words "always available". When the party is over, there is rubbish to be cleaned up. The rock party is no exception.
Multicoloured Rock
The "disco sucks" movement of 1979 underlined the inherent conservatism of rock music (something also underlined by the fact that there is no place for innovators like Prince or James Brown in any of the seven ages of rock). Threatened by an exciting, vibrant new style that found its voice through gay liberation and black pride, mostly white, male rock fans met at Comiskey Park stadium in Chicago to burn disco records before a White Sox game. In the same year the BNP's Young Nationalist magazine carried an editorial stating "disco and its melting pot pseudo philosophy must be fought or Britain's streets will be full of black-worshipping soul boys". Some 28 years on the most innovative rock bands, from the Noisettes to Bloc Party, are multi-racial and multi-stylistic, as the old musical boundaries mean less and less in an age when young people from Brazil to Africa can have access to the same music. In the multicoloured age of rock a charismatic female artist - CSS's Lovefoxxx and Bat For Lashes anyone?- will emerge to save rock music from its own reactionary tendencies. There is only so much denim the world needs, after all.
Talented People In Rock
If The Seven Ages Of Rock series proves anything, it's that rock music only falls into movements after the event. It is an unusually strong singer or band that makes a genre happen, from Jimi Hendrix (the Woodstock era of hippy rock) to David Bowie (art-rock) to John Lydon (punk) to the Smiths (indie). "I never take any notice of the media when it comes to talking up a new movement," claims Geoff Travis. "Where do you categorise someone like Devendra Banhart?"
Travis has a point. The White Stripes have long transcended the 2001 garage punk revival of their peers (the Hives and the Vines) to establish themselves as one of the great rock bands of the modern age. There is nothing new under the sun, but an original voice with talent and conviction will always find an audience in the end.
The Seven Ages Of Rock
1. The Birth of Rock Hendrix, Beatles, Stones, Dylan et al
2. White Light, White Heat: Art Rock feat the Velvet Underground
3. Blank Generation: Punk Rock Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Patti Smith and Buzzcocks
4. Never Say Die: Heavy Metal Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Metallica
5. We Are The Champions: Stadium Rock Run away! Here come Dire Straits and U2
6. Left Of The Dial: American Alternative Rock Before and after Kurt pegged it
7. What The World Is Waiting For: British Indie Rock From fey indie boys to the Britpop glories and current contenders
· The Seven Ages Of Rock, Sat, 9.10pm, BBC2, www.bbc.co.uk/sevenages
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2007 : 17:36:39
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| This is great, thanks Peter. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to watch the vids, but I'll be keeping an eye out for the programme. I missed the first one, according to the site the one featuring Pixies ('Left Of The Dial') is on BBC 2 Sat 23rd of June at 9.00 PM, and repeated the next day at the same time on BBC 1. Oh, and I've never seen that great Pixies pic before!! |
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madtempest
- FB Fan -
USA
225 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2007 : 05:23:03
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This was sent to me last night:
Dear Sean ,
I’m writing to tell you about a new BBC documentary series that features a section about the Pixies and interviews with Charles Thompson and Kim Deal.
I’m a TV producer/director on the BBC’s landmark ‘Seven Ages of Rock’ music documentary series. The film I made about American Alternative Rock is being broadcast on Saturday 23rd June and looks at the contrasting fates of Nirvana and REM and the music and influence of the Pixies. The film also includes interviews with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills from R.E.M., Henry Rollins from Black Flag and producers Scott Litt, Jack Endino and Butch Vig.
The Pixies section features Charles Thompson explaining the ‘quiet/loud’ sound through the song ‘Gouge Away’ and Kim Deal talking about the simplicity of her bass playing and her contribution to ‘Where Is My Mind?’
You might also be interested to know that Dave Grohl from Nirvana talks very candidly in the programme about just how big an influence the Pixies had on the song ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’!
I’d be grateful if you could mention the programme on your website so Pixies fans in the UK can tune in! The programme will also be shown later this summer in America on VH1.
The Seven Ages of Rock – Programme 6
‘Left of the Dial: American Alternative Rock’
BBC 2, Saturday 23rd June, 9.30pm
BBC 1, Sunday 24th June, 11.00pm
The series website also includes two short films about the Pixies featuring material that didn’t make it into the TV series, including Charles and Kim on 'Here Comes Your Man.'
Visit: bbc.co.uk/sevenages
Best wishes,
Robert Murphy |
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kempes
- FB Fan -
Ireland
49 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2007 : 14:26:24
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watching programme now and saw Pixies slot a few mins ago. Nice to see Kim showing how simple where is my mind bassline is and slagging off "real bass players".
kempes |
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fbc
-= Modulator =-
United Kingdom
4903 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2007 : 05:27:48
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quote:
You might also be interested to know that Dave Grohl from Nirvana talks very candidly in the programme about just how big an influence the Pixies had on the song ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’!
nope |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2007 : 09:46:12
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The Pixies bit was pitifully brief (actually, I don't think the metal episode even mentioned Metallica!).It was interesting to hear from Stipe, Rollins, and a rather chubby Novoselic, et al, but the series is a bit shonky. There was no mention of Sonic Youth, either. Nirvana and REM dominated proceedings, each episode has chosen to mainly concentrate on a couple of bands, and given that each episode is only an hour long and padded out with crappy bits, it's just not good enough.
Is anyone able to post up those embeddable vids on their blogs or anything?!
 "Aw yeah, that's the good stuff!" |
Edited by - Carl on 06/24/2007 09:51:18 |
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pixiestu
> Teenager of the Year <
United Kingdom
2564 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2007 : 10:22:40
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I thought it was poor. Only about two minutes of it was about the Pixies. I suppose I shouldn't have expected any more than that.
"The arc of triumph" |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2007 : 05:09:14
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I was surprised there was nothing on Sonic Youth.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2007 : 08:24:46
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Yeah, ridiculous. Actually I think they may have briefly shown a shot of them live early on in the programme. Which kinda makes it more insulting.
The series should have been called The Seven Ages Of Cock.
"Aw yeah, that's the good stuff!" |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2007 : 04:32:39
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I certainly won't be watching the Britpop one this coming Saturday.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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PixieSteve
> Teenager of the Year <
Poland
4698 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2007 : 05:54:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Carl
[bractually, I don't think the metal episode even mentioned Metallica!
the final 10 minutes were devoted to metallica.
"Idiot" is just her sig. |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2007 : 10:02:14
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Oh, right. I only saw up to Priest/Maiden and all that.
"Aw yeah, that's the good stuff!" |
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Srisaket
= Cult of Ray =
Thailand
313 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2007 : 08:48:57
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I don't know if it is the influence that this series has had on BBC viewers, but based on Amazon.co.uk's sales figures (how accurate these are I don't know), 'Doolittle' is now ranked at #325 whereas before it was around #1,500 on the 'Bestsellers in Music' list.
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uriah hit the crapper
- FB Fan -
10 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2007 : 08:52:25
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| not enough coverage for a band that practically invented that genre of music. And without whom many of the bands featured in that episode would not of sounded the way they did. I would of also liked to have seen "Sonic Youth" and Dinosaur Jr." given more recognition for their part in alternative music. |
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The 7 Ages Of Rock
